How do parents know which autism supports to choose? The number of support programs claiming to help Autistic children is growing constantly; the Raising Children Network indicates that there are over 400 therapies and services currently on offer.
Here are some questions you can use to guide your evaluation of the most appropriate therapy, support program or service for you and your child.
- The Raising Children’s Network has an excellent resource about choosing supports, which covers greater detail
- Autism Awareness Australia also has this useful page on early support options
Based on the Social Attention and Communication Surveillance method, ASDetect is a free mobile app that guides parents through age-appropriate assessments, using videos of Autistic and non-Autistic children to illustrate questions about social communication milestones. Parents receive an on-screen result of either ‘low’ or ‘high’ likelihood of autism, and a comprehensive formal assessment results email, which they can take to their family doctor.
ASDetect identifies the early signs of autism, to help reduce the age at which Autistic children are identified. The younger a child is accurately identified the sooner supports can begin allowing children’s full learning potential to be realised.
Updated in 2023, originally published in 2017.
