On June 16, 2024, in collaboration with Indigo House, the Education University of Hong Kong’s Institute for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, the Hong Kong Autism Alliance, and The PLAY Project center, we hosted the inaugural international online forum for Autistic Pride Day. The theme was "Building an Inclusive Society: Voices and Futures of the Autistic Community." Autistic Pride Day, celebrated annually on June 18, was first observed in 2005 by Aspies For Freedom (AFF) to honor the neurodiversity and behavioral traits of the autistic community. It has since grown into a global celebration. As we approached the June 18 celebration, we organized the first Autistic Pride Day international charity forum on June 16, a special day coinciding with Father's Day. This forum featureed insights from international evidence-based experts and autistic families. Our aim is to help more autistic adults achieve self-awareness, provide hope to families raising autistic children, and work together to create a brighter future.
Early childhood development is a multidisciplinary intervention model that integrates medical, rehabilitation, educational, psychological, and sociological fields. The goal is to provide children, particularly those aged 0-3 years, with the best caregiving environment to maximize their potential. Interventions should be adapted to local conditions, creating scientific, feasible, and scalable models.
To address this, IDBCC, in collaboration with Indigo experts and the School of Nursing at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, has launched the Early Childhood Development Coach (ECDC) Certification Program. This initiative aims to enhance professionals' abilities in assessing physical, motor, language, cognitive, and social-emotional development in early childhood, helping families achieve early identification, intervention, and management.
The program focuses on training professionals who can use early childhood development as a starting point to address children's psychological and behavioral health. These professionals will work within an integrated "hospital-community-school-family" model to offer diverse early childhood development services. They will organize comprehensive development workshops, conduct basic developmental screenings, guide families in early intervention, and implement community health education and home-based guidance. Additionally, the program supports tracking the developmental trajectories of children in difficult circumstances through digital systems, providing appropriate interventions, and exploring early development service models for impoverished areas and at-risk children.