Episode 21 - Autism Diagnosis: What Parents Need to Know

So in your view, and I'm going to come to you Freya first, what What would you say are the primary reasons that you would want to get your child a diagnosis?

Yeah, thanks, Ruth.

I think that's a really, really important question.

I think for me, one of the main reasons I would say to a family member or a parent or carer who is seeking a diagnosis for their child where they'd seen that maybe the child was maybe developing in a slightly different way compared to their peers is, is I think about what they were hoping to get from the diagnosis.

And I think for me, a diagnosis can bring lots of different benefits.

So it can bring the family a really good opportunity to understand that child's unique strengths and needs.

It can bring the right educational support for that child.

And I think more importantly for me, it's about that child really understanding their own identity.

If you continually compare yourself to your peers who are neurotypical, you're going to kind of feel a little bit rubbish because you're not going to be the same as them.

And you may always feel like you're falling short.

If you actually realize, do you know what? My brain is neurodivergent.

I'm a little bit different.

I do things a little bit differently.

Suddenly it's not that I'm rubbish.

It's that I'm different.

And I think that for me is so empowering.

And we know that young people who get an early diagnosis actually go on to get have experienced less mental health conditions.

They have better well-being and they have better sense of self-esteem.

And these things are crucial for us.

And I think the misdiagnosis that you've experienced, I think that's really unfortunate for many people because they've had diagnoses where they've you know had to have say treatments or attempts for things to to change whereas actually if we embrace someone's neurodivergence we're not looking at change we're not looking at deficit anymore we're looking at difference and that allows us to think about reasonable adaptions for the environment around us reasonable adaptions for the people around us but also things that we can do ourselves what are the things that we need to do that we maybe need to learn new skills at and what's the things that we just need to you know embrace and celebrate about ourselves

Yeah, I completely agree because there's a lot of self-criticism in the autistic mind.

And actually giving yourself that empathy and the understanding, you can only do that if you know who you are.

And it's different, not less, isn't it? That's a really nice way to describe it.

If you