Post 8/6/08 Where to begin…

I had lunch with one of my best friends yesterday and we were discussing one of our regular topics, autism. She has been supportive and listened endlessly to my stories of all my children with autism and my desire to begin an autism site. I asked her to give me 5 questions she would ask about autism.

Her response surprised me. Rather than the many topics we had discussed over the years, she mentioned, where would you begin? For instance, you are a young mom, after years of concern and worry, and have just received a diagnosis of autism for your 2 year old son. 

It is difficult to get any assistance for your child with autism until there is a medical diagnosis. Often this begins at the doctor’s office with a label of  PDD, or pervasive developmental disorder. Often,this is a diagnosis that is a precursor to autism. Once your doctor has diagnosed PDD, you may be able to seek asistance from local agencies, the county and/or private facilities.

 The characteristics of autism fall into three categories: (1) impaired socialization skills, (2) impeded communication skills (either non-verbal up to high functioning), and (3) stereotypical play (lining things up, doing something over and over again).

Autism is a spectrum disorder – it spans the spectrum from severely, profoundly mentally impaired all the way to the other end which is superior IQ and gifted, or high functioning.

Here we go on a long awaited journey through the field of my true passion. I am hoping that this blog will be an exchange of experiences and information for teachers and parents of my favorite children, those with autism. I plan to offer ideas and suggestions on a variety of topics, and await comments and suggestions from you.

OK, after talking about this for too many years, and thinking about it for even more years, I finally got the autism  blog up and running! At least, I hope so.