Laura Shumaker’s son Matthew has autism. When he turned 22 and moved from his special school in Pennsylvania back to California, she needed to find him a new doctor, new psychiatrist, a social skills professional, a dentist and a barber who “got” him.
A writer and autism advocate, Laura wrote, “I'd worked so hard since he was first diagnosed to build a team of specialists that I could trust, and to fine tune his treatment through his many stages. The idea of starting from scratch once again seemed daunting.”
Kristina Matthiesen’s son was 3 when he got diagnosed in Texas, just ten days before the family had to move to Georgia. “For the first 5 months I didn’t know where to go, or who to network and connect with,” she explains. “I knew my son needed help, I just didn’t know where to get it.”
This is a familiar dilemma for all parents of children with autism, and is the inspiration behind MyAutismTeam (www.myautismteam.com.)
MyAutismTeam is a free site where parents of children with autism connect and share referrals on great autism providers, as well as tips and support on making life on the spectrum better. On it you can:
- Search for parents near you who have children with the same diagnosis, developmental needs and age.
- Browse the teams of providers they rely on. An “autism team” includes all of the providers and services that make life on the spectrum better. It includes specialists such as ABA therapists, OTs, SLTs, and developmental pediatricians, as well every-day life providers such as autism-friendly dentists, barbers, eye doctors, school districts and even swim instructors and piano teachers. Many parents like Sharon of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Jennifer of Redwood City, CA, or James of West Haven, UT have large teams that include both medical and non-medical providers.
- Ask questions and share tips – You can see the live feed of all discussions happening on the site at any time. Ask questions to specific parents or post updates letting people know how you’re day is going.
- Search for & Add Providers to our database of over 30,000 autism providers and autism-friendly businesses. The important thing is that this database is “living”. You can add providers you know of and recommend. Hundreds of new providers get added every week by parents joining the site.
MyAutismTeam seems to have struck a chord with thousands of other parents in the autism community. Within 12 weeks of our June launch, over 4,000 parents had joined the site and the MyAutismTeam Facebook page had over 10,000 fans.
We hope the site will make it easy for parents to find great providers for their kids. You’re not alone and you shouldn’t have to re-invent the wheel. We are driven by your feedback. Please join MyAutismTeam and let us know what you think!
We hope the site will make it easy for parents to find great providers for their kids. You’re not alone and you shouldn’t have to re-invent the wheel. We are driven by your feedback. Please join MyAutismTeam and let us know what you think!
Eric Peacock is the Co-Founder and General Manager of MyAutismTeam. He is the uncle of a nephew with Asperger’s. Eric lives in San Carlos, CA with his wife Karen and two kids, Jack & Katie. You can follow him on Twitter at @ejpeacock.
2 comments:
Many thanks to Spectrum Hope & your great community of readers. We've been thrilled to see how many of you joined MyAutismTeam and started connecting with each other!
Humm, i checked that site out and I guess it was just more friendly for ADULTS with ASD or for people in my position of trying to get help for a spouse with ASD. :-( I might join all the same, but what happens when all these autistic kids grow up- are there networks for them and their changing families? I like the sight all the same. I will have to pass it on to my friend who has a child with ASD and just moved to our area....
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