Autism Researcher

People with autism often struggle to communicate in situations Although communication can be a different level in the way it impacts them, they can struggle to socialise and interact with people. They often see the world from their own lenses. So, for example, they might not express their feelings.

They may not articulate themselves if in trying to understand situations or respond to people in questions.

So I am one of the researchers who've done some research with Bristol University looking at autism in the Somali community. And A lot of the research that we have references have seen where there are clusters of Somalis in the West, that there is higher prevalence of autism in the Somali community. So why is this?

It is yet unknown, but we know from the current research that there is a lack of early diagnosis. There's a lack of understanding. And one of the key things is there's no word for autism in the Somali language.

The early studies that was carried in Sweden was the studies that has highlighted that something is not added up. These studies were later then followed in America. And these studies show in the USA that there is higher preference of autism where there has been clusters of Somalis. For example, in Minnesota, there's higher population of the Somali community

And those have shown, where the study carried out, high prevalence of autism. We are seeing, in where we are for Bristol, we're seeing higher numbers of Somali children with autism within the system, although there hasn't been a particular specific study that has looked at the numbers in the UK. But yeah, these studies, fellow started in Sweden, fellow in America, all have shown clusters of

Somali people in the West have got higher preference of autism. So there are concrete studies, scientific studies, they're supporting this data. What about in Somalia?

My understanding of Somalia, I haven't seen any scientific research that showed the numbers or I don't believe there's the infrastructure in place to show these data. But I think to my understanding from, you know, conversations and observations, there's an emerging numbers of Somali children with autism.

Within Somalia, often what we're seeing is that autism is perceived as a mental illness and that comes with high level of stigma and segregation.

There is no educational system. There's no health system that supports the awareness of autism. there's often no hope for a young person to access the right support. And therefore, very sadly, they are often either locked up or removed from society.

Still to come... Where there are clusters of Somalis in the West, that there is higher prevalence of autism in the Somali community.