Indian Family and Autism

Consider typical family traditions and values in a Indian household.  The type that encourages joint family gatherings whenever possible - grandparents are welcome to drop in and stay on even in modern nuclear families. The attention and care that parents and grandparents give to children - sacrificing personal and sometimes even professional time and careers. Utter selflessness in services to children and encouragement of joint family type environments are features that significantly help autistic children. 

1.  I can personally vouch that an autistic kid gets a lot of  benefit from this exposure to  a lovable social environment and social play in the company of his grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts and so on. Adi has been able to improve on his social challenges by spending at least 3-4 months of each year in the company of his grandparents and recently, of his aunt and uncle and cousins. Numerous festivals and other occasions for get togethers provide special needs children much needed acclamatization to the company of others in an informal, non-classroom, no pressure environment.
2. Also, typical Indian parents will sacrifice enormous personal time, space and expenses, and even professional time and in some cases careers, for the sake of their children. This is ingrained in the Indian psyche - nobody does this thinking what a great sacrifice we have made.  Perhaps no other trait helps autistic children more - the attention span that a typical Indian parent provides towards the education and upbringing of their children to the expense of everything else. Even in USA - the typical consideration for a Indian family to select an apartment or house is always linked to the availability of the best school district . For special needs children,  I can say from personal experience that the Indian family will do painstaking research - both in person, third party and on the Internet - for identifying whether the school with high overall scores also has good facilities for autistic children. If we can afford an IPAD and my special needs child benefits from it - we will go for it. Else even if we can afford it, we consider it as a luxury and wait for discounts, markdowns and forever prevaricate.
3. Variety for the senses and sensory improvements - typical Indian household will have, over a period of time, a wide variety of food being cooked and shared. Lot of music and appreciation of the same.  Lot of TV with music videos, comedy and family oriented entertainment. All which special needs children really benefit from - and in many western families, parents will really spend money to organize such environments as part of therapy. For Indian families, this often comes free.
4. No shouting with parents. Love towards siblings. Eating properly. Regular hygiene habits. These are part and parcel of everyday family life and so often emphasized in households - becomes automatic therapy for children.
5. Special needs children depend on emotional support from their parents. Not just kindness, but patience and a feeling of "he too is my own and deserves a life of respect". This feeling is so ingrained in the psyche of Indian families that it automatically channelizes into actions and thoughts that keep the special needs child within the "family" in everything the family does and thinks. I know of several mid East and far east families who are constantly ashamed and embarrassed that they have a special needs child and go through life hiding and isolating the child from the broader family and neighbours. Never in an Indian family.