Your child has autism

By: Cathy Genovia ASP Program Assistant

One wonderful gift God gave to humans is children. Two people fall in love and pray someday to have a healthy baby of their own. She breaks the exciting news to him-she’s pregnant. She starts preparing things on her list: eating the right food, taking vitamins, drinking milk and following their OB’s advice.

Nine months later, the stork arrives. Everyone in the family-the mother, father, lolo, lola, siblings and other relatives, fussing over the cute little bundle. As the baby grows, mom recognizes something different. He’s unusual from other children.

By one year, no pointing, no babbling. No single words by 16 months, no two-word phrases by 24 months or any loss of language skills at any time. As the child grows, both mom and dad observe that their child doesn’t respond when called by name. Aside from that, he has an extremely short attention span. Almost reaching school age, their anxiousness increase as he doesn’t pretend play with his siblings nor attempt to play or make friends with the neighbors’ kids.

They seek a developmental pediatrician’s assistance and are given the diagnosis: “Your child has autism.”

Graceful Acceptance

I found myself in Twilight Zone. It was like a very bad dream and I can't wake up. I felt numbness inside me. Shock, denial, anger and depression-mixed emotions all came at the same time,” confides Grace about her own son’s diagnosis.

“Pero ang dali ko ring maka-recover, kasi na discover ko na pag madalas mo is-share sa iba ang experience mo, mas mabilis ang acceptance. (I discovered that the more I shared my own experiences, the acceptance of my son came more easily, and I was able to recover.) When I reach out, I felt I was helping myself cope with the situation better, and through ASP, I am able to help others as well.”

Grace serves as the newly elected ASP National President. She has this advice for parents: “The earlier the parents know that their child has this condition, the earlier they will be given proper education/intervention. Denying it will not do their children any good, and overlooking this will just delay the development of their child.”

ASP continues to work hard to inform others about autism, and help empower families on how to help their children. To request for an Early Detection and Early Intervention of Autism Seminar in your area, please write us at autismphils@gmail.com or call us at 7-903-5496.

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