Autism early intervention parents courses? People’s early intervention experiences?

[hol92]

Hi all :)

my little boy will be 3 in March and is diagnosed autistic, he’s currently haven’t speech therapy and we want to do as much as we can to help him, my first question is - what are peoples experiences with early intervention? Did you think it benefited as much as everyone says? And also if there are any online causes we as parents can do, I have found a few but would love recommendations!

thank you

I think early intervention is important, though sadly often missing.

I don’t think parental courses such as EarlyBirds are that helpful. By the time parents get to the point where they are doing those courses, they have often gained knowledge about ASD along the way. How helpful they are also depends on the facilitators and who the other parents on the course are/their DC. Some of the general parenting courses don’t take into account SEN.

I think it's helpful to seek a neurodiversity assessment as a parent. ASD is highly genetic, so it's a strong possibility that one or both parents also have autistic traits/ASD/ADHD. If a parent is neurodivergent, they are likely to have specific weaknesses and needs as well as strengths and unique insights with regards to parenting an autistic child. If one or both parents is neurodivergent, it can also affect the relationship between the parents. I find that for me the most important thing in raising/teaching/working with autistic children and autistic people in general is an ability to self regulate and stay calm (on the inside as well as outwardly) in all circumstances. Maybe that is already your strength. But for me, if I had to choose between therapy/intervention/medicine for my child or me, I choose it for myself first (I and my husband went through therapy and on sertraline when we became parents), followed by family therapy, followed by interventions for the child only. As an ADHD mother, I need more calm, patience and a dead cert ability to regulate my emotions around my ASD children than I could ever have dreamed of. Just panicking inside, or just feeling passionate or excited in my heart, or getting frustrated or overwhelmed, is enough to cause a meltdown in my autistic children ime. They pick it up, even if I try to speak calmly and smile etc. I really need to be 100% zen, happy, a bit funny and light hearted but also almost a tiny bit detached, definitely low emotional energy. So for me, the main parenting 'trick' is coming to grips with my own ADHD and underlying anxiety and big emotions to prevent 'emotional contamination' (autistic children can very often be hyper-emotional, i.e. they feel your emotions but can't understand them or regulate them, so get overwhelmed when confronted with strong internal feelings of a parent/teacher/partner, even if those are not expressed)