Diagnosis

Get your child diagnosed as early as possible. Find services and advocate for them. This will not only help them, but it will make your life better also.

The earlier the diagnosis the better, 95% are first misdiagnosed as having ADHD. Get as many other diagnoses as possible, so you can learn parenting techniques specific to the diagnosis, also it will help them to be illegible for services both now and later in their life.

It really helped my wife to find out one of our children was functioning at a 4.5 year old level even though he was 12. That meant his behaviors were age equivalent. It meant he was not lying in bed at night trying to think of ways to sabotage the family.

Some people say, “Don’t label my kid.” One person even said to me one time, “Why would I want to get my son diagnosed.” It is better for them to have a FASD label which will help them to get services, than to be labeled a trouble maker, a dropout, a sex offender, a criminal, or even dead.

I remember reading a brochure about an older boy just diagnosed. In the brochure he said he was relieved because now he understood why he had been the way he was, and now maybe he could get help.

Someone asked me if our children knew they had Fetal Alcohol. I said yes. They then asked how old are they when we tell them. Our kids grow up hearing it. I teach them about FASD and how to live their lives how to function with this diagnosis.

It is very hard on a child’s self esteem to always be told no, to always be getting in trouble, to be different. They need to learn how to deal with their FASD.

So, get them diagnosed as early as possible, then use that diagnosis to help them.