Importance of Having the Correct Knowledge in Autism

Knowledge empowers. Having a child with autism necessitates finding out as much as possible about all aspects of the condition, treatments, and services that are available in order to ensure that you are getting the most appropriate ones for your child's needs.  Having knowledge also helps parents to converse on a more equal footing with professionals and service providers.

Knowledge is important for all parents, not just because it increases their own understanding, but also because it helps them to better understand their child's reactions.  Additionally, it can serve as an early warning for children without any diagnosis that there may be a problem in their development.  If you do not know what signs to look for, you won't know whether to be concerned or not and the sooner you find out, the better because of the benefits of early intervention programs.  There are many good sources showing expected milestones and behaviors in development, one such site is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Although there are some parents who don't like their child to be labeled, an accurate diagnosis of autism, together with the knowledge and understanding this can bring,  can help to prevent delays in getting the support and help needed.  Knowledge becomes the tool. 

If you don't know what you are entitled to from local authorities and health insurance providers, you may have false expectations of what is available and miss out on much-needed treatments and intervention programs that are vital to providing your child with the best advantages.  Similarly, once your child's difficulties have been established, an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) can be devised, which is tailored to the specific target areas that need to be addressed for children aged three and over.

There is so much information to be sought, and much of this is on the Internet.  It is vitally important, however, that parents check the sources thoroughly and make sure that the information provided comes from credible sources, and citations are used that can be checked.  Claims that vaccines cause autism, for example, have been tested repeatedly and refuted; treat any article reviving them with caution.  Anyone can write anything on the Internet and make it look credible, or simply copy information from other articles, which may give the impression that is a well-established fact when in fact it is not.

References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  (n.d.). Cdc.gov: Learn the signs, act early.  Retrieved 25 April 2011,  from: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/index.html

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