Raising a child is a challenge. Raising a child with an illness or disability such as autism is a journey with unprecedented struggles along the way. According to the Autism Society of America (ASA), autism is a complex developmental disability that affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that autism affects one in 150 children, with a higher concentration among male children, where one in 94 boys are affected.
    Autism Speaks, a nonprofit organization devoted to autism, indicates that autistic children may have impaired communication, social and cognitive skills, very rigid routines and repetitive behaviors. Since autism affects individual children to unpredictable degrees, methods for caring for an autistic child should be adapted to the individual child’s strengths, weaknesses and needs. There are many resources for parents to help them provide care for a child with autism. The ASA can equip parents of newly diagnosed autistic children with the tools and information they need to treat the condition.
    Many children who have autism and other medical issues have difficulty relating their medical needs to school or medical personnel. Many children are either too young or lack the ability to properly articulate their needs, especially during an urgent medical situation.
“Parents need to ensure that their child’s personal medical information is available in an emergency situation,” says Martin Kabat, Ph.D., president and CEO of MedicAlert Foundation International. “This will give them comfort and peace of mind, knowing that their child’s health will not be endangered due to insufficient information when it is
needed most.”
    One of the tools available to parents that can help protect autistic children in an emergency is the MedicAlert Kid Smart program. MedicAlert, a nonprofit foundation,
has been managing and communicating critical medical information on behalf of its millions of members since 1956. The MedicAlert Kid Smart program ensures that children’s medical records are immediately available to emergency responders to help with their treatment decisions.
    MedicAlert’s 24-hour emergency response personnel also help identify children
who are involved in emergencies or lost and notify designated family members and caregivers of the situation. Children with autism have the tendency to act on impulse
and may wander away from their caretakers, making identification and family notification critical when a child is found.
    Parents should take advice from the ASA in remembering that in an emergency situation involving the health of their child, it is important to remain calm. Children have the ability to sense and copy your emotional state. There is no reason to make them worry. It is more beneficial to teach them how to calmly respond to a given situation.
For more information about autism and other children’s conditions, visit www.medicalert.org/kidsmart.