Special note to new parents:
A new diagnosis of autism for a child you love is an extremely stressful, confusing and time consuming experience. The wish is that this experience could be less traumatic and that the process of determining what is wrong and how to fix it was FASTER.
What TACA provides and I can help with are some “best practices” for you to move quickly on for the benefit of your child. These best practices come from working with the many families that make up TACA (2,600+ families to date) for the past five years.
An autism diagnosis of a young child does not mean that the hopes and dreams are dashed for that child. The child is still here and these dreams need to stay alive. So much good can come from early, intensive, one-on-one intervention and biomedical therapies. Many families have seen tremendous progress where their children are mainstreamed in typical education and lucky others have experienced much better progress where their children are now indistinguishable from their peers and they require no additional services. Our goal is and will continue to be: Help all children be the best they can be and realize their full potentials.
How was this New Parent Quick Start list created?
This quick start list was created by dozens of parents 1 to 4 years after their child was diagnosed with autism. The purpose of this Quick Start check list is to provide you with the wisdom and recommendations from seasoned parents who have “been there already” to learn from their experiences. Please make the decisions that are right for your family! We hope this check list helps you get a QUICK START for helping your child.
WHERE TO GET STARTED!! The Checklist (in this order:)
As mentioned, you have a lot of work ahead of you. You can do it if you stay organized and work quickly. Here is the homework I promised you for potential next steps for you to consider:
1) GET READY TO READ the following:
2) Read about, sign up and attend TACA’s New parent seminar: It is important you attend. It is highly recommended that parents attend this seminar together to learn and plan their child’s next steps. Extended family members are also welcome to attend in the learning process.
3) Consider hiring a special education attorney familiar with your school district (at LEAST consult with one!). At minimum it is critical each family get educated on SPECIAL EDUCATION LAW AND YOUR CHILD’S RIGHTS.
a. I recommend reading the IEP Checklist for preparation of your next steps.
b. And reading about Managing Professionals
Important Note: We would highly recommend callings anyone of the listed resources on the attorney TACA web resource list.
4) Obtain outside assessments to provide detailed recommendations for your child. Please read the link for a complete list of recommended assessments to obtain. It is crucial to get these scheduled as soon as possible. Call all the TACA resources you can, get on wait lists and get these scheduled. This link describes what I recommend.
5) Another thing to consider is obtaining a free TACA parent mentor familiar with your knowledge of your school district, available providers, services, dietary intervention, biomedical interventions and traditional therapies. Someone who is a parent and has “been there done that” and can offer sage advice and a shoulder to lean on. Read more.
a. Important note: THIS DOES NOT REPLACE THE NEED FOR AN ATTORNEY/ADVOCATE!
b. This services is only available in CALIFORNIA
6) Attend REGULAR TACA meetings. These are free and will continue to provide you with support and educate you on the options available to your family. TACA meetings are in 8 locations across California - find a meeting.
If you need help outside California –Please check www.talkautism.org using EXPERT FIND for national resources Go to www.yahoo.com or www.google.com and type in AUTISM PARENT SUPPORT – AND YOUR STATE'S NAME.
7) FIND A DAN (DEFEAT AUTISM NOW) Doctor – A doctor is an important step on the autism journey. You can find a DAN doctor at www.autism.com/ari
Some relevant reading on this all important topic:
Medical Testing
Supplements
Supplement Help
Chelation
What Is It?
The Poop Page8) START A GLUTEN FREE / CASEIN FREE DIET (GFCF) AS SOON AS POSSIBLE – Most DAN doctors that specialize in autism will not see you until you are on this diet!! (See book list below for great books! An important note - over 85% of the children with autism respond positively to this diet!
For a complete guide and information on starting the diet go to www.gfcfdiet.com or TACA's GFCF Diet!9) GET EARLY START INTERVENTION STARTED – Get with early start or school districts to get a home based program done for your child. Studies demonstrate that children with autism benefit from EARLY AND 1 on 1 intervention!! Special education services are funded and provided through your local regional center / early start program to help each family that has a child with autism.
Therapy options include: ABA or Lovaas Therapy, Floortime, Son Rise, TEEACH. Other additional therapy options that should be considered are: Speech, Occupational or Physical Therapy, sensory integration therapy, and auditory integration training.
Program providers have a 3-24 month waiting list! Get on the waiting list for all providers in your area. For California based providers, go to RESOURCES, then click on LOCAL RESOURCES & INFORMATION.
Outside California – please see www.talkautism.org and click on EXPERT FIND.
(Note Talk Autism is not affiliated with Talk About Curing Autism.)Read more about managing professionals.
10) READ MORE (sorry this appears twice on the list!!) – Being educated about options is going to make you your child’s BEST ADVOCATE. There is plenty to read and research on TACA's website.
GREAT BOOKS TO READ: There are thousands of books on autism, early intervention, biomedical treatments and a variety of other topics. Review our recommended book list.
WEB & EMAIL HELP
Not a problem - it is just an email away!
Email lists are a great way to stay connected between meetings. You can subscribe, read emails and ask questions all related to autism. These lists connect you to other parents like you in California. Here is how to connect:
Step 1 - Get a Yahoo! user ID and password
Step 2 - Search for groups in your area. Here are some groups we like:
• TACA-USA
• AutismInterventionSoCal
• AutismInterventionCentralCA
• AutismInterventionNorthernCA
• AutismIntervention_SanDiego
• Autism_Inlandempire_SoCal
• TACAvalley
Step 4 - Click on “Join This Group”
Step 5 - Set your account to “Individual Emails,” “Daily Digest” or “Web Only.”
With the exception of TACA-USA, these groups are not affiliated with TACA.
A GREAT EMAIL NEWSLETTER JUST ABOUT AUTISM: Schafer Autism Report
Lenny Shafer is a father with a child effected by Autism. He has created a great resources with over 15,000 other parents where he reviews all related news and medical updates including conferences and other important information on Autism and publishes a weekly newsletter. It is worth the read!
To ubscribe to this service, go to: home.sprynet.com/~schafer/
Looking for Something? Search The Most Complete Autism Database & News Archive - this is an awesome resource!
Updated Fresh Daily groups.yahoo.com/group/-AuTeach/messages
A GREAT PRINTED NEWSLETTER ABOUT AUTISM:
Autism Research Institute newsletter has amazing information. This resource has been around as one of the only beacons of information for autism since the mid 1960s!
Balance
Balance seems like the least appropriate item on the entire checklist! After a diagnosis of autism is given, many parents / families go into “disaster recovery” mode and try to recover their child as quickly as possible.
Please remember, the autism “race” is more like a marathon vs. a sprint. You need to pace yourself and think both short term and long term about every decision you make.
Like any athlete or professional preparing for a long race – remember to have balance in your life. Please remember your spouse and other children – and importantly, remember to take time for your self. Even if that time is 10 minutes of day to unwind.
Balance must be part of your overall agenda in helping your child. After all, if you are not healthy / happy – how can you help your child? I write these words to you with the complete understanding that I lost the word “balance” from my vocabulary for over a year and do not suggest you do the same. Take heart to this suggestion.
Conclusion
As you can see, autism is a lot of work. This quick start checklist is a lot to read and understand. Please keep in mind that you can get a tremendous amount done for your child when you focus on the important things and move forward on the steps to help your child. With a good team of people helping you it is possible to get what your child needs for a free & appropriate education in the least restrictive environment and help him achieve their true potential.
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