Receiving an Autism Spectrum Diagnosis

Pastor Jimmy Bartz talks about receiving an autism diagnosis for his son
Autism Advice | Receiving an autism spectrum diagnosis
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Receiving an Autism Spectrum Diagnosis

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How did I deal with my child's Autism diagnosis? Very slowly. I remember like it was yesterday the first day we received that news, that our son, Jas, was in fact Autistic and dealing with this genetic disorder that causes Autism called Fragile X Syndrome. For a long period of time, I was in the state of denial, not that he was Autistic, or that he had special needs, because we had already faced of some level of his disability in our day to day lives as parents. But the flood of information that comes when you receive a diagnosis like Autism Spectrum Disorder is not something that you necessarily need to engage in my opinion as a parent right away. There's time. There's plenty of time to engage with the consequences of a diagnosis like that. But you do need to give yourself some space as a parent to grieve what you've just learned about your child and to reset and to readjust so that you can fully love your child just for who he or she is.

Pastor Jimmy Bartz talks about receiving an autism diagnosis for his son

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Jimmy Bartz

Priest

Jimmy serves as rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Prior to coming to Jackson, he was the founder and priest at Thad’s, an emergent Episcopal Church in the Santa Monica, California, in the Diocese of Los Angeles. He has also served as the Campus Missioner at the University of Texas in Austin, at All Saints’ in Austin, Texas, and All Saints’ Parish in Beverly Hills, California. He is a graduate the University of Texas at Austin and Virginia Theological Seminary. Presently, he serves as the Chair of the Board of the Episcopal Evangelism Society, and in years past has worked with Red Bull High Performance teaching athletes spiritual disciplines, with Naval Special Warfare working to create systems for character development within special operations teams, and was a speaker at TEDx, Venice Beach.
Married to Cindy and dad to Jas and Jade, the Bartz family loves to spend time outside mountaineering, skiing, fly-fishing, hunting and surfing.  Jimmy is currently writing a book on the spirituality of risk.

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