C4 goes blue for World Autism Awareness Day & announces Born This Way?

2 April 2014

On Wednesday 2nd April Channel 4 will join ‘Light it up Blue’ – a global campaign marking World Autism Awareness Day and the start of Autism Awareness month. The broadcaster’s headquarters and its iconic Big 4 will join major global landmarks in shining a light on autism by bathing their buildings in blue light.

To coincide with the awareness raising campaign Channel 4 announces new series Born This Way? (w/t) which, with the help of paediatrician Dr Ravi Jayaram and Embarrassing Bodies’ Dr Dawn Harper, will offer much-needed assistance to families who believe that their child’s conduct has a clinical cause such as ADHD or autism and find them a diagnosis – be it a medical condition or more common behavioural issues.

In each episode, parents seeking a diagnosis and support will hear from a panel of experts who have observed each child and assessed them on their general health, development and well-being including assessing their speech, learning, interaction with adults and peers.  The family will hear if the behaviour could be due to medical or environmental factors and, whatever the outcome, they will be offered a treatment plan and their progress will be followed.

Born This Way? (w/t) will offer invaluable insight in to the problems that some families face as well as practical advice on how to manage children with behavioural issues and recognise possible symptoms of conditions affecting children’s’ mental and physical health. 

As part of Channel 4’s longstanding commitment to programmes exploring mental health My Mindchecker launches in April alongside Maverick TV’s Embarrassing Bodies Live from the Clinic. The interactive site features eight mental health self-tests covering a range of conditions from ADHD and depression to OCD and dyslexia. As well as being able to test yourself it provides personalised results, advice and information for those that use it on phone and mobile devices.

To date Channel 4’s autism test, available online as well as via the hugely successful app My HealthChecker, has been taken by over 264,000 people with results currently contributing towards academic research at Cambridge.

Born This Way? is a 4 x 60’ series produced by Maverick TV and commissioned by Stef Wagstaffe, Commissioning Editor, Channel 4 Features.  The series is executive produced by Sarah Eglin and Paul Kittel is Series Director.

 

ENDS.

 Executive Producer: Sarah Eglin

Production Company: Maverick TV

Commissioning Editor, Features: Stef Wagstaffe