Accepting the Diagnosis of Autism

Receiving a diagnosis of Autism can seem overwhelming. You may be left with a lot of unanswered questions about the diagnosis. You might be thinking the diagnosis is wrong. This cannot be happening to your child. There are different feelings and emotions you will experience when dealing with a diagnosis of Autism. Here are some of the ways you might be feeling, and ways to come to terms with the diagnosis.

Denial
Denial is a common feeling when dealing with any medical problem. Sometimes it is easier to deny that there is even a problem. Some parents do not want to consider that there could be something wrong with their child. So they pretend as if there is nothing wrong. The doctor was wrong, their child is perfectly normal. Being in denial about the diagnosis will not help anything. The sooner that you accept that your child is Autistic the better both of you will be. The condition will not go away if you ignore it. Accepting the diagnosis and moving on will be a huge step for you as a parent to take. The quicker this is done the sooner you can start looking into treatment options.

Anger
Anger is one of the emotions you might feel when you get a diagnosis of Autism. You might be angry with yourself, or angry with God. Why is your child Autistic? You might be angry with other parents that have healthy children. This is a normal feeling to experience. Remember while you are feeling angry to think of all the great things about your child. Share your feelings with others. Keeping anger bottled up can be a bad thing.

Grief
Sometimes when a parent gets a diagnosis of Autism they go though a grieving period. They are sad that their child has something wrong with them. They may be feeling sad that the dreams they had for their child may have to change. They might be sad over the way the world will treat their child, and the hardships they will face. Grief is a normal emotion to go through. The key is to get through the grief, and on to the acceptance. Try not to look at the things that are wrong. There will have to be some adjustments made to your plans for your child's future. That is what life is all about , change. If you find yourself unable to move past the grieving stage you might need to talk to someone. It might help having a few therapy sessions to deal with the feelings you are experiencing.

Acceptance
Finally coming to terms with the diagnosis of Autism can take awhile. Some people are just glad to have an answer to what is wrong with their child. Others have a hard time accepting their child is different from other kids. Eventually you will accept that your child is different, and that is okay.

Once you have accepted the diagnosis of Autism you can start to help your child. Do all the research you can on Autism. Think about how hard it is for your child. They need you to be behind them in their treatments one hundred percent. The first step to doing this is acceptance .

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Doctors and Diagnosing Autism

When a doctor first suggests that your child has autism, your immediate reaction might be disbelief and the urge to seek a second, third, or even fourth opinion. Because autism is so different in every child, it is a tricky disorder to diagnose. However, there are a few key ways in which doctors can efficiently identify autism in children, and if your infant or toddler is showing any of these signs of autism, you should visit your paediatrician immediately to express your concerns.

Autism occurs at a young age, rather than being a disorder an older child might develop. It is usually detected before the age of three, and many times much earlier. The first signs or autism are usually delays or regression in speech communication. Another early sign is abnormal behaviour in group play situations and other social situations. The first step to diagnosing autism is a thorough physical examination as well as a review of family history by a specialist.

Although your regular paediatrician will be able to spot unusual behaviour, you'll want your child to be examined by a professional who specialises in autism and other similar diseases to make sure your child is properly diagnosed.

The next step includes hearing tests. Sign language and social skill delays could be due to inadequate auditory sensations. There are two types of auditory tests, one of which records the tones a child can hear and the other of which requires sedation and measures the brain response to certain tones. Of course, the first method is preferred, since it does not require any use of a sedative. After auditory testing, your doctor may encourage testing your child for Fragile X syndrome, which often times goes hand in hand with autism. Metabolism can also be evaluated. To do this, your doctor will need a blood or urine sample to analyse DNA.

An MRI or CAT scan can also be helpful in diagnosing autism. The important thing is to work with doctors you trust. Second opinions can be very helpful, but when your child has been diagnosed, stick with one doctor so that treatment is uniform and so that your child will get used to this person. Autism is difficult to diagnose and even more difficult to treat, so remember that you should begin to learn as much as possible about the disorder as soon as your doctor identifies it.

If you have yet to speak with your doctor about abnormal behaviour in your child, do so immediately. By detecting autism early, you give your child a better chance at becoming a high-functioning individual with much more opportunities in life.

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How Is Autism Diagnosed

Autism diagnoses are different than most diagnoses of other disorders. It may take doctors years to finally gather up enough evidence for the diagnoses of autism.

Parents usually are suspect long before the diagnoses is given because they can see that the child may not give them eye contact or that the communication process that the child has learned has started to regress after the first year and a half or so of life.

The average age for diagnoses in this country is between the age of two and three and that is where the symptoms start to manifest themselves.

The difficulty in the diagnosis of autism is mainly due to the developmental changes a child goes through during the first three years of life. When a child is developing quickly the meanings of communication and social behaviour may elude doctors or even parents who are not specifically watching their child for autism.

The pattern of a child’s development is ever changing and without a close eye and experience, the beginning of autism is almost impossible to catch. Even the slightest social blunder may be that the child just has some odd quirks and the line between these quirks and minor autism is a very thin one.

Only the judgment of the doctor is the determining factor to label a child autistic. Some autistic children have gone through their entire life with the label of emotionally disabled or behaviouristic challenged. Many doctors stay away from this label because of the emotional impact on the parents or care providers and the chance of lawsuits if the label causes adverse reactions later in life.

There are no medical tests that can be administered that would clearly define autism. The doctor’s opinion is the only thing that will label a child and put them in a category among special needs that hasn’t even really been defined or researched much.

The criterion for autism is determined by a panel of doctors who compare related cases and find a common symptom. Though the criteria is sketchy at best, right now it is the only way some doctors can comfortably make a diagnosis. Most clinicians and medical staff use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders to classify autism and the basic guidelines only include the manifestations of communication use and social behaviour.

Another guideline that is usually diagnosed as compulsive behaviour is the constant vigilance toward established patterns or norms. The autistic child will find their comfort zone in a specific path they will walk around their house or at school. They may be schedule oriented in which they will only follow a specific schedule and will refuse to deviate from it. If an autistic child is made to change their pattern they will lose control of emotions and behaviour.

Behaviour then shows up as uncontrolled anger to verbal confrontation of an extreme nature. The need to follow the specific pattern in built into their system as a way to deal with
an ever changing world.

The one thing that the criteria does not cover is the fixation on certain things. Some autistic children can memorise entire books if it is something that they really like.

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