As a Nepalese programme worker for the project, my role is to facilitate the communication for the Nepalese families which are one of the ethnic minorities group in Hong Kong. After working for more than a year for Nepalese families and children, I realized that in Nepalese culture the term such as “Special, Developmental Delay, etc” were generally referred to the physical disabilities or other disabilities which can easily identify through the look. It is also very hard to translate some terms of child developmental problem in Nepalese, such as Autism etc. I can imagine how unfamiliar that the Nepalese parents to the knowledge of child developmental problem because they may have never heard about it before.   

Just like other parents, Nepalese parents were also very loving and caring parent but due to culture difference and limited knowledge of how to access resources for child development problem. A lot of Nepalese parents miss the opportunity of early identification and intervention (training and therapy) for their kids who have suspected developmental problem(eg.Autism, Hyperactive Disorder). It is because Nepalese parents have limited understanding about child developmental problem and they thought that their children will gradually improve when their children have grown up. Yet, the Nepalese parents are often frustrated and disappointed once they realize that their children have no improvement after observing for a few years. Some of the parents also rejected doctors’ referral when doctors found that their children have suspected developmental problem.

It is important to enhance the awareness and understanding of some common child developmental problem of Nepalese parents. We hope that more Nepalese parents can be more familiar with the terms such as “Special, disabilities, Autism, ADHD”. Although there are a lot of challenges and obstacles in the implementation of the project, we believe that more community education for the South Asian families is the best prevention strategy to help South Asian children with special needs to be identified and receive training as soon as possible.