Tips for Parents With Autistic Children
Life can be tricky for parents of children who suffer from autism. The rocky patch starts right from the time a child gets detected with autism symptoms. However, the new autism definition is to decrease the diagnoses by almost 33%.
There are certain measures you can take to ensure that your personal life doesn't take a hit while dealing with your child's autism issues.
Denial
Parents of most autistic children struggle with accepting that their child has special needs. They even pass of their child's inability to speak at an early age as merely a genetic issue. If you often find yourself saying something like, €Oh I didn't start speaking until I was 5€, stop right away.
Making excuses for your child's problems isn't going to make the situation any better. The sooner you accept the truth, the sooner you will start finding solutions.
Guilt
There is no point in blaming yourself or your spouse for your kid's autism. Constantly trying to think about various reasons that could have led to this problem such as improper breast-feeding or arguments with your partner is only going to bog you down.
The fact is that none of these factors are responsible for the problem. Of course it is natural for any parent to wonder if they could have done things differently in order to prevent their child's autism. However, there is absolutely no scientific evidence that such environmental factors could lead to autism.
Stop being an emotional Wreck
Parenting an autistic child could be extremely overwhelming at times. A recent autism definition could be of some relief as it may exclude a lot of kids from getting tagged as autistic.
Nevertheless, you will always have people telling you horrifying tales of their experiences with autistic children. Before you start dreading the whole situation, ask yourself, €has parenting ever been easy for anyone?€
Autistic children may have some extra needs but they are like any other child who wants to be loved and cared for. Get yourself together and prepare yourself to face the situation head on. It may get difficult at the start but as the time goes by, you will start noticing signs of improvement in your child's behavior.
Discipline them
You cannot treat an autistic child like a normal kid at all times but see to it that you don't go overboard with your special treatment towards him. Set some rules for your kid. Make it a point that they sleep on time, avoid late night television, no junk food, learning to keep their room clean etc.
Impart a certain level of discipline in them, teach them to say €sorry€ when they are wrong or say €thank you€ when somebody helps them. After all, any parent would want to see their child turning into a well-behaved adult.
Do not isolate yourself
Parents of an autistic child often feel lonely and soon start isolating themselves from the society. As a result, the child too gets deprived of a social life. Start getting out of the four walls of your house and engage yourself in various social activities.
Some parents are uncomfortable with the idea of letting their children play with an autistic child. The revised autism definition is expected to bring about some change in people's perspective.
Try explaining people that autism is not a disease and that your child is harmless. If nothing works, your kid will always have other friends to play with.
For more information on Autism, you can logon to http://www.autismdefinition.net.
There are certain measures you can take to ensure that your personal life doesn't take a hit while dealing with your child's autism issues.
Denial
Parents of most autistic children struggle with accepting that their child has special needs. They even pass of their child's inability to speak at an early age as merely a genetic issue. If you often find yourself saying something like, €Oh I didn't start speaking until I was 5€, stop right away.
Making excuses for your child's problems isn't going to make the situation any better. The sooner you accept the truth, the sooner you will start finding solutions.
Guilt
There is no point in blaming yourself or your spouse for your kid's autism. Constantly trying to think about various reasons that could have led to this problem such as improper breast-feeding or arguments with your partner is only going to bog you down.
The fact is that none of these factors are responsible for the problem. Of course it is natural for any parent to wonder if they could have done things differently in order to prevent their child's autism. However, there is absolutely no scientific evidence that such environmental factors could lead to autism.
Stop being an emotional Wreck
Parenting an autistic child could be extremely overwhelming at times. A recent autism definition could be of some relief as it may exclude a lot of kids from getting tagged as autistic.
Nevertheless, you will always have people telling you horrifying tales of their experiences with autistic children. Before you start dreading the whole situation, ask yourself, €has parenting ever been easy for anyone?€
Autistic children may have some extra needs but they are like any other child who wants to be loved and cared for. Get yourself together and prepare yourself to face the situation head on. It may get difficult at the start but as the time goes by, you will start noticing signs of improvement in your child's behavior.
Discipline them
You cannot treat an autistic child like a normal kid at all times but see to it that you don't go overboard with your special treatment towards him. Set some rules for your kid. Make it a point that they sleep on time, avoid late night television, no junk food, learning to keep their room clean etc.
Impart a certain level of discipline in them, teach them to say €sorry€ when they are wrong or say €thank you€ when somebody helps them. After all, any parent would want to see their child turning into a well-behaved adult.
Do not isolate yourself
Parents of an autistic child often feel lonely and soon start isolating themselves from the society. As a result, the child too gets deprived of a social life. Start getting out of the four walls of your house and engage yourself in various social activities.
Some parents are uncomfortable with the idea of letting their children play with an autistic child. The revised autism definition is expected to bring about some change in people's perspective.
Try explaining people that autism is not a disease and that your child is harmless. If nothing works, your kid will always have other friends to play with.
For more information on Autism, you can logon to http://www.autismdefinition.net.
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