#3 PRIORITIZE CONCERNS

​#3 - What to do While You Wait with < My Thoughts > by Sara Luker

           Preceded by:
                    #1 What to do While You Wait... Red Flags  &   
                         Parental Concerns CHECKLIST
                    #2 What to do While You Wait... Diagnosis &
                         Denial & Doctors WHAT TO DO NEXT…
                         FOLLOWING DIAGNOSIS

< My Thoughts >       "While You Wait..."

Parents often must wait days, weeks, and even months for assessments or doctor appointments. During this stressful time, it's good to feel that you are actively helping your child. This can become an important time of clarifying what bothers you the most about your child's behavior, development, or other concerns. Video tape what you are seeing and how your child acts throughout the day/night. 'Seeing is believing' for someone new to your child.

Prioritize your child's 'needs' and your 'wants'. Try new things... like teaching your child age appropriate 'developmental skills' that are non-invasive. See what works and what doesn't. Eventually, you will have to choose from available programs, therapies, and services that will be offered. Some are quite expensive, so understand your child well enough to figure out what will probably work and what absolutely won't. You can only know this by trying some things on your own.

HOW TO FIND THE INTERVENTION OUTCOME YOU ARE LOOKING FOR…
 
Before looking for a program…  prioritize your child’s
​‘needs’ and  prioritize your ‘wants’.
 
In other words…
 
What is the most frightening or destructive thing that is going on right now in your child’s world?
 
Recent studies show the following things worry parents the most…
 
Lack of… 

• gross motor skills
• speech/language communication
• cognition
• social/personal awareness
• daily living skills

#3 - PRIORITIZE CONCERNS - with < My Thoughts > by Sara Luker
 
What do you worry about the most? What is the most dangerous and/or destructive thing or things your child does? Think about how to keep your child and family 'safe' as the 1st possible priority.
          
Prioritize your child's 'needs' and your 'wants'. Try new things such as teaching your child age appropriate 'developmental skills' that are non-invasive. See what works and what doesn't. Eventually, you will have to choose from available programs, therapies, and services that will be offered. Some are quite expensive, so understand your child well enough to figure out what will probably work and what absolutely won't. You can only know this by trying some things on your own. 
 
< My Thoughts >       "…works and what doesn't…”
 
Children with autism are individual in their personalities, interests, and learning styles. In the same way ‘autism’ itself presents in an individual way. Getting to know your child and getting to know your child’s autism may be easier to approach as a ‘dual’ understanding.
 
Bowler, et al. (2015) tells us that those with autism have different degrees of difficulties with memory and need to be cued to recall or recognize steps in a task or function. In the ‘discussion’ of the results, it was suggested that future support should be a result of spending time understanding and unpacking the complexity of the task.
 
They went on to say that the difference between ‘supported’ tasks and ‘unsupported’ learning tasks is revealed in this study. Participants found that seeing things in a specific order as with an organizational chart or by being given auditory cues helped them become more effective. Having support improved recognition of the order of events.

< My Thoughts >       "…organizational chart…”

Some children with autism have a ‘visual’ learning preference, some have ‘auditory’, ‘kinesthetic’, and ‘verbal’ preferences. Those with visual (see) and kinesthetic (touch) can benefit from a chart similar to the one shown here.

Consider how to prioritize your child’s ‘needs’ and prioritize your ‘wants’ before you make a decision about moving forward with a 'program'. Is it something everyone involved can live with?