The National Autism Society of Malaysia

The National Autism Society of Malaysia (NASOM) is a society formed in 1986 by a group of parents and professionals. It was registered on 3rd March 1987, as a national voluntary charitable organization and aims at providing Education, Help, Care & Protection for people with autism and their family members.

Our children are born with a lifelong complex neurobiological disorder called Autism. In most cases, autism impairs a person’s ability to communicate and relate to others. It is also associated with rigid routines or repetitive behaviours such as obsessively following schedules or arranging belongings in very specific ways. Autistic behaviours not only make life hard for people with autism but also make life hard for their families, their health care providers and teachers. However, autism does not have to be a life sentence. Intensive early intervention in optimal educational settings results in improved outcomes in most young children with autism, including speech in 75% or more and significant improvements in rates of developmental progress and intellectual performance (Rogers 1996). Through intensive education and behavioral management provided by NASOM, we have seen children emerging’ from their autistic disabilities to function like a near-normal child.

Currently, NASOM has established 11 Autism Early Intervention Programs and 3 Vocational Programs for people inflicted with autism in Malaysia. Maintaining and developing all these programmes at the 14 centres require a staggering sum of RM2 million annually (2004).

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