Autism Green Flags
Signs you or someone you know might be Autistic and AuSome
I’ve come across some unfortunate websites and company advertisements warning parents to spot the “red flags” of autism.
Spot the signs! They say, as though they’re watching for signs of high or low blood sugar, a stroke, or some other medical emergency.
Except autism isn’t a medical emergency, it’s a neurotype — a way of thinking and being in the world that is different from the majority, not less than the majority.
When companies use terms like “warning signs” and “red flags”, they use fear-mongering to scare parents into seeking treatment and intervention as early as possible — the very interventions and treatments they are selling.
As a neurodivergent parent to a neurodivergent child, I understand the desire to do the absolute best for one’s child. I understand the anxiety, the fear that we’ll miss opportunities to provide our child what he needs at the right time in his life.
Hold up just a minute though
Think back to a time in your child’s life when you couldn’t give them something you felt you “should”. Maybe you couldn’t afford a tutor when they struggled in math, or you couldn’t sign them up for a sport they wanted to play because it…
