by Crystal Cook

Created on: March 10, 2007   Last Updated: March 06, 2008

The knowledge and insight I have attained over the past eighteen years working with the school system, medical professionals and society in general has allowed me to put many things into perspective. I see certain aspects of life in a way I may not have seen them had my life taken any other direction. I have been blessed with four children, each of whom has what has been deemed a "label". We choose to call it a diagnosis.

In my experience, receiving a diagnosis was the greatest gift ever given to my children. I don't care much for the term "label", but if my kids are to be labeled to get the services they need then so be it. I simply don't see a down side to it. I know there are parents that may not agree with me but if a child is to receive the services and benefits they may need, those in the position of providing said services have to know just why they need it.

Without the word "autistic" on my son's IEP we would have never received the occupational therapy he needed or the speech services and behavior modification therapy when he needed it. He would have been placed in the wrong classroom settings. Now that he is eighteen it will allow him to receive SSI benefits and medical aide, it will help him meet his goals of higher education and obtain job assistance and training so he may have the future he deserves.

Without those labels so many fear my children would not be in the wonderful schools they are in. Before, when their IEPs simply said Learning Disabled or PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disability not otherwise specified) they had very limited resources available to them. They needed much more than they were being allowed within the school system.

My son can explain it better than I, he will be graduating high school this year and he has an autistic spectrum disorder. He is high functioning and quite limited at the same time. Thanks to his diagnosis he was afforded the opportunity to learn and thrive and prepare for the future that awaits him. The following are his words. He actually has volumes to say on the subject, this is but a sampling of his thoughts.

"First of all, a label is something on a soup can or a bottle of aspirin. I don't know why people started calling a diagnosis a label. If a person is autistic then people need to know that. Even if they are on the highest end of the spectrum they deserve to have any services they may need, even if it is at some point in the future, such as financial help, transportation and job services. They cannot

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