Abu Dhabi: The New England Centre for Children (NECC), which has a branch in Abu Dhabi, has won the 2017 award for the international dissemination of behaviour analysis in the field of autism.
The Abu Dhabi centre opened almost 10 years ago to cater to the needs of Emirati children diagnosed with autism and the NECC Abu Dhabi has become one of the country’s leading schools in providing educational services that use applied behavioural analysis. The school currently has 166 children on its rolls.
The award is given by the Society for the Advancement of Behaviour Analysis, a US-based non-profit organisation. The award ceremony will take place in the US in May 2017.
“This is one of the highest awards that we can win from our academic peers — it is a recognition of our hard work and training, including in Abu Dhabi and beyond,” said Vincent Strully, chief executive officer and founder of NECC.
“Since the beginning of our project in Abu Dhabi, we have had a tremendous partnership with the country’s leadership and, thanks to that, we were able to produce one of the world’s finest programmes for autistic children in the region.
“Abu Dhabi hired us to recreate everything we did back in the US; they wanted to bring the best possible help for autistic children, and that’s what we have been able to do,” he added.
Strully also noted that the NECC was working hard to create an Emirati workforce trained in handling children with autism.
“Very few programmes outside the US are able to sustain themselves, so one critical feature for us was to sign agreements to help train Emiratis,” he explained. “These types of agreements are important because you need locally based professionals in this field. Our goal is to eventually have Emiratis running these programmes,” he added.
Dr Daniel Gould, chief clinical officer at NECC Abu Dhabi, said, “I am incredibly proud of the work we have done, serving UAE nationals that need help. We started with six children, and at the moment we have 166 students, with another 18 students coming in September. There is a great demand for the work we do,” he said.
Dr Gould said there has been an increasing focus and awareness of autism in the UAE and around the globe. “When I came here, there was [not] much coverage on disabilities, [but] now you see a lot of attention being given [to it] both in the media and by the public,” he said.
