Autistic Kid: The 10 Major Challenges for Parents
10 Web Ressources to Help Parents with an Autistic kid.
In this article, we will discuss the following:
- Signs and symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder
- The Associated Challenges of Autism
- The 10 main challenges of parents with autistic kids and solutions.
- And, we will conclude
Associated Challenges of Autism
Can my kid be autistic?
One morning, when the baby girl of Tanner was past 12 months of age, the young mother discovered that her baby was no more responding to her hugs. The baby girl seems to lose interest in her mother’s care. The situation worsens and the baby never said a single word after 16 months of age…she looked healthy, but she was very vague in her looking. Tanner was very upset, she quickly made some Internet Searches just to find out that her child might be autistic. She wondered what steps to take next…she was on her way to a new and challenging journey!
Signs and Symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorders
before you can start treating Autism Spectrum Disorder in a kid, you must first be sure that this kid truly has that disorder. Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD) is a neurological disorder that has to do with the difficulty in speech and social relations.
ASD is not due to a germ or bacteria. So, it cannot be diagnosed in a hospital like a conventional disease. The only way to acquire confirmation that a child has ASD is only by the symptoms. In some Hospital this confirmation is done by a number of experts including:
- A Pediatrician;
- A Children Psychologist or Psychiatric;
- A speech-language pathologist;
- And a Neurologist
However, there are some signs or/and symptoms that when noticed in a child's character, will make you immediately see a doctor. One thing is clear when ASD is diagnosed early, a parent or caregiver can take the necessary steps to ensure the child has the best possible life he/she deserves despite the disorder.
Below is a list of symptoms and sins that might be noticeable in a person with ASD.
- At 12 months of age, the child is indifferent when you call him/her by his name.
- At 18 months of age, the child is not speaking and is not even making attempt to express himself/herself with gestures.
- At 24 Months of Age, the child does not have an interest in specific objects.
- The child does not respond to her/his mother’s hug.
- The child avoids eye contact.
- The child repeats the same words (echolalia)or/and gestures over and over again.
- The child might be over interested or over-focussed on some subjects or objects.
- The child might be hypersensitive to some stimuli such as noises, colors, light, cold, smells, etc.
- Get upset by minor changes
- The child might tend to avoid or resists physical contact
- Do not focus for long.
No all the signs above can be found in one individual. he might just get a combination of a few of them.
Associated Challenges of Autism
- About 40% of people with autism have a speech problem.
- About 30% of children with ASD have difficulties in acquiring knowledge. Their IQ is less than 70%. However, for the mild types of ASD such as Asperger Syndrome, the patient can be a genius. Example of Einstein and others.
- About 50% of those with autism wander or bolt from safety.
- About 70% of autistic children between the ages of 6 and 15 have been bullied.
- Nearly 28 percent of 8-year-olds with ASD have self-injurious behaviors. Example: Headbanging, arm biting, and skin scratching, etc.
- Drowning remains a leading cause of death for children with autism and accounts for approximately 90 percent of deaths associated with wandering or bolting by those age 14 and younger.
10 Main challenges of Parents with Autistic Kids and the solutions.
First, let us identified the greatest or the most occurring challenges an autistic child has. A solution is proposed just after the comment about the challenge.
Challenge No1: It is costly to care for a child with autism.
Some parents with an autistic kid can spend up to $100 000 to care for a growing child. The parent can even spend much and get little or no results at all. There is an urgent need to be properly guided when you attempt to treat a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder. You should be able to enter in contact with the appropriate personnel in your state for guidance.
Proposed Solution: Get into contact with the Intervention Program for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in your state. Click the following link for free access: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/parents/states.html or http://ectacenter.org/contact/ptccoord.asp. Concerned children are children from age 0 to 3. The countries concerned are the USA, Commonwealths, and Territories
Challenge No2: Autistic children do not know their right.
Especially in the United States, there are specific laws made for children with ASD. Parents, caregivers, and doctors must all be aware of such laws. Ignore these laws can deprive the autistic child with some legal provisions maint to protect him from some social discrimination.
Proposed Solution: Get in contact with the government aithorized source of information. The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for Children With Special Educational Needs is a primer on U.S. special education law for pediatricians and parents, by IAN Director Paul H. Lipkin MD.
Challenge No3: Support. Some parents do not know where they can get specific support maint for parents with disable kids.
Proposed Solution: you can join a hub for parents with autistic kids. use the folliwing link to join the hub:Parents’ hub
Challenge No4: Training your child. You must start educating your child yourself. It is true that there are many interention out there main to help you. Some can asssist in case you have limited ressources, others can educarte you on legal issues , and some other can aédvice or treatment, diet , education , etc. But there things that you must do yourself. One of such thing is education.
Proposed Solution: You need to get some good tools and start to educate your child with mental disorders yourself. To this end, you can use Software, Videos, Special Games, etc.Do you need more resources ( Blanket, Tools, Books) to help that Autistic Child? Watch these videos.
Challenge No5: Need for sensory calming tools. the child with autism spectrum disorder will usually be hypersentitive to stimilus such as noises,smells, colors, etc. Some times,parentsdo not know exactly where they can get those tools to cut down the effects of external stimuli.
Proposed Solution: Need for practical tools. Pratical objects such asz the Weighted Blanket, sleep mask for autistic children, or the plalsm ball lamp can help. Click here to have a pictorial view of some of these tools.
Challenge No6:Self-Education about ASD. Educate yourself as much as possible about ASD. The more you know thez more you gain in confidence about dealing with the challenges of ASD. You can make some web searches about any subject related to ASD that bothers your mind. Clear yourself from all manners of doubt.
Proposed Solution: make internet searches as much as possible about ASD. You can stay around this blog to get new articles about ASD. The best way is to join our mail list, so that you will never miss an article. this link my help: Autism Spectrum Disorder: key facts.
Challenge No7: Stress. ASD will stress up the rest of the family . it can even affect the marriage relationship with your partner.
Proposed Solution:Fight back; don’t isolate yourself. Join a community of parents having the same challenge. This will alleviate your pains.
Challenge No8: fatigue. Somtime, you will fell like you have the world on your shoulders. An Autistic child need a lot of attentiojn for his physical and emotional comfort. Helping the child to acauire leraning capabilities, to talk, to socialize and paid attention to other details of his life while doing your daily routine job can lead you to a state of fatigue.
Proposed Solution: Get a helper. A babysitter is very much welcome in this situation. Get one if you can afford her services. If you can get her on a permanent base, just get her maybe twice or thrice in a week. taking some night off can be very refreshing.
Challenge No9: Therapy. can autism be treated? No. you can only deal with the symptomps. there is no lab diagnosis to know if someone has this disorder or not. Doctor deal only with the symtomps. There are many types of therapies that can be tried.
Proposed Solution:learn about the different types of existing therapy: medication, education, music,etc. This article might help: Dealing with Autism Disorder in kids.
Challenge No10: Trying alternaztive therapies. As started earlier, there is no standardized therapy for ASD. What works in one case migt not work in another case. Treatments are empirical.Sometimes when the recommended treatment does not produce the disired results or the side effects ougtweigh the potentential benefits, alternative therapiers migt be the way forward.
Proposed Solution: These might include vitamin treatments, changes in diet, and a procedure called “chelation” that attempts to remove heavy metals from the blood. Although many parents insist these types of treatment work, researchers have not scientifically proven them effective for children with autism, either for symptoms or long-term outcomes. Chelation, in particular, is dangerous and should be avoided. Deaths have been associated with this type of therapy. You should always discuss the safety and effectiveness of any alternative treatments with your doctor before trying them.
Conclusion:
Dealing with autistic kids can be very challenging. Getting the right information can solve half of the problems. Acting on the information will go a long way in helping the autistic child t lead a prosperous and fulfilled life. In this article, we have provided the web-based resources you can leverage to give the best to your child.
References:
- Johnson, C.P. Early Clinical Characteristics of Children with Autism. In: Gupta, V.B. ed: Autistic Spectrum Disorders in Children. New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc., 2004:85–123.
- Fisher, P. G. (2015). Will you listen to my concerns about autism? The Journal of Pediatrics, 166(6), 1329–1332. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezp.welch.jhmi.edu/10.1016/j.jpeds.2015.04.020
- Center for Parent Information and Resources. (2014a). Services in your state for infants and toddlers. Retrieved from http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/services-ei/
- Center for Parent Information and Resources. (2014b). Special education services for preschoolers with disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/preschoolers/
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015). Autism spectrum disorder, data, and statistics. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html*
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