Autism Awareness diagnosis
How does diagnosis of Autism work and what happens next?
When looking into getting a diagnosis for a child or oneself there is a process of which one has to go through. Autism is in the Diagnostic manual that gets used to help specifically diagnose where one falls and what parts of the Autism spectrum specifically impact one's day to day life. Which then will help lead to getting the specific supports and programming that one might need to help with what symptoms may need more support and what areas are not impacted for one. Next steps include finding a child psychiatrist or psychologist to help with the diagnosis. After this is gotten there are different routes that one can go down to get the support that might be needed.
When looking specifically at children, support in school can be gotten if that is going to be impacted including an aid in school or after school or when the child could benefit from programming. Types of programming are created regularly through ABA which stands for applied behaviour analysis. This programming is unique to each case; foundational skills may be the same but the rate to which a program is implements supports, cues and progression is specific to the person doing the programming. ABA programs are in most cases created by a psychologist based on sessions with the individual and then is implemented by behavioural interventionists on a regular scheduled basis. Psychologists who created programming will come in monthly on standard to check in with programming.
Personal support: What can it look like?
In simple aspects being aware of what the person may have a difficult time with and not crossing boundaries. If an individual does not like physical touch and has a reaction to it not engaging unless they initiate it. If someone is unable to eat a certain food they might not tell you but have an emotional reaction to said food or behavioural reaction.Additionally this could be something like not making eye contact with another person when talking. but not limited to what is listed above. Being able to notice simple reactions and not point them out but support the individual through tasks, emotions, behaviours, sensory processing, or social communication/ skills.