Autism and Our Military Family

Being in the militay is intresting all on it's own, but there are special chalanges when you add a family member with autism. The one thing you learn when your husband our wife joins the military is that you all joined with them, the whole family. You may not wear the uniform, but you make sacrafices on a day to day basis. Your life changes as well as their's does. It involves moving constantly and lots of changes, often at times sudden changes. Deployments, TDYs (short training trips), and PCS (moving to a new base). When you have a family member with Autism, these three things are a nightmare... more changes. There also come with some rescrictions depending on the base your are at or the state you now call home. Some states have rules about daycare and children with disabilities, some bases have the same things. You may run into a base that has to have a hospital clearance for your child to be in a family daycare provider on base. You can try to call ahead of time to prepare things before you arrive, but some things they want to have a meeting for. You never really know, but it's always good to ask.

What to do if we found out our child has Autism and we're in the military?

Take a deep breath, most likely your base doctor gave you a referal to a developmental pediatrician. Otherwise, it'll be out of pocket expenses, and trust me it's not cheap.Once you have your paperwork from the developmental pediatrican with your diagnosis, go to Life Skills. (We're Air Force, so it may be called something else for the other branches) You can get the phone number for you Life Skills office from the base operator or your pediatrician should have it. Life SKills will set you up with the person at your base who runs the EFMP (Exeptional Family Member Program), they very recently changed the name to something else, but they should know what you are talking about. You enroll your family member in this program to ensure the military knows what bases won't suit the needs of your family member.

What happens if we have a Deployment or TDY or PCS?

Go with the flow. Part of being a military family is knowing you will have to do these things at some point at least once. If you have a therapist your family member sees often or school teacher, ask them for help or advice. They would know best. Most likely they have worked with a lot of other military families and can share some tips. The next best place for help would be your Family Support center on your base.

Autism Home Page