AUG 13, 2020

Letter From the CEO: Helping Parents

An autism diagnosis affects every single member of the family, but the impact it has on parents is unique. For parents, a child’s autism diagnosis changes every aspect of life as they reorient to their new reality and work to balance their neurodiverse child’s needs with the needs of the rest of the family—a feat that becomes even more daunting when that family involves other children with needs and wants and full schedules of activities of their own. But raising a child with autism doesn’t mean that everyone else’s needs go unmet, it just means that the process of balancing all those schedules and needs might be a little different. And that’s where this month’s newsletter comes in.

No one expects you to know everything about autism or what it means to be raising a child affected by the condition, especially not as you’re just starting out. In this month’s newsletter, we’re providing resources that get into the basics of educating yourself about autism—from noticing the signs of autism in toddlers to digging into the question of if there are different kinds of autism to look for. These resources are designed to help parents of young children who may have autism to notice the early indicators and, if you see those signs in your own child, to answer the most daunting question of all: What next?

In addition to these articles, we also spoke to Kate Swenson, the amazing woman behind the blog Finding Cooper’s Voice, which has been an incredible resource to the autism community for years. In her blog, Kate documents her family’s experiences raising Cooper, who lives with a severe form of nonverbal autism. We spoke to Kate about the ways blogging about her journey has impacted her family, how she balances the needs of other children with Cooper’s, and her own advice for other parents of children with autism.

I always welcome feedback and love hearing from you. If you want to reach out about the newsletter or any other Autism related matter, don’t hesitate to email me at arnon.heller@intercaretherapy.com.

Arnon "Noni" Heller Psy.D. CEO