Cure vs. Care

Often, in the discussion of Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders, parents focus on curing the condition. As a family member of a child on the Autism Spectrum, I too would love to see an end to the condition but the timing of such a cure is well beyond our control. What do we do in the meantime?

While we are waiting and hoping for a cure, we have to be mindful that we cannot wait to help our children. We need to come up with strategies to help our children grow and flourish today.  Many of parents will join various support groups where the talk is focused primarily on dietary supplements and dietary adjustments which are entirely valid approaches to dealing with this disorder. My feeling is that we need to consider marrying those approaches with aggressive interventions in the area of our children's academic and social development. That is as important if not more so, in my humble opinion, than the dietary changes.


I'm sure many parents are already working in this area, but so little is written about it that I thought to put it out there explicitly. A cure may one day be available to us, but in the meantime, we must prepare our children to be contributing members of society and to do that, they must be well-prepared for every grade and every challenge the education system will throw at them. More than this, by helping them to perform better we limit the number of situations that frustrate them and bring out less than stellar behavior. Academic success will feed your child's self esteem and who wouldn't want that?