China Seminar Series examines social welfare in China

Education expert Helen McCabe explores the challenges facing children with autism and other disabilities in China.

On Thursday, November 15, the U.S.-China Institute presented “Social Welfare in China: Disability, Policy, and Practice,” as part of Bryant’s International Education Week. The lecture was given by Helen McCabe, assistant professor of education at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York, and an expert on education for children with autism.

McCabe’s interest in autism began about 15 years ago after a visit to China when she volunteered at a children’s mental health center and met an eight-year-old autistic girl and her family. The girl’s father, Zhang Guojun, was a special guest of McCabe for her talk at Bryant.

Throughout the last 15 years, McCabe and Zhang have volunteered together working with children with autism and instructing parents and teachers about the brain development disorder. McCabe has also been studying Chinese for nearly 20 years and is fluent in the language.

Before her lecture, McCabe visited the Tomorrow Fund Clinic at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence where she and Zhang participated in a support group for parents of children with autism.

“It really opened my eyes to this whole idea of social welfare and the difference between the United States and China,” she said. Zhang, she said, conveyed to her that while it was great to learn about the many opportunities open to children with disabilities and their families in America, it was discouraging that the same services are not available to children in China.

There are more schools and non-profit organizations in China now but, unfortunately, there are not enough resources to help all children with disabilities. The most recent statistics from 2000 report that there are more than 1,400 special education schools serving about 320,000 students. However, there are more than eight million children with disabilities. Between 1.8 and 2 million people in China, including 400,000 children, have autism.

“There are just not enough services for all of the kids that need support,” says McCabe.

Another issue facing families with disabled children is employment. Gone are the days of lifetime employment under the Communist party. Today, many parents fear they will be replaced if they take time off to seek services for their children, says McCabe.

“The responsibility on families is just huge,” she said.

Unlike the United States, China does not have a national system in place to ensure that children with disabilities get an education or the support that they will need as adults. There are also an inadequate number of doctors, no systematic referral system for children with autism, and a general lack of understanding of disabilities.

These factors make getting a correct diagnosis expensive and time-consuming and create a great deal of uncertainty, especially for parents who pin the hopes of their families on their only child. They wonder who will take care of them and their disabled adult children as they age. Because of this, adult services for those with disabilities are critical, says McCabe.

Families are making the effort to help autistic children but they additional need help, says McCabe. As part of her research, she has worked with families in early intervention programs. She found that the early optimism that parents feel by getting help for their child is quickly replaced by the realization that there is no support system in place to continue the positive momentum once a program is over.

“Despite reforms in the medical and educational systems and efforts by the government and nonprofits, families still end up very much alone in a lot of cases,” she says.