It can be alarming and overwhelming hearing from your Doctor that your child has autism. An autism diagnosis can be difficult to accept and come to terms with. This is maybe a new thing for you and you may have a hard time coping with this type of condition that you don’t know much about. You may try to find new ways for everyone in the family to live together and cope with your new situation but you end up finding it challenging and depressing in spite of all your efforts.
After the shocking news of your child having been diagnosed with autism, you may feel lost and feel like not given help or guidance on what to do next. Moving on from the diagnosis can be frightening, but there are many things you can do to overcome the challenges that you may encounter with having a child diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Learn about Autism
Learning about the condition of your child will help you to be better equipped and more ready in making good decisions for your child. Educate yourself (e.g., reading books, articles, research studies about autism, joining seminars about autism, joining ASD support group, etc.) and seek a variety of possible treatment options (e.g., ABA Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, etc.), ask some experts (e.g., asking BCBAs, Doctors, teachers, etc.) or other parents (e.g., joining parents group, etc.) questions, and have yourself be ready to participate in all treatment decisions.
Accept your child
You may observe that your child may be different from other children but learn and practice to accept your child rather than focusing on what is ‘missing.’ Enjoy your child’s special skills and abilities, rejoice in every small step of improvements and successes, and try to stop comparing your child to others. The gift of unconditional love, acceptance and not giving up are the things that your child needs to cope with and enjoy life.
Observe your child
Learn everything about your child. This simply means that you have to observe your child and find out the things that trigger your child to engage in challenging or disruptive behaviors or the things that will elicit more appropriate behaviors. Try to find the things that will make your child feel calmer, comfortable or what makes him/her enjoyable. In addition, try to check the things that can be stressful or frightening to your child. Understanding your child will help you to become better at solving or finding out solutions to the problems or at modifying challenging situations that you may encounter at home.
Provide a structure at home
Setting up a structure at home will help you and your child cope in any challenging situations that you may face every day. One way of creating a structure is to set up a routine using a daily schedule. A daily schedule can consist of a list of activities from morning until bedtime. You can use visual support (e.g., pictures/images, written words, etc.) on your schedule to help your child to have a clear view of what is going to happen throughout the day. In going through each activity on the schedule, as parents, you have to be consistent, be predictable and you must follow through with all your instructions or activities that you want your child to comply with. Please refer to our previous blog about setting up a structure at home.
Be part of the treatment team
Having a child with autism can be challenging and that you need support from other professionals who are experts in helping your child reach their full potential and learn to overcome their challenges. Knowing and learning everything about autism and participating in the treatment plan are essential keys to understanding and helping your child. You may have your child receive all the therapy treatment that he/she needs (e.g., behavioral therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, etc.) but your child will only have a few hours of learning opportunity with them and have more time at home with his/her family.
As parents, it is important to collaborate with your therapy team. Treatment will not end at the therapy clinic. You may feel relaxed and comfortable knowing that your child is receiving all the needed help but it doesn’t end there. The biggest part and the most important part of your child’s life is his/her home. It is the place where the child spends most of his/her time and the place where he/she starts and ends day-to-day activities.
It is very important for you and your family to learn how to deal with your child’s behaviors at home. The key is consistency. Try to seek help or training from your therapy team (e.g., joining parent training, observing actual therapy sessions, etc.) on how to implement the behavior modification techniques in place. Being consistent means doing the same thing in the same way over and over again in dealing with your child’s behavior at home, to different environments and across people. You have to follow through at home with whatever way your therapy team handles your child’s behavior. This can include learning how to reinforce appropriate behaviors and not to reinforce disruptive behaviors.
These are just a few of the most important and basic things you need to know to help you and your family on how to support your child at home. Having a child diagnosed with autism can be very alarming and overwhelming at first. But as you journey through the challenges and enjoyable moments with your child while applying everything that you learned, life gets easier.
