An example of good parenting

[Guest guest]

From the article posted by :

"

But Mrs King said she was similar to Rosie in that they are both very active and chatty. "We obviously kept an eye on Rosie because of her siblings' conditions, but when she blurted that out we took her straight to the specialist for some tests," she said.Mrs King and her husband, a civil engineer, started the ball rolling by taking Rosie to see a speech therapist, child psychologist and behavioural therapist.Rosie was officially diagnosed with mild Asperger's syndrome in August last year after a year-long process [end quote]."

They kept an eye on Rosie knowing that their other two children had developmental delays. Rather than assume that the child's differences meant that she needed a labell, they accepted her as she is while maintaining a vigilant eye for potential difficulties. That's good parenting.

The child self-diagnosed and because a child cannot diagnose AS accurately any more than an adult who is not a medical practitioner familiar with AS can diagnose accurately, the appropriate thing for the parents to do was to involve medical practitioners who are in well-versed in identifying and/or diagnosing AS.

When a child is assessed for AS, a thorough "psychosocial" evaluation is performed. This includes a careful history of when symptoms were first recognized, the child's development of motor skills and language patterns, and other aspects of personality and behavior (including favorite activities, habits that are not similar in nature or intensity as peers, preoccupations, et al).

The medical professionals would have taken into account the fact that there are two other children in the family with development delays and they would have investigated whether some of Rosie's differences were due to assimilating some of the behaviours of the other two children or if Rosie's differences were separate and apart from the influence of the behaviours of her siblings.

That the parents had Rosie seen by a speech therapist, a child psychologist and a behaviour therapist shows that they took their daughter's feelings and assessments seriously. They did not negate or minimize their daughter's announcement. That, too, is good parenting.

It took a year for Rosie to be given a diagnosis of AS. A year. The parents did not immediately jump on the AS bandwagon without first having their daughter thoroughly tested. After all, with such a rare diagnosis as Kabuki in the family, it was possible that Rosie might be diagnosed with something other than AS entirely. That it took a full year before the final diagnosis was made shows that the parents were intent on correctly identifying what, if anything, was going on with Rosie. And that, too, is good parenting.

There were complicating factors regarding the self-diagnosis of AS.

Rosie is very social and interacts with others well according to the article. This is not common for Aspies.

Rosie's conversations do not all revolve around herself as indicated in the article. This is not common for Aspies.

Rosie's speech patterns do not feel scripted, robotic or repetitive. This is not common for Aspies.

Rosie does well in school which is not consistent with the difficulties most Aspies experience in school with regards to reading, math or writing skills. In fact, she has written a number of books and does well in school according to the reporter.

An excellent parent does not jump to conclusions but rather, upon hearing that his or her child feels there is something very different about himself or herself, takes the necessary steps to help the child find his or her place in this world and to feel good about that place.

Now, how any of that can be misconstrued inappropriate parenting is beyond any reasonable person's understanding.

Raven