For anyone reading this, having kids that are not neurotypical is an incredibly, unimaginably hard thing to go through and society is not set up to offer much assistance at all. Having neurotypical, healthy kids is hard enough. Having kids who are not that is such a difficult life. Please be compassionate towards people who are going through this.
My wife is a Neurodevelopment expert who specializes in autism and the amount of families she meets who are just desperate and broken is incredibly sad. These people need your help and your compassion.
I agree that parents of autistic kids struggle and deserve compassion. But I would like to gently remind that autistic kids are just kids with more support needs. We need to make sure that when we talk about this that its not the kids or their neurotype that makes the parents lives difficult but poverty, lack of support, limited clinical understanding of autism, organisations with alterior motives and barriers to access healthcare. If their parent is struggling the autistic kid is struggling more. Its always going to be harder on the kids themselves and we need to remember that. Autism isn't what "breaks" families, its the lack of understanding, healthcare and support that does.
That seems to be a false dichotomy to me. Why can't it be both that signficantly contribute? Of course with the degree to which each aspect contributes varying in each situation.
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u/batwork61 16d ago
For anyone reading this, having kids that are not neurotypical is an incredibly, unimaginably hard thing to go through and society is not set up to offer much assistance at all. Having neurotypical, healthy kids is hard enough. Having kids who are not that is such a difficult life. Please be compassionate towards people who are going through this.
My wife is a Neurodevelopment expert who specializes in autism and the amount of families she meets who are just desperate and broken is incredibly sad. These people need your help and your compassion.