Your Child Has Just Received a Diagnosis of Autism. Now What Where Do You Go From Here?

My wife and I asked ourselves this very question when our youngest son was diagnosed with autism in 2005. Our answer to the question was to search the Internet. After we received the diagnosis, we were given no information from the medical establishment as to what the next step should be. We were stunned, confused, and very scared. We knew it sounded bad but we did not even know what autism was. So we did what most people do and that was to search the Internet. The Internet is great. The problem is weeding out the good information from the bad. As of this writing, when I searched for autism on google, I obtained over 87 million pages. My wife and I have learned a lot about the autism spectrum disorders since 2005, but it has been haphazard and unorganized which means we wasted a lot of time. Time is your most valuable resource. We started this website to help you save time in navigating this confusing maze presented soon after a diagnosis of autism. This is time better spent helping your child. We will give you some tidbits of information we have picked up along the way as well as recommendations for some good books and references to help make you more knowledgeable quickly. My wife and I are not medical doctors. We are parents of two children on the autism spectrum. Please always consult a medical professional to help you make informed decisions concerning the health care of your child. Before we get started, we would like to offer you a few words of advice.

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CDC Facts
About Autism

Boys are 4 times
more likely than
girls to be affected
by autism.

Autism occurs in all
socioeconomic and
ethnic groups

The incidence of
autism is on average
1 in 88 children in
the United States

The 1940's refrigerator
mom or poor
parenting theory
as the cause
of autism is not true

Parents who have a child on the autism spectrum have a 2%-8% chance of having another child who is also affected.

80% of parents with an autistic child noticed problems with their child by 24 months. The median age of diagnosis however is between 4.5-5.5 years of age.

The lifetime cost of care for a person with autism is estimated at $3.3 million dollars