Autism & Denial

Autism & Denial—

I was determined not to fall in the denial trap—I’d seen it too many times.  At two year old my son was diagnosed with autism, and I was told that that the disability was life-long, incurable, and incapacitating. Severe autism meant little or no language skills and socially inappropriate behavior, just a beginning to the heartbreak. Denial was not an option. I knew from research what the future held for my son, to our family, and for me. There must be something that could be done.

Watching others I discovered some traps that I wanted to avoid. Thinking my son would outgrow autism was dangerous. Watching a cute sweet child with trouble forming words was one thing, but he would grew up and what would his disability look like then. My heart ached, and I cried over the grim future ahead. But facing the darkness was necessary and love forced me to confront it. Immediately after the diagnosis, my husband and I began to research anything that might help—single-minded in our endeavor to help our son. My husband and I decided to apply any reasonable, affordable intervention. After a long, expensive journey of hours of hard work and thousands of hours of one-on-one time with our son, we arrived at an awesome milestone in our son’s recovery from autism. According to the child development specialist who originally diagnosed our son, we were told that he no longer met the criteria for the autism diagnosis. This was when he was five years old.

If you are out there fighting the battle for your child, remember you are not alone. There are those who have gone before you who can pass on helpful information.

Autistic children CAN learn. Denial in many cases means ignoring the problems a child has and dismissing issues as if it didn’t exist. However, we found that coming up with interventions, plans, and structure worked better. Look for and do therapy interventions that are successful and have real results.

Visit: www.aLifetoRescue.com .

~Karen Michelle Graham~

~~Announcing Hope over Autism~~