A friend of mine's son has been recently diagnosed as Autistic. I really don't have more information about where on the spectrum he falls because she is still reeling from the diagnosis and I don't want to bombard her with questions.

This diagnosis comes at the end of a 2 year search for what has been going on with her son, who has just turned 3. He is clearly a bright boy and incredibly sweet, and they have been working with an array of drs to try to get some answers for what didn't seem quite right. Up until the point of the diagnosis, they were looking at completely physical causes (and I think they had already considered and dismissed autism as a possibility).

Anyway, what can I do to help my friend? What can I say? How can I help? I know there isn't much I can do to help, but is there anything?

Hmmm. It is a hard question. I am trying to think of what my friends have done to help me specifically. I think mostly they just accept Saxon include him in invitations. They did say they were sorry when he was first diagnosed. Some friends have given me the numbers of their friends who also have autistic kids or their relatives who work with autistic kids. This is sort of helpful except that I feel weird about calling strangers and obligated since they gave me the info. kwim?

I guess they are just supportive.

For your friend there are a lot of support groups around online. I am on a local list of parents in the school district. I am also on a Hyperlexia list(kids who read early). It is fun to see other people going through the same thing.

What I thought when we found out that something wasn't right with Saxon was that having a diagnosis didn't change him, he is still the same boy that I love.

In hindsight I wish I had jumped into getting help from him with both feet. Because the earlier they get services the more plastic their brains are. I was reluctant to have him go 5 days/week at age 2 but he could have taken it, it was me being scared.

This (http://www.floortime.org/) is the therapy we are working on with Saxon. We use a local doctor. I assume your friend is in GA.

Hope this helps. :)

Thanks, Stacey. It does help.

I think Stacey is right about just being supportive. Make sure you include your friend's child in the ways you normally would with any other kid. You may want to ask if there is anything you can do. If you have them come to your home, you may want to ask if there's any special considerations that you need to think about first (but you probably already know about these things).

Also, what Stacey said about getting help early is immensely important. The earlier you get help, the better. And that is a huge understatement! There are lots of different treatments for autistic kids and some are very controversial. Just be supportive of her and be there if she needs to talk.

How did it go with your friend Sheila?

:lol: It is sort of funny that I'm stumbling on this question right now, because I just dropped her off after taking her out to a friend's graduation .

Vicki is doing well. They are moving on from the research/diagnosis stage to the therapy/action stage, so they are happy about that. Matthew is still a great kid, and they are happy that they are learning and working to help him as best they can.

Things are still hard, and her heart is still breaking because she is losing so much of her son on a daily basis, but they are moving forward and trying to see the good things instead of focusing on the negative.

So far, we haven't gotten the kids together, but I've gotten to see Vicki 2x recently, so that has been good. And I've been able to offer up a couple contacts to help her get in touch with the right people, which has been good for both of us.

Thanks for asking!