Student looking for input.

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Hi Parents,

Please excuse the intrusion, if it is unwelcome please let me know and i will remove my post.

I am a junior majoring in Human Development and Family Studies at Colorado State University. I am also an assistant teacher at a local preschool/daycare that includes children of all ability levels- including children on the autistic spectrum. I am currently taking a technical writing course and our major project for the course is to create a technical document. My idea is to create a manual/brochure for parents of children who have recently being diagnosed with Autism, providing answers to common questions and concerns, words of advice, an overview of therapies available, resources, and whatever else might be useful. I am hoping you are able to take the time to answer my questions to help me create the most useful document possible. Feel free to answer as many or as few as you'd like and make your answers as long or as short as you'd like, any little bit will help!

Here are the questions:

When your child was first diagnosed with autism, what were the first questions and concerns to pop into your head?

What do you wish someone had said to you when your child was first diagnosed?

What were some of the most helpful resources for you when your child was first diagnosed? (This includes books, websites, articles, organizations, even people. I will of course be looking at all the resources, but I'd love to find some common denominators to figure out which ones the most people found helpful.)

Is there anything else you haven't mentioned that you think would be important to include in this type of publication?

If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact me, I can be reached by email at legoac at gmail dot com.

-Logan

I am curious, what length do you expect to make this 'brochure'? I am currently working on a book of sorts that covers the basic questions, and it is already 130 pages and growing. I don't see how you could offer any practical advice with only a small brochure. The best you would be able to do would be to give a list of books to read, and perhaps a 1 page summary of friendly encouragement.

i'm afraid i share tracker's stance on this.

I think that one brochure sized tidbit that would be helpful is that ASDs affect perceptions but not intelligence. I also think that explaining that a delay doesn't mean something won't ever happen, it will just happen later and maybe not as well. I also find it very comforting that many Aspies excel in technical fields and partially that is because they aren't distracted by social stuff. Their natural tendancy toward objectivity is a real asset in many fields.

The psychologist who diagnosed my eldest son said this to me:

"This is the same boy you've always known. Nothing about him as changed. Now we know more about how we can help him suceed."

I actually wasn't worried about that. I was crying in relief that it wasn't something worse, but she didn't know that and I think those were wise words.

Tracker- the assignment guideline is 8-10 pages, so certainly nothing too comprehensive. My idea was not so much for an ultimate resource so much as something a parent whose child has just been diagnosed that answers some very common questions, overviews what they can start doing at home and perhaps overviews different therapies available, and provides some well-liked resources to get them started. I have no doubt that 8-10 pages is not enough, but it's the parameters I have to work with so I'd love to try to make something decent with the space I have.

My biggest concern was that my son would never have a real relationship with us. I guess I wasn't sure if we would ever know if he loved us or not. My other concern was who will care for him when we are gone if he is not able to.

I now know that he does know that we are his parents and that we love him and he loves us very much. He gives us lots of hugs and kisses and sometimes says "I love you Mom" or "I love you Dad" As long as we have that, nothing else really matters.

As a matter of policy we do not allow people to join and post for the sole purpose of gathering information for a school assignment. I'll give it a day or so, since we have a few members who don't seem to mind helping you out, but then I'll have to remove the thread.