Where is my child on the spectrum video transcript

Hello! In this video we will try to answer the question of “Where is my child on the spectrum?” which we are almost always asked by parents at diagnosis.

You understandably want to know as much as possible about your child’s presentation. The trouble is that the description of a spectrum suggests it is a simple line from Point A – a little bit of autism, to point B – a lot of autism.

Actually, the reality is more complicated. The reason for this is that children vary on a large number of different characteristics. It can help to think of it more like the colour spectrum, where each colour represents a different characteristic or trait.

For example, traits such as sensory needs, communication, preference for familiarity or sameness, or ability to understand other people are all represented by a different colour.

 

We could add colours for many more different traits, including things which can vary greatly amongst autistic children, but are not part of their diagnosis, such as learning level or cognitive ability, and emotional regulation.

Children might show more of some traits but less of others for example, meaning that they each have their own unique pattern of characteristics.

For example, some children that we diagnose are using full sentences but demonstrate a very strong preference for familiarity and sameness that can make life challenging for them, whereas others that do not speak may show more flexibility and therefore less behaviour that indicates distress or which challenges others.

In other words, speaking does not always mean that your child needs less support.

The degree to which a child demonstrates traits in each area can also change depending on the situation. 

Children might present differently in school or at nursery for example compared to at home.

They can also present differently over time, so while they may show one combination of strengths and difficulties now, this may look quite different when they are in secondary school.

Autism is a lifelong condition, so they will always show some combination of differences in the main areas that we discussed in our video called “What is Autism?”, but the degree to which they are affected by different aspects of it is likely to change over time as they learn and progress.
All this variation is the reason why we often say “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism”. Your child is a unique individual just as much as they would be if they weren’t autistic.

For this reason, it’s very difficult for us to answer the question of where your child is on the spectrum as it is neither linear nor static. A child may be strong in one area but have lots of needs in another.

Instead, when we write our reports, we describe your child’s individual pattern of strengths and needs at the current time, as this will help nursery or school staff to best understand how to support them as an individual.

Broadly speaking we describe the level of support they need at the moment as either high, moderate or low. You will find this description on your child’s assessment report. This description only describes their needs at the time of assessment. If your child has high needs now, it does not necessarily mean they will continue to need a high level of support throughout life.

Thank you so much for taking the time to watch this video from the social communication team.

 

We really hope that you have found it useful.

Thank you.