Often when parents are given a diagnosis, they can be bum bared with questions. What are we to do now? What will the future look like? How do we best prepare? How Do I Engage My Child? The truth is a lot of these questions will not be answered right away, but there are some important next steps.

First sign up for intervention. Whether this means contacting your local school district for those 3+years old or contacting the Division of Developmental Disabilities for those under the age of three. It is important to engage your child in as many services as possible. This can help you as a parent by providing you with new ideas, giving you a support system, or just helping to define what your child really needs most. This can help your child by giving them more experiences and engaging them further to develop and refine their skills.

Second continue seeing your child not their disability. Each child is different no matter what their abilities. They still have some common needs that will help them to achieve happiness and success in their environment. These needs include being engaged with things in their environment including other people. It can be hard to get past the stereo types. We all have our moments of contributing things to our child’s abilities, but there are somethings all children do. Throwing tantrums top the list, so don’t worry if anyone see your child is acting differently and they have experience parenting, they’ll know enough to give your parenting skills a break.

Lastly, unconditionally love and except your child. It is something everyone needs and as the parent you should be the first to provide this to your child.