Solutions to Support Autistic Children & Youth

1. Work with Your Primary Care Provider

Your child’s primary care provider (PCP) can help guide you from diagnosis to understanding and treating related conditions. In early childhood, PCPs use screening tools to see if there is a concern for autism.

Your child’s PCP may also help rule out medical concerns that can look like autism. Your child’s PCP can help with related conditions that sometimes appear, like gastrointestinal problems, nutrition issues, problems with sleep and motor delays.

Learn how to bring up a concern.

2. Find a Mental Health Professional

In addition to diagnosing autism, mental health professionals can help your child to build coping and/or life skills and manage medications. Some examples of the types of professionals who work with autistic children and youth include psychologists, counselors, social workers, behavior specialists and psychiatrists.

Learn how to choose a mental health provider to work with your family (guide) (podcast) or see some of the ways mental health professionals support autistic children with this podcast.

3. Take s Strengths Approach

Autistic people are sometimes described as neurodivergent, meaning that their brains work differently from the way our culture expects. This can make it hard to “fit in” with peers and may lead to problems at school or in the community. Understanding your child’s strengths can help you to advocate and build your child’s self-advocacy skills.

Learn about neurodiversity and autistic strengths from an autistic adult in this podcast.

4. Support Communication Goals

“Persistent challenges in social communication” is a core part of autism, but this can look different from person to person. Speech and language pathologists (SLPs) can help identify communication goals and work with your child building language, using alternative communication tools, understanding written communication, building social skills and more.

Search the provider directory for speech therapists or listen to this podcast to learn more about supporting your child’s unique voice.

5. Try Social Skills Training

Many autistic children struggle with social skills. This happens for a lot of reasons, including communication differences, delayed development in executive function (EF), difficulties paying attention to social cues, managing impulse control to take turns and not interrupt, and so on. Many families benefit from speech therapy or counseling (where children can learn social skills 1:1), social skills groups or parent education on social skills.

Search the provider directory for speech therapists, counselors or social skills groups or listen to this podcast to learn more about social skills in neurodivergent children.

6. Add Structure, Routines and Visuals

Autistic children can be overly rigid in activities or may struggle with executive function (EF). Using structure, routines and visuals can reduce anxiety, help with planning and provide another communication tool for children.

Learn more about executive function with this guide, understand how structure helps with this podcast or check out this how-to guide to get started creating your own visual schedule.

7. Use a Sensory Diet

Many autistic children have sensory differences. These differences can make ordinary experiences overwhelming. Some children don’t get enough sensory input and may seek sensory experiences to help organize their bodies and minds. A sensory diet, usually developed by an occupational therapist (OT) can help you to offer the right sensory experiences when your child needs them.

Explore this guide to learn more about sensory differences, listen to this podcast to learn about your child’s sensory bucket or search the provider directory for occupational therapists.

8. Support Yourself with Parent Training

Many families find that they have to change their approach when parenting an autistic child. Parent training programs like Triple-P, Incredible Years or Behavioral Parent Training can help you to set consistent limits and manage your child’s behavior effectively.

You can learn more about some of the parent training programs available with this guide or attend a Behavior Chat program to learn new tools and connect with other families.

9. Solve Problems Collaboratively

Many autistic children have challenging behaviors. These kids would do well if they could, but often have not developed the skills they need to succeed. Families who solve problems collaboratively with their children are able to work on developing these skills while improving challenging behaviors.

Learn more about Ross Greene’s Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS) model or listen to a podcast about CPS.

10. Communicate with School

Apart from time spent at home, children spend most of their time at school. Having good communication with your child’s school team can help school staff to support your child. Some autistic children may also benefit from special education services.

Learn how to communicate better with your child’s school (guide) (podcast) or discover how to get started with special education.