When a child is diagnosed with a developmental or mental health disorder, many parents start their own journey of becoming a new, tougher parent. It involves grief, self-compassion, finding your tribe and your voice, and becoming your child's advocate. I'm chatting today with my friend Amanda who is a mother of two children on the Autism spectrum. She eloquently shares her journey from novice to pro in developing her advocacy skills for her children in the school system. I know from working with families that Amanda's journey will parallel many other's paths. Her lessons learned may be helpful to some as they are sorting out skills they need or finding courage to be bold.
A few tidbits from this video:
1. The arc of Amanda's path was to first find her voice, then learn her legal rights as well as her child's legal rights, and now she is currently working on supporting her opinion with data when she talks with the school. 2. She uses targeted parent support groups online to find her tribe where she feels heard and can gain new ideas to help her children. She identifies this as her most valuable resource in supporting her children. 3. She discusses the signs of autism she saw in her own children in early infancy and childhood. 4. She discusses how she had to push to get an evaluation for her first child when no one else shared her concerns, and how this experience made her feel and led to a delay in diagnosis. 5. She shares how she learned about Washington state law to empower herself to share her opinion with her children's schools. 6. She shares how she pushes now for the school to collect data to support continued interventions in her child's ASD areas of concerns, like elopement and anxiety, and how she helps them to identify appropriate interventions based on the data.
