I’d love to say that once your children or you receive an autism/ADHD diagnosis you’ll have access to all these resources, support and therapies but the reality is you’re sent off on your way down the yellow brick road, into the munchkin world to go and find the wizard to make all your wishes come true. 

As a mum who has 4/5 kids diagnosed or waiting for a diagnosis and recently diagnosed ADHD myself, my advice to you is start now. That help isn’t coming once they’ve got a diagnosis, waiting will only set you back, the best person to help you and your children is you. 

If you can afford therapies or coaches, do it! Find a good one, that works for you/your child and go for it but not everyone can, so here’s where I would start…

You need to turn into a detective, expect this isn’t some seedy murder mystery that my autistic brain can spot the pattern of instantly and guess the murderer (diagnosis murder, murder she wrote, midsummer murders, etc - predictable, yet still love them!). 

No, this is very complex, this is trying to understand why your child/you are having a meltdown and we’re going to need to do some serious reverse engineering.

Now, we’re going to call it meltdown but this can be anything from just snapping when the dog barks, to being scared and running away at an event, to shutting down and hiding under the table when the door goes. 

I want to teach you my SPAT system to help you:

Stop - no talking, simplify language, stop any kind of demand.

Process - take time to note it down, identify triggers there’s and yours.

Assemble - put together a meltdown tool kit, ways to help you both regulate.

Train - practice, role play out situations when you’re calm this will help you to be more able to tap into them when you’re in the heat of the moment. 

If you want to learn more about the SPAT method you can sign up to get my free mini series straight to your inbox explaining each part in detail, just click here

Speak soon, stay connected.