When you’re raising an autistic child, it’s easy to fall into the trap of minimizing their behaviors or overlooking certain actions because of the challenges they face. While this may feel like the right approach, it can actually make their behavioral and social struggles worse.
While working as a Registered Behavior Technician, I noticed kids, neurotypical & neurodivergent, getting away with behaviors children should not get away with. The Pendulum has swung from the extreme of tolerating nothing from children to another extreme, which is tolerating just about everything! Children are being underestimated by our professionals, especially non-verbal kids on the Spectrum.
Parents often look up to professionals to model how they are doing things, and unfortunately not enough is being done to reduce aggression for the modeling to have a significant impact reducing it. The bar must be raised and childhood aggression needs swiftly dealt with. It can't be a several years long process because once your child grows into a teenager and young adult, society won't be as forgiving and tragedies like what's highlighted in this video will occur.
This video has scenes from the film The Miracle Worker. It resonated with me, because the way Helen was pitied & given low expectations reminded me of my days working as an ABA therapist. Non-Verbal Autistic children are being underestimated by most professionals. This trickles down to parents, who are taking direction from these professionals. This inspired me to become a family coach.
Cases of Autism have more than doubled in the last 20-years, so like many of you; I’ve wondered why!? Vaccines? Processed foods? Genetics? Expectant mother’s receiving fentanyl during labor? I don’t know. Although I do suspect that women receiving fentanyl during labor isn’t good for her or the baby.