"It's not the size of the dog in the fight .... it's the size of the fight in the dog!!...."

When your child is diagnosed with anything you would expect to get all the help in the world that is possible and in an ideal world this would happen!! However, here in reality, it very often is not handed on a plate to children who are at the more able end of the spectrum the reason for this we believe is because other people find it very hard to "see" a problem with our children. They walk, they talk, they don't have a limp or any other outward sign of disability. These people do not know that our children have a disability of the mind as they cannot see this and as parents it is very frustrating indeed to have our concerns trivialized and made to feel like we are crazy, but believe me it happens much more than people think it happens!!

 
We have to fight for everything our children deserve and at some point surely this has to change!! Sometime in the future (near future we hope!) this attitude will change just like it has for dyslexia .... these children are thankfully no longer considered lazy or stupid and are given the help they need and deserve ... So why aren't ASD kids given the same???? ... Well the only answer we can find to this is the fact that ASD's have only really become recognized in the last 10 years or so and dyslexia has been recognized for over 30 yrs now so at some point our children will become recognized .... cold comfort for those of us struggling against Schools, Local Education Authorities, Educational Psychologists, and many other people just in order to get our children SOME kind of support. Of course it isn't all doom and gloom there are some extremely good professionals and LEA's out there it is just that some are better than others.


Don't be surprised if your child does well in the early years of school AT school and has meltdown when he/she comes home this can happen and is not uncommon!! You have to try and get a good and open communication with the school about your child (again this varies greatly from school to school and even teacher to teacher!!) and if you feel like you are not being listened to well try to get people who will help you voice your concerns at meetings such as The Parent Partnership Service, a supporter from your local Autism support Group, Health Visitor .... in fact as many people as you can to go to the meeting with you and sort matters out!! As the title of this pages says "fight the good fight" because at the end of the day getting the appropriate intervention for our children can make the difference between them being in a dead-end job or a rocket scientist!!!

Early intervention is imperative and you are your child's best advocate. You more than anyone else know your child and know whether they are receiving the right support!! Don't let the system put you off trying .... it is a long hard slog if you are having to fight and it does get you down and to the point of giving up (believe us we know!!), but, at the end of the day who else can your child rely on to help them!! Had we just accepted what we have been told by certain professionals along the way well our child would not have a diagnosis for starters!! Also we couldn't accept that his language levels had been brought up to "age appropriate" so asked for a second opinion and boy were we proved right not to have sat back he was found to be 2 and a half years behind!!! If we had accepted it just how far behind would he have been before they spotted it!!!!!

So as you can see getting a diagnosis, whilst being very important in order to get the right intervention for your child/children does not automatically qualify them for any help at all. You as the parent have to stand up for your child and make sure that they get what they deserve!! In some cases this may be relatively easy and if this is the case for you well I really feel you can count yourself as lucky as there are many parents across the country struggling to even get their schools to recognize a problem at all!! If you are having to fight then stay strong and remember that you are doing this for your child/children and the outcome is well worth the struggle!!!

If the struggle is hard join us on the forum and we will lend a sympathetic ear and try to help you stay strong!!