kids

With lots of love and patience. There will be hard times raising a child with autism, and its important to be patient.

Truly with lots of Love, Patience and Prayer. All I can say, is remember that this does not mean the worst, and it is how you choose to accept and portray this from here. I think there are a lot more opportunities and help out there now for things like this that can benefit, so if this is really what is wrong, just do some research and maybe find a place to get involved with others dealing in these type of medical issues as well.

I will be Praying for you and your daughter, and wishing the best indeed.

It takes alot of paitence, love, and catering to. My on was diagnosed with ADHD and RAD. He is 9 soon to be 10 next month and we just simply have to really moniter him and make sure he takes his meds. If anyone saw my son they would never be able to tell anything is wrong with him for he acts like a perfectly normal chils and is loveing as can be. We just make sure he knows that we really care and think he's extra special. When I first found out about all this that the doctor had diagnosed my sonwith I was in total disbelief I didn't want to hear such things about my son for who would about their own child. I did some reading up on what conditions he had and they gave some tips on how to deal with kids with RAD and ADHD. As for your daghter haveing ADHD and Autisim it can be very hard some days I'm sure to know her every mood and how to help her when she is mad. I have seen some autisim kids and they just amaze me on what they can do their so smart and you just watch their actions and can't believe they have it. Try reading up online about this and see what they have to say for like I said befor I'm still takeing in lots of information on what RAD and ADHD is and learning how to help my own son in these areas. I have information that was sent to me on this kind of thing your daughter and my son both have. It goes through different areas of different diagnoses such as our kids have and explain about them and how to handle the situation. Let me try and find that site for you and I will get back to you on that. For the mean time just give her lots of catering and love.

http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer this site should help you with your problems. My sister works with autism kids & she said this site is really helpful...Lori

Well Autism && ADHD are way different from eachother... Why didn't they see the signs of Autism sooner? 6 is a little late to be getting a diagnoses... Maybe the medication has something to do with it. Medicated at 2? For what reason was she medicated?

Anyway, lots of love && more love is the answer!

All you need to remember is that she's still the same child you've known and loved for six years, regardless of what her diagnosis is. You're still her mother, and you know her better than anyone.
As far as making home life a little smoother, the key for kids with ADHD as well as kids with autism (or both, I guess!) is to give them structure, and always let them know what is happening next. If you can, implement a daily routine, and make a picture schedule that your daughter can look at to see what is coming next. It often helps if she can interact with it. A lot of people choose to create, cut out, and laminate pictures of all of the different activities a child will go through in a day. For instance, a picture for getting dressed, for eating meals, for going to school, and for any unusual events such as doctor's appointments or playdates. You can attach velcro strips to each of these pictures. Each morning you can set up the schedule with whatever pictures are needed. As the events are finished, the child can take the picture off of the schedule, put it away, and look to see what happens next. Its just a simple thing that helps kids feel like they have control and knowledge over what is going on. There are other things you can do, such as keeping directions to your child short... such as saying, "Shoes on" instead of "go find your shoes and put them on," and doing sensory activities with your child. There is a whole lot out there, too much for me to put in this little post. But the most important thing is, this is YOUR kid, YOU love her, YOU know her best, and whether she has autism or ADHD or IcklePickeDisease or whatever, she's still the same kid she was before she got diagnosed.
Good luck!