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Five Reasons You Should Diagnose Your Child


1. Diagnosis should be giving you more flexibility, not less. Some people throw huge fits about putting things on IEPs, for instance, so having it would allow you to put autism-specific needs on the IEP. Whenever you find people who cut things off for you because of a diagnosis, punch them. Just kidding.

2. Please don't assume your kid is fine with something just because they aren't reacting to it. Could be something else is more interesting. Could be they haven't reached their "limit". If you constantly bombard a kid with many small stressors, it's very hard to figure out what actually triggered their eventual meltdown.

3. Allow your kid to be themself. Allow them to be autistic, even when it's tough. Allow them to have unique sensory needs and be overwhelmed when life sucks. They will not always have that room as an adult.

4. To force society to accept autistics, autistics have to accept their label en masse and create space for themselves. The lack of provision of vaccines for people with increased-risk conditions sucks, but guess what, I can't get the vaccine as a healthcare worker because the local place ran out of appointments. There's just not enough vaccines yet, period. They're doing the best they can.

5. Undiagnosed autistic people are at an increased risk of getting hurt by others for their autism, because not only do they get the same ableism but they are expected to follow neurotypical sensory and communication standards. Your sense of how people will respond to a diagnosis in your area is probably the most accurate, but please understand that they will definitely respond that way even without a diagnosis.

Image credit Agung Pandit Wiguna. A child is in focus, sitting on a pastel red cushion and wearing jean overalls, a white patterned sweater, and white shoes. The child is stacking blocks by color. There are also animal figurines and a wooden stegosaurus pull-toy beside the blocks, and the out-of-focus background is formed by a large plush rabbit on top of white and pastel brown blankets draped over something like a bed.

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