Founder of Autism Unit­ed TT, An­nisa Khan-Mo­hammed, is urg­ing au­thor­i­ties to place more teacher aides in schools to bet­ter sup­port chil­dren on the autism spec­trum, say­ing gaps in the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem con­tin­ue to place strain on both stu­dents and par­ents.

She made the call over the week­end as her or­gan­i­sa­tion host­ed ac­tiv­i­ties to mark Autism Aware­ness Month, in­clud­ing the launch of what is be­lieved to be Trinidad and To­ba­go’s first sen­so­ry-friend­ly bar­ber­shop and a com­mu­ni­ty beach clean-up at Gran Chemin Beach in Moru­ga.

Draw­ing from her ex­pe­ri­ence as the par­ent of a 12-year-old child with autism, Khan-Mo­hammed said con­sis­tent class­room sup­port re­mains a ma­jor chal­lenge.