Why some South Asian children struggle to get an autism or ADHD diagnosis

By ITV News

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Westbourne Primary seems like any other school from the outside. But for a small number of its students, the morning lessons look different. These children make up the school’s extra provision class - a bespoke session designed for pupils who are suspected of having special educational needs. Of the 13 students in the group, ten are South Asian, and four of these are undiagnosed. One such student is Faman, aged five, whose family moved to the UK from Pakistan when he was just nine months old. On his second birthday, his mother began to suspect he may have autism as he was struggling with eye contact and became hyper-obsessed with one specific toy. She has been trying to get her son a formal NHS diagnosis for the last year, but he hasn't even had an assessment yet. But Faman is not alone. According to new data from the University of Leeds and Born in Bradford, shared exclusively with ITV News, there is a substantial ethnicity inequality in autism and ADHD diagnoses. South Asian c

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