It’s painful to hear that your child has a diagnosis of autism, but it’s not because autism is some kind of nasty illness. It’s because trying to be the voice that your child needs is not an easy thing to do. When your child does have that type of diagnosis, there is a long fight ahead to be able to get the right support, and often you’ll find roadblocks every step of the way.
An autism diagnosis isn’t the end of the world. There are also different levels and spectrums that come with autism. So what autism looks like for one child, it doesn’t look like for another. Some children settled just fine with some early intervention therapies, and others require something a little more hard-hitting, such as ABA therapy strategies. Big learning curve for a parent if their child is diagnosed with autism. But there are some things that you should do before you get started on research. Let’s take a look below.
- Take a moment to pause. Before you do anything, you need to give yourself some grace because you’re going to grieve the life your child should have rather than the one that they’re going to get.It may sound selfish to some people because as you already know, autism is not some kind of life sentence in the sense that your child is going to die from it. However, depending on the level of severity that comes with the autism from your child, you are going to need to adjust your expectations of what you expected to have with the child and what you’re going to get. A diagnosis of autism doesn’t change how amazing your child is or what they can accomplish. It’s just that they need a little extra help to go another way.
- Look into early intervention therapies. There is a critical period in child development from age of not to three, and you should look into different therapies for your child at diagnosis. There is no cure for autism, but it’s not something that requires curing, it’s just something that requires support. There are therapies that can help to create foundational skills a child can build on as they grow and these include speech therapy, occupational therapy, social or behavioral therapies, physical therapies, and more. If you can equip your child with these. You will find them so much more receptive to learning.
- Start paying attention to your child. When you have an autistic child, you learn to listen with your eyes more than you do your ears. Having a delay in speech development or being nonverbal doesn’t mean your child can’t communicate. It’s just up to you to make sure that you are paying attention to how they are communicating even in silence. Everything we do is communication and the sooner you understand more about your child the easier it will be to interact with them and respond to their specific branch of language.
Photo by Leeloo The First