Does My Child Have Autism
It is best to determine that your child has autism as soon as possible. There is no cure for autism, but the symptoms can be managed. Regulating symptoms makes it possible for your young child to learn critical social, communication, functional and behavioral skills.
Watch What She Does
An effective tool to help you gauge if you need professional assistance is on the Autism Speaks website. It’s called the M-CHAT-R, or the Modified Checklist in Autism for Toddlers, Revised. Through a series of 20 questions you can highlight specific behaviors that a child with autism can display. Make an appointment with your pediatrician right away if the checklist indicates your child may have autism.
The Two Step Process
Developmental Screening and Comprehensive Diagnostic Evaluation
The first step to getting a diagnosis for autism is the developmental screening. It’s a short test that involves your pediatrician asking you questions about what you observe about your child’s daily behavior. They will also play with and talk to your child to come to an accurate conclusion.
The second phase of an autism screening is a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation which is conducted by a developmental pediatrician, a neurologist, a psychologist and a speech therapist. Once your child is positively diagnosed then you can review the options you have for services.
Services
Before you even get the results your child already qualifies for assistance. As long as she is under the age of three and at risk for learning challenges she is eligible for intervention services. If your child is older than three she can receive resources from the special education system at her school or preschool.
There is an entire support team of professionals that you can utilize to help your child with autism. Take advantage of services to help manage your child’s symptoms. A core group of professionals will be integral in helping your child overcome challenges she faces.
Different Therapists
The main goal of an occupational therapist is to help your child do things on her own. This can include teaching your child to take a bath, get dressed, eat, and interact with others by herself. A specialized occupational therapist can also help with sensory integration therapy. Sensory integration therapy consists of helping your child who may have problems regulating all the sensory inputs that bombard her body, a condition that affects many children with autism.
Speech therapists can help your child with any problems she may have communicating with others using both verbal and nonverbal means. By taking on specialized training they can also help if your child experiences apraxia or other conditions. Feeding therapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists can work jointly or separately to assist with feeding problems your child may have.
More Services
An IEP or individualized educational program can be put together by a team of professionals if your child with autism faces learning difficulties. This can include the director of the school or preschool, her teachers, the school’s occupational and speech therapists, and whoever else needs to be involved. Together they create a plan for your child and put together a report that includes your child’s learning history, areas where she needs help, her strengths, goals, etc.
You can also contact a local health department or autism advocacy group for more resources. There are autism support groups where you can share your experiences and find community. A novel approach to helping your child with autism is by using clinical trials. Clinical trials can come up with new ways to help detect autism, use the same resources but make them more effective, etc. In short, clinical trials may provide information that can possibly help your child immediately or in the future.
Hope
You may have felt depressed and overwhelmed when you first learned about the diagnosis. This doesn’t make you a bad parent, it makes you part of the norm. Fortunately, after years of study and research, there are now many services to help your child with autism. The road may be hard and long, but the journey is much easier when you have a lot of people walking alongside you.