APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS
Professional Help
With Handling an Autism Diagnosis Now
By Sarah KUPFERSCHMIDT, MA, BCBA
According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention there are now 1 in 68
children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This works out to nearly
2 million children in North America and the numbers keep growing. When a parent
receives the news that his/her child has autism, there are all kinds of emotions and
thoughts that enter his/her mind.
M
any of these thoughts are related to
fear: fear of the unknown, fear of figuring out the best way to help his/her
child, and fear for your child’s future.
Wanting to do right by his/her child is
something that all parents can relate
to but becomes even more of a concern when you receive the news that your child has
ASD. This article is about offering hope to those
parents that are just starting a journey with
a child with autism. It offers hope because
there is a treatment that can help your child
and hope because there are things that
you can do for yourself, as the parent, to
help you advocate for your child as he/
she is going to need you to. Here are two
practical tips that all parents who have
learned that his/her child has autism need
to know:
There is a treatment that can
help your child
There are many different treatment options
that claim to help children with autism. A simple search on the Internet can lead to hundreds
of options. As a result, it can be very daunting
to attempt to identify a treatment that would
work for you and your family while you are still
just processing the diagnosis that your child
58 | Autism Parenting Magazine | Issue 44