Abaan is 2 years old and suffers from global development delay. The typical causes are chromosomal or genetic abnormalities, which can affect the structure or development of the brain or spinal cord. Abaan’s grandfather, Noor Khan, is a survivor of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster. By the time Abaan was 6 months old he had not yet sat up, crawled, or uttered a single sound. His eyes seemed unable to focus on anything and he was still drooling like an infant. Concerned, his parents Sana and Tariq brought him to the Chingari clinic for assessment.
In April 2022, Abaan started treatment at Chingari with regular physiotherapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy sessions. Since beginning physiotherapy, Abaan has managed to achieve many of his missed milestones. Through strengthening of his neck, core, and leg muscles he has learned to roll over, sit up, crawl, and with the help of occupational therapy he can now stand and walk with the support of a carer or a rollator. Occupational therapy has also helped him improve his attention and eye contact, as well as his comprehension. Perhaps his biggest breakthrough has been in speech therapy, where he has progressed from being completely non-verbal to communication with single words like ‘abba’ (‘father’) and ‘amma’ (‘mother’). Recently he has mastered two-word combinations, like ‘abba aao’ (‘father come’) and ‘ball do’ (‘give me the ball’).
Abaan is very attached to his father Tariq and loves to go on the back of his bike on long rides. He also loves to play with toys – cars are his favourite.
