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>> Frequently as a speech language pathologist,
I do evaluations of children and I'm asked, why is it important
to have a diagnosis for my child of autism?
One of the things that I can speak to is the fact
that often parents will take their child to the pediatrician
for frequent, well-child checks.
And the parent will say to the doctor,
there's something wrong but I'm not what.
The doctor will ask, well, what seems to be the problem?
And parents have difficulty formulating what the problem is.
There's something wrong with my baby.
They don't act like other babies.
My baby doesn't, isn't making any sounds yet.
So they immediately have their hearing checked and they find
that their hearing is fine.
And they go back again, and frequently these visits end
up in tears, where the mother says,
I know there's something wrong with my baby,
but nobody will help me.
Those parents end up in my office for evaluation.
And we start by identifying, what are the cardinal signs
that they're seeing, what are the symptoms, the problems,
looking at the typical things with joint attention,
are they talking, have they made any sounds yet, do they interact
with other children and siblings,
how do they respond to their parents.
But the bottom line is that it's so important for families
to have a diagnosis early on, first of all
so that they can access services and resources for that child,
but also so that they have an idea of what their future is.
They can resource information on the Net, they can talk
to other professionals, they can talk to other parents,
join support groups, and really connect
within their own community, for accessing services
for themselves and their child.
Because while the child has autism,
the entire family has a child with autism,
and that is a very heavy responsibility
for anybody to deal with.
That's part of the reason why it's so important to get a child
and early on, especially for a speech language eval,
because as part of the team,
speech language pathologists are often the ones
who start identifying those children as being in need
of further assessment and services.
Most states allow for speech language pathologists
to make the diagnosis of autism, which is consistent
with the American Speech Language Hearing
Association's policy.
However, some states do not allow that, and so if you're
in a state where you're not allowed to make that diagnosis,
it's urgent that you contact the pediatrician
as a speech language pathologist,
and share with them the information
about what are the cardinal signs of autism,
what kinds of services can you provide,
who else needs to be involved.
Because oftentimes those pediatricians are dealing
with such a wide range of issues,
but they may not be aware, and once you contact them,
I've never had a pediatrician not respond.