To the 30th Anniversary of Society for Help to Autistic Children "Dobro"

The Society for Help to Autistic Children "Dobro" celebrates 30 years. This is the first organization in Russia advocating the rights of children with autism and with autism spectrum disorders. The initiators of the establishment of “Dobro” as a legal entity were the outstanding child psychiatrist and teacher Klara Samoilovna Lebedinskaya and the parent of a child with autism from the United States of America Roland M. Machold. The core of the organization, which began to form at the turn of the 1980-1990s, were the parents of children involved in the clinical, psychological and pedagogical study group of early childhood autism, which is now known as the Institute of Correctional Pedagogy of the Russian Academy of Education and the staff of this group. For 30 years, employees of the “Dobro” society have provided educational, consultative, informational, psychological support to more than 7000 families of children with autism.