Life Before and After a Child’s Diagnosis

Check out this blog article from The New York Times, which includes real stories submitted by commenters on their families' journeys post-diagnosis.

For every parent of a child with a disability there is the moment they are given the news. And then there are the years spent responding to it.

Dr. Alberto Costa’s response, as chronicled by Dan Hurley in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine, was to find a medical way to mitigate the effects of Down syndrome.

Most parents are not neuroscientists, though. Their responses are quieter, but certainly no less life-encompassing and passionate.

Labels: Autism

Labels are useful. They're shorthand for what we want to communicate and yet, they often obscure what is really being said. We say things like, "oh, he's schizophrenic," "she's bipolar," "he's an alcoholic," "she's anorexic," "he's blind" and the meaning seems to get conveyed, but does it? After all, that's not all the person is. It's something they have been diagnosed with, perhaps struggling with. It's a medical term, but it does not encompass who and what that person is in their entirety.

When I hear someone describe another person as "autistic" I understand that person has been given a diagnosis of autism, but I don't presume to know much more about them. For example, I won't know if this particular person diagnosed with autism can speak, read or write. They may have other issues, physical impairments or other diagnoses added. These may further illuminate, but the labels begin to overwhelm the actual person.