Listen to Everyone

Two years ago I started running and in my usual obsessive manor I ate running I slept running, I read books on running. Now I stumbled across an ultra-runner called Dean Karnazes http://www.ultramarathonman.com/web/ and he used a quote which said ‘Listen to everyone and follow no one’ and what he was driving at is in the field of running you will get plenty of advice on what to do i.e. nutrition, stretching weight training and so on and by all means listen to this advice but what you have to do is cherry pick the stuff that works for you, there is no one approach

This got me thinking that this is exactly like in the world of autism. Everyone will be offering you advice, including this blog and what you have to do is sift through all the information given and find what works for you and your family. A clinical psychologist called Bo Hejlskov Elvén http://www.hejlskov.se/indexeng.html says that “with each child no matter what we do, we need to find the right tool. If we have the right tool we can do anything”.

By all means listen to professionals but understand that professionals are trapped within the boundaries of their own job, they are a tool (sometimes in more ways than one) and also have their own prejudices and approaches. The only person that can you truly rely on is yourself with regards to child's well-being. Remember that to everyone else your child is a mere number or statistic, you will meet some professionals who step up beyond this but these are few and far between. Remember you know best.