Advocating for your special needs child.

Autism is a spectrum disorder wherein the majority of our children are nonverbal. They have difficulty in letting people know about their thoughts, feelings, and the amount of knowledge they have within them. Even though they are nonverbal most of these children have average or above-average intellectual abilities.

It is normal for people to judge children on their verbal abilities. If the child speaks they are considered to be smart and capable. Most of the people are ignorant when it comes to a nonverbal child and automatically assume they are not capable of thinking and doing things. So here we as parents come in as we are our children's best advocate. It is our responsibility to help people understand the amazing potential our children have.

I personally experienced this as well as you all know our son is nonverbal. I used to think about how will I teach Aarian the letters and letter sounds. One day he amazed us when we came to know he had thought himself to read. Most of the time it seems like your child is not listening to you or paying attention when you are speaking to them but in reality our children are learning all the time by taking in all the information around them. It is very important for us not to speak about our kids in front of them as if they are not hearing us. This has happened to us personally and it used to hurt. Imagine you are the person who people are talking about and you cannot even defend yourself. Some well-meaning professionals and therapists sadly do that.

It is our job as parents to also advocate for our kids in the school system. In today's age there are funding cuts in our education system. Special Education is one area where there are significant cuts. There is less support in the special needs classrooms. It is important for us to advocate for the right services for our kids. We have to be ''that parent'' in simple terms who speak up for their child. It is sad but true if you don't advocate for your child nothing much will be done in school.

I have spent hours over the years working with my son. I am very well aware of his strengths and needs. Over the years I have spent a significant amount of time advocating for my son as a lot of people did not believe in him initially. They automatically assumed he was not capable just because he was nonverbal. It is our duty as parents and educators to provide the right tools to our kids so they can demonstrate what they know. Once people realized he was capable of learning their attitude towards him changed.

I will continue to advocate for my son as I am his voice. I strongly encourage all the parents to do the same as our kids have lots of potentials we just have to work harder unlike parents of typical kids where everything comes by easily. Every accomplishment of our children needs to be celebrated no matter how small or big it is. Trust me it is all worth it. Things we all take for granted are very hard for our children and they take years to master it. So always advocate for your child.