HOW TO TEST YOUR CHILD TO SEE IF THEY ARE AUTISTIC FREE CHAPTER
By Virinia Downham
Copyright
©2011 Lulu.com
All rights
reserved
ISBN 978-1-4710-1029-3
My name is Virinia Downham and I
am the mother of a boy who has journeyed on a long road to find the answer to
the question is my child Autistic?
This
ebook is designed to give you help if you suspect that your child is Autistic. 10
Tests for Autism are given one of them is the ASD Behavior Checklist designed
with 267 Autistic behaviors where the level of severity can clearly be
assessed.
As
the mother of an Autistic son I did not know how difficult it would be to find
a Specialist who was qualified to tell me whether or not my son was Autistic. I
cannot stress enough that Autism is not an easy or straight forward condition
to diagnose. Autism is a spectrum disorder which means that no two autistic
children will have identical problems. Being a spectrum disorder a child who
cannot speak and who rocks in a corner is Autistic but so is the child who can
speak and on the surface seems perfectly “normal” but get to know the child
better and you will discover that the child cannot understand that other people
have feelings and they are obsessed with lining up toys or staring into lights.
A
diagnosis of Autism is often complicated by other medical conditions that the
child may also have. For example my son James is Autistic and he has ADHD and
frontal lobe damage.
Let
me say that I am not a doctor or even an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder)
Specialist. I have a double major in Psychology (Batchelor of Arts from the
University of Tasmania) and I am a qualified Librarian. (Graduate Diploma of
Librarianship from the University of Tasmania). This book is designed to give
parents a series of tests that they can do on their child to assess whether or
not their child is on the Autistic spectrum.
Once
you feel confident that your child has a number of Autistic behaviors you must
go to see an ASD Specialist and start treatment. The earlier an ASD child
begins therapy the better the chances are that the child’s behaviors can be
improved.
A
word of warning – there is no cure for Autism and no miracle pill to take but
help is out there and as a parent you must become your child’s advocate. You
have to be active and testing your child to see if they are Autistic is the
first step to empowering yourself and helping your child.
Below
are a list of tests designed to see if your child is Autistic. The ASD Behavior
Checklist is the final test listed and it was designed by me. I have done
extensive research and 267 autistic behaviors are in the test. Your child will
not have every autistic behavior listed but it will give you a comprehensive
list of behaviors that are on the ASD spectrum and this test is I feel an
invaluable tool to use to see where your child’s problem areas are and to
determine how severe you feel they are. I know as a parent I went to see many
doctors about my son’s odd and out of control behaviors and I was so stressed
that I often couldn’t give a clear view of the range of behaviors my son had
that were “not normal”. By using the ASD Behavior Checklist you will walk in to
an ASD specialist with a clear summary of what you feel your child’s problems
are. So let’s begin.
At the time of writing this book
there is no one test that can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that a child has
Autism. However there are a number of tests that have been successful in
indicating that a child probably does have an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Here are some tests that you can look at.
CHAT is a checklist of Autism in
Toddlers from 18 months onwards. CHAT was designed in the UK where sixteen
thousand children were given the CHAT checklist. 12 children failed the test.
Ten of these children were later diagnosed with Autism; the remaining two had
significant developmental delay. Another 22 children failed some key points of
the test. 15 of these children were found to have some kind of developmental
delay. You can find the CHAT CHECKLIST here:
To discover the ten tests that you can use to see if your
child is Autistic get your copy of HOW TO TEST YOUR CHILD TO SEE IF THEY ARE
AUTISTIC today!
Warmest regards
Virinia Downham
