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| By Samantha Segars, MFT Director of Merced Program |
When professionals use the term autism, they could be referring to autism-spectrum disorders, which encompass a wide range of symptoms. Autism is often used to refer to all autism spectrum disorders.
The term "autism spectrum" refers to a range of developmental disabilities that includes autism as well as other disorders with similar characteristics.
In general, every person identified as being on the autism spectrum has varying degrees of problems with social skills, empathy, communication, and flexibility. The level of disability and the combination of symptoms varies tremendously from person to person. In fact, two people with the same diagnosis may look very different in their behaviors and abilities.
If someone is talking about your child issues in these areas, don’t assume that your child has autism. They may be referring to symptoms of an autism spectrum disorder. You are likely to hear terms such as "low-functioning," "high-functioning," "autistic characteristics," "pervasive developmental disorder," etc. to describe behaviors that fall within the “autism spectrum”. It is also possible that your child shows some odd behaviors or has few friends and doesn’t really care to have friends.
No matter what the professionals say about your child, it is your child’s unique needs that are truly important. No diagnostic label can tell you exactly what problems your child will have. Finding help should be about addressing your child’s needs, rather than focusing on what to call the problem. You will only get a diagnosis if a professional feels these traits are seriously interfering with your child’s development. You don’t need a diagnosis to start getting help for your child.
As with every child, parents should look to teach skills to deal with the day to day world. This includes social skills, problem-solving skills, conflict management, and emotion management. Sometimes, children are resistant to developing these skills when adults try to mold children’s behavior to their expectations for the “average” child. When your child is different than the average, and multiple attempts at molding their behavior have failed, maybe it’s time to take a different approach. Perhaps the environment can be molded to adapt to a child’s unique needs instead.
Sometimes, accepting a child where they are, whether they have an autism spectrum disorder or not, can take an enormous amount of pressure off you and your child and help you both to embrace your child’s uniqueness rather than his or her problems.
