Monday, November 4, 2013

Autism Inclusion - Parents Need to Know About Raising a Self-Advocate

One of the side benefits of Autism Inclusion is our children learning to be Self-Advocates. A self advocate is someone who knows how and when to make their wants, needs, and opinions know. Parents do not realize how important this will be in the long term.Letting our children see us advocating for them as early as possible it important. Parents are the first models and teachers for their children. This is also true for children with Autism. If we want our children to be able to advocate they need to see us do it.Whether it is advocating for services or modifications in school or advocating for medical services it is important for our children to see us do it. Some children will get upset so we might need to have plans for an aide or family member to be ready to take our child out of the situation.Later in life our children will start mimicking what we do. This might be annoying when they do it with us but is critical for long term. It is also not surprising that a child with Autism would advocate with us first because we are safe.Later in life our children will be able to tell people in the world what they want or need. They will even be able to do it when they know other people do not agree if they have seen parents and others do it. When we as parents are gone this will be an important daily living skill our child will need.