When
we first received the diagnosis of our son (he was eighteen months old), we were
given the following advice:
 |
Contact Early Intervention Services; and |
|
|
Enroll him in nursery school…. |
Since
those days, I have encountered hundreds of families who were told pretty much
the same thing. It is my opinion
that if this were enough, there would be NO Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD);
every child would be CURED. It
would be that easy!
Sadly,
this is most often not enough information to help your ASD child.
Some of the people I have spoken to took the above advice; along with the
very out-of-date, and somewhat dangerous “We can’t do anything until the
child is 3 or 4 or 5….”
My
son screamed. He screamed for 3
hours minimum, every day of his life. The longest outburst he had lasted six
days. It was obvious he was in pain
and frustrated, but he could not tell me what was happening.
Being unable to help my child left me in pain physically, but what was I
to do?
I
began by reading everything on autism a subject, which I found very little
practical information. At this
time, I was not yet “online”, so my information came the old-fashioned way;
by books. Some of what I read, I
found to be quite outrageous, somewhat absolutely depressing. The first book I
picked up told me my son should be in an institution. But one book in particular
stuck in my mind.
"Let
Me Hear Your Voice"
impressed me because it contained practical advice on how to proceed.
It detailed one mother’s journey in her quest to find appropriate
therapy for her child. The book talked about
ABA
(Applied Behavioral Analysis) in a Home Program format. My husband and I
decided to give this a try.
We
attended courses and workshops, read everything and began to build our staff.
The rest of our program is detailed in the “How to Set Up a Home
Program” section of “ABA”.
Today
my son has come leaps and bounds, but during our journey I have explored other
therapies and done a lot more research. My
boy currently receives a good combination of therapies that are showing results.
If something fails to work, we change it around and try other things.
My
goal is not to “cure” my son. I totally accept him for who he is, autism and
all. But, like any parent, I am anxious to provide him with the tools he needs
to live his life to it’s fullest; self esteem, communication skills, self help
strategies and, of course, plenty of love.
If he never gains another day developmentally, I DON’T CARE. I don’t
have to hear him say, “I love you” (although, it would be nice), and I
already know he loves me. This is
my personal feeling toward him.
So
the reason for this site is to go a little beyond the advice that was given to
most of us. The advice we found
sorely lacking.
I
am anxious to provide you with a key to help you get to know your child.
Herein you can find over 1,000 links, many great parents stories,
terrific online support and a lot of information.
It is up to you to take it further. You are the one who has to do the
additional research because no one knows your child better than you.
Good
luck to all of us, I hope our site gives you a hand….
LIZ
A notice to our visitors...
The founders of this website, the newsletter and the BBB Autism support network are not physicians.
This
website references books, articles and other websites that may be of interest to the
reader. The founders make no presentation or warranty with respect to the
accuracy or completeness of the information contained on any of these websites,
articles or in the books, and specifically disclaim any liability for any information
contained on, or omissions from, these articles, books or websites. Reference to
these websites, articles or books herein shall not be construed to be an endorsement of
these web sites or books or of the information contained thereon, by the
founders.
BBB Autism does NOT endorse any particular therapy or intervention. We DO, however, endorse your right to learn about them!
2: July 23, 2002