Diagnosis
Autism is a neuro-developmental difference with no known cause. No two people diagnosed with autism are alike. If your child is diagnosed with autism, it means that the path that you need to take to parent may not be intuitive to you. It will likely require you to learn new ways to understand your child. It is important to remember that all behavior is communicating something and it is our job to receive that communication and respond accordingly. Having autism presents its own unique challenges and gifts. These idiosyncrasies may include:
- Sensory Processing Differences - Some children may need more sensory input, others may get too over-stimulated or have difficulty integrating their sensory experience into a cohesive whole.
- Motor planning challenges - For many neurotypical people, knowing how to sequence body movement to achieve the desired outcome may come naturally. For some autistics, it may not. For example, when climbing a fence, it may be difficult to know where each foot and hand should be placed to get to the other side of the fence.
- Language Differences - Some autistics experience delayed language development or limited language development, others may have extensive and precise vocabularies. Other difficulties can include understanding indirect language communication, speaking more than others find comfortable and without pause, difficulty engaging in back and forth communication, and difficulty asking others questions.
- Personal interests with increased intensity - Some autistics have one area of interest that they are the expert on. Some examples include Pokemon, zoos, trains, vacuums, the Internet or anything else. While it is true that neurotypical people can be interested in any of these things, autistics often have only one area of interest at a time and the interest is much more intense.
- Not having an innate understanding of social rules - Most neurotypical people have an implicit understanding of social rules like how close to stand to someone else when you are talking, how long to talk before giving another person the opportunity to speak, how to join a group on the playground, and many others. Autistics often have difficulty decoding the social world in this way and benefit from others understanding their social needs and norms, as well as explicit social teaching around how to interact with neurotypical people more effectively.
- Executive Functioning challenges - Some people with autism can have challenges with different areas of executive functioning. Examples of these areas include innately understanding the component steps of a longer task (For example, how many tiny steps does it take to brush your teeth or get ready for school in the morning?), difficulty starting a task, difficulty sustaining focus on a task, difficulty completing a task, difficulty transitioning from one task to the next, and difficulty seeing how parts of a task fit together to form a completed task.
- Difficulty with daily living tasks - Often people on the spectrum have difficulty with different parts of the day. Some have difficulty getting to sleep, others have difficulty with tooth brushing, hair combing, organizing a backpack, or completing homework.
- Rigidity - Some autistics prefer life to be predictable and organized. When something unexpected happens it can be a source of great upset. Routines can provide stability and lack of routine can create extreme distress.
While not all autistics have all of these features, if some of this describes a person you love, that person may be autistic. We are happy to partner with you to understand your loved one on this incredible journey.