What's the First Step?

Intro: Welcome back to another episode on “what the AUTISM?!” This podcast is for anyone who is struggling with understanding what autism is and how we can better empower our autism community through research proven methods. In each episode, I will be sharing with you ground-breaking research and how the diagnosis of autism can often be misunderstood. If you are a new listener to our podcast, I highly recommend you start from episode 1 to catch you up to speed on various terminology and concepts! Now let’s get started…

Throughout the last 16 episodes, I’ve covered quite a large range of topics and areas of concerns that many families typically have when their child is first diagnosed with autism. All this information can often times be a bit overwhelming, so in today’s episode, I wanted to quickly review through some recommendations for any parents and/or caretakers that are new to this topic of autism.

As a clinician, there are a couple BIG recommendations that I can’t help but emphasize.

First, if you’re suspecting that your child may be autistic, have a psychologist see your child IMMEDIATELY. Delaying your child’s evaluation is only delaying the options you may have for your child in the future. Every month is a huge growth spurt opportunity for your infant, and as they grow older that window of opportunity grows narrower. So it’s extremely important that we don’t waste time. Getting an appointment in with a psychologist can be a very long wait, so make sure you do whatever you can to get an appointment in sooner than later. Just like with any medical doctors, there are private clinics and there are also county and/or state-funded clinics (in the state of CA, they’re referred to as regional centers). There is a wide range, and of course with each type there are pros and cons. For private psychologist clinics, you might have to pay out of pocket, dependent on your insurance benefits, but your child’s evaluation should be expected to be clinically very specific and customized to what your child may need. Dependent on their client-base, you may also be able to get an appointment in sooner than a county-funded clinic. The county-funded clinics should provide an evaluation free of charge; however, due to the higher level of need, the wait time might be longer and their evaluation will typically be a template assessment that’s completed. Every state has different resources available, so make sure to do your research on what resources are available for your state. I know we also have quite a bit of international listeners, as well. I’ve only worked with clients within the state of California, so I can’t provide specifics to any out-of-state nor international folks; however, I did leave a link to the ASHA website that provides state insurance mandates for the autism spectrum disorder. This is extremely helpful to review and understand before trying to set up any logistics with your insurance provider and your treatment providers (https://www.asha.org/advocacy/state/states-specific-autism-mandates/).

Second, do your research. There are so many voices screaming at you in so many directions. What’s most important is that you make the best decision for your child. But ensure that before you make any key important decisions, you do your research to understand what the scientific research has shown. I’ve worked with quite a handful of parents that have paid out of pocket for various treatments that claimed could “cure” autism. I’ve also witnessed families bend over backwards to get their child into a program that claims to be ABA treatment, but after much time, we found out that their methodologies aren’t based on ABA principles. So I just want to reiterate the importance of doing your research and asking various questions and addressing your concerns before signing up for