ASD stands for Autism Spectrum Disorder and Tanya Curtis, Senior Behaviour Specialist and founding director of FABIC Behaviour Specialist Centre, explains that the way to parent a child with ASD is not that different from the way we would parent any other child. Why? Parenting means to support a person to develop the skills to be part of life in whatever life presents. As such, there is no ASD parenting and nor are there any ASD parenting strategies necessarily. The only difference is that a person with an Autism Spectrum Disorder comes with a list of life skills that usually require more attention and focus.
Whether it be a child with ASD or without, parenting is still the same in that we are raising people to be part of life, fully committed to all that life presents and live their full potential. A child with an ASD may find it more difficult to interact or socialise with their peers, so require just more focus to develop their social skills.
In a nutshell, we are all here to raise and support children and each other to be a part of life and develop the skills to deal with whatever life presents at any given moment. And this applies whether a child or young adult has a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder or not.
This video may be useful for those searching for the following:
- Parenting children with ASD
- ASD parenting courses
- ASD parenting strategies
What to watch next:
And for a deeper dive into all things LASTING behaviour change with FABIC:
- A whole section of the FABIC website is devoted to autism, including a free poster on behaviour
- The FABIC Autism Series includes 15 episodes including optional professional development assessments and can be purchased here, as a package or single episodes
- This free video on autism
- There is also a FABIC newsletter entirely devoted to Autism Spectrum Disorder
