My child is autistic, now what do I do?

Your child was recently diagnosed with autism. Take a deep breath…now let it out. Ground yourself. First of all, there is nothing wrong with your child. You did nothing wrong. 

It’s difficult to hear, due to the fact that when you get the diagnosis, most professionals tell you all the things that your child cannot do. Well, as a strengths-based therapist, I am here to tell you about all the things your child can do. Are you ready?  Okay…

Here are 10 to start:

1. Have empathy for others
2.  
3. Are honest and open in relationships
4. Have strong attention to detail
5. Ability to learn something to saturation
6. Ability to recognize patterns
7. Ability to focus on one task without multi-tasking
8. Ability to attention to visual instructions
9. Have strong relationships with autistic people
10. Ability to form and maintain routines
11. Ability to attend to the present moment

(From Autism Learning Styles Training by Meg Proctor, OT and Founder of LearnPlayThrive.com)

And that is not all, because I am sure you know so much more of what your child CAN do and what they are GREAT at. With the use of a neurodivergent affirming speech and occupational therapist, your child CAN make exceptional progress in all areas. They can succeed to their full potential. 

It is important to stay positive and be the best advocate you can be for your child right now. You are the expert on your child. Follow your gut and do what is best for your child. It may be that 25 hours of ABA (applied behavior analysis) therapy does not seem like the right fit for your 2 year old. There are other positive treatment practices out there, such as strengths based therapy. (Visit blog post: What is strengths based therapy?)

Speech-Language Pathologist Cari Ebert has a great podcast on this topic! View it here: 

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-yvmmz-1399c27