Evaluating your services (Questions to ask)
Many children end up going through several types of therapy each week, which can make it challenging to determine what is working and what is not. To decide if a treatment option is working, we have a few tips:
Start with a baseline
Knowing where a child is starting can help you determine how much progress they’d made later. Keeping records or a journal over a few weeks before a new treatment can be useful. This can be done with any kind of therapy treatment for a child with autism.
Have set goals
If your only goal is for the child to improve, there’s no way to accurately measure the outcome. The best option is to work with a therapist to create both long and short-term goals. Then you can easily look at the data and see how the treatment is working.
Keep detailed records
Rather than saying “he’s communicating more,” write down how much the child is communicating. Keep records of when they are communicating and in what ways. This gives you a chance to compare
If you or your therapist think things are not getting better after giving therapy a chance, it might be time to try a different therapist or treatment option. It’s part of a therapist’s job to know when their way of doing things isn’t working for a child. Then they can help figure out what kind of treatment to try instead. They may not find you a new therapist and set up an appointment, but they should at least help you figure out what your next move is.
Parental involvement
It is important to know that most families find a way to work together, grow stronger and learn ways to reduce the negative impact of the diagnosis and promote a positive future for their children and families.
When your child is first diagnosed, you will likely find yourself fulfilling many roles: care coordinator, therapist, parent, teacher, etc. One of the most important roles you will have is serving as your child’s advocate. Advocating for your child will be a lifelong journey that will require different skills depending on your child’s needs.
Seven principles can be applied to serve as an effective advocate for your child: