Autism and CBT

One of the things I have experienced throughout my growth as a parent is an amazement at how much I find out I can learn through the challenges that come with being a parent of a child on the spectrum.  As hard as it gets when dealing with some of the behaviors and worries, I can still look at my child and still learn something about myself.

Just as an example, let us take our long search for therapies for our child.

In our search, we have found some therapists locally but very low on availability, and we have searched in other towns and we even went so far as going to another state to find a good therapist.   When we could go to the sessions, a majority of the time, the main style of therapy being was always some variation of behaviorism and it would always be up to us to implement the plan.

I did study some psychology when I was in college and I had some exposure to behaviorism in some form throughout my childhood.  Most of the time, the parent has to try to change the behavior by using a system of rewards and scheduling in order to accomplish the goals that the parents have set.  Sometimes, this is successful and sometimes not. 

Speaking for myself, I found behaviorism to be a bit distasteful, simply because to me, it felt like I was simply trying to control the behavior of my child from the outside in hopes that one day, my child would be able to be in control later on as an adult. I also find it distasteful because it felt so much like the manipulation I faced as a child coming from both sides of a broken family.  Being manipulated usually hurts in the long run and out can do lasting damage.

I had a different view. Using CBT(cognitive behavioral therapy),I feel that my child could gain insight into themselves, they could learn how to use that knowledge and adapt to the world and they would gain strength in self-knowledge.  I certainly learned a lot when I was going through CBT and as I continue to work with my child, I will continue to learn even more.

We did find a good therapist as it happens and we are using CBT in this case.  This gives our child a more active part in the process and I have noticed a lot of improvement in communication.