Symptom recognition to diagnosis of autism in Nepal.

Shrestha et al. (2014) looked at a small group of children with autism in Nepal.

They counted the months from the first doctor visit to the day the child got the autism label.

The average wait was 29 months—almost two and a half years.

Kids were about four and a half years old when they finally heard “autism.”

Bradford et al. (2018) show the wait can be slashed to 55 days. They put a quick two-visit triage inside regular pediatric offices; same country problem, new fix.

Mottron et al. (2006) mailed autism guidelines to doctors and cut diagnosis age by 1.5 years, but the gain faded. Nepal’s long lag proves one-time handouts are not enough; you need an active system like the 2018 team built.

Sicherman et al. (2021) add that when parents speak up and no one answers, the delay grows by a full year. Nepal’s 29-month gap is partly silence after the first cry for help.

You can copy the 2018 model: teach pediatricians a one-page screener, schedule a same-week follow-up, and refer straight to assessment. No new clinic, no big budget—just a tighter hallway hand-off. That move alone can drop the wait from years to weeks and start therapy while brains are still plastic.