Author: Rebecca Manari| November 8th 2022
Doctors: Listen UP!
As a parent advisor I recently had a conversation with a parent of a three-year-old Sienna.
The mother was quite distraught, having just learned recently that her child is Autistic. Her daughter also has epilepsy, a neurological condition that causes the child to have seizures often.
Because of the condition – of epilepsy, the family had been in and out of hospitals and had visited scores of doctors over many months to get her the best possible treatment to control her seizures.
All the time, Sienna’s mother was continually concerned about her child’s lack of speech and communication. She voiced her concerns to many of the doctors, who didn’t seem to notice or worry, that anything else was wrong.
Perhaps the doctors were only focused on epilepsy and prioritized having Sienna seizure-free. This probably left little time or attention to taking notice of the mother’s concerns. Having mentioned her concern to doctors at every step of the way, nobody acknowledged her concerns or cared to look into them much. None of the doctors decided to have Sienna assessed for her speech delay.
Fortunately, the parents were eventually guided to Sethu by somebody else, and that is how Sienna finally got the help and support that she was due. It’s worth mentioning here the importance of doctors and their roles in helping identify children with possible developmental delays. The timely identification of these children can help get children the support that they need and get it sooner rather than later. That can make a world of a difference to many families.
Want to know more from our Parent Advisors on ASD? Parents are welcome to reach out to [email protected] or [email protected] – we welcome feedback and suggestions on Sethu’s current services and how together we can help provide new and researched based services for our children and give the timely necessary support for parents. For more information on our Parent Advisors at Sethu. You can connect with The People Team from Tuesday to Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm on +91-7720013749 or email us at [email protected].