When we were approached by the school district to have Maddie assessed for Autism/PDD I was extremely defensive. I did not want to label her, especially at 4 years old. Nor did I want the school district telling me what I needed to do for my child. Finally I thought, I will go through the normal kindergarten screening process and go from there. Well the screening went poorly she was so afraid of the person doing the screening she didn’t even participate. That’s when I figured how is she going to let a teacher help her in a classroom and decided to go through the formal assessment process with Fraser Child and Family.

Once we got the autism diagnosis I took the recommendations from the assessing organization and started therapies. I also met with the school right away to start lining up the support that was recommended by the assessment. I was in control of what was happening at each step. This was very important for me to be the one “steering the bus”. I recommend that you learn the strategies and techniques that work with your child so you can let others, especially the school people, know how your child learns best. I am planning on teaching Maddie how to be her own advocate down the road so she will be able to tell others how she learns things the best way for her. The more I empower her the more she will become an “over comer” and find things on her own to be able to manage her autism. I recently read an excellent book by an Autistic woman named Dawn Prince-Hughes PH. D. called Songs of The Gorilla Nation about how she learned to advocate for herself and live with autism.