Services for children with autism in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
In Saudi Arabia parent income, education, and region decide which autism services a child receives and how early they start.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team sent a short survey to Saudi parents who have a child with autism.
Parents answered questions about money, school level, and which services the child uses.
The goal was to map who gets what, and how soon after diagnosis.
What they found
Kids began services around three years and four months on average.
Families with higher income, more school, or living in big cities used more hours and more types of therapy.
Rural and low-income families often had only one service or long wait lists.
How this fits with other research
Murshid (2011) saw the same split: over half of Saudi autistic children had never seen a dentist, mostly in poor regions.
Althiabi (2021) later showed that COVID-19 made these gaps worse; parent anxiety spiked when therapy centers closed.
Rubenstein et al. (2019) in the U.S. also found that public insurance, like low income in Saudi, predicts fewer behavior-therapy hours.
Together the four papers draw the same picture—money and place decide who gets help.
Why it matters
If you assess a Saudi child, ask the parents where they live and what they can pay.
Use the answer to write a realistic plan: low-income families may need telehealth, group parent training, or help finding free center slots.
Push schools and insurers for coverage that does not depend on postal code.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Little information is available about autism spectrum disorder services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A sample of 205 parents completed an online survey about the use of autism spectrum disorder services for their children. The results revealed that on average, children began services by 3.3 years. Most parents reported utilizing non-medical treatments followed by biomedical treatments and cultural and religious treatment. The age at the initiation of services and the type of treatments used differed by parent's income, educational attainment, the extent of knowledge about autism spectrum disorders, and geographic location. Some child characteristics also influenced the use of services. The disparities in service utilization in Saudi Arabia point to the need to develop policy and interventions that can mitigate the paucity of services for children with autism spectrum disorders. More research is needed to better understand service use and the decision-making processes that underlie treatment selection by parents of children with autism spectrum disorders in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2017 · doi:10.1177/1362361316664868