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The original was posted on /r/autism by /u/Sorry_University_811 on 2023-08-11 19:32:49.

My cousin (7 years old) is very obviously autistic. I am autistic myself so I noticed it a couple years ago and told her parents, they completely brushed it off because they think autistic = dumb (they also ignored my own diagnose but I’m 24 so whatever). The troubles began when she started school and she couldn’t keep up with the rest of the kids; I tried to talk them into getting her a different, personalized kind of education, once again, didn’t listen. So now my cousin is at a point where I can tell school is really affecting her self-esteem as the conventional education system isn’t working for her. She can’t read and can barely write, I’ve told her parents a million times that they need to get her a private tutor that specializes on autism. Instead they got a yes-man child psychologist who just gave them an ADHD diagnose and the most bare-minimum therapies (I’ve had to sit through them with her).

That is one issue, another issue and the one that concerns me the most, is that her parents are turning straight up abusive as they refuse to accept her as she is and therefore don’t take the time to look into it; she stims a lot, has a lot of sensory triggers, no filter during casual conversations and they see it as an “attitude” fault, so they yell at her, tell her to stop acting “r slurded”, leave her to deal with her sensory issues alone because “she’s being a brat” and have even gotten physical.

Being autistic myself I went through all of these things with them, not only with my aunt but my entire family, and completely alone too as I am an only child, so I always try to reassure my cousin that she is smart and capable, I always comfort her when her parents get on their “don’t talk to her she’s a brat” weird ice-treatment abuse and overall always show her patience, but the issue is we don’t live in the same state, they are only visiting for the holidays so I can only take care of her for so long and it seriously worries me that she’s going to have to go back to a house where she’s not understood and tended to her needs.

My aunt is also having another child and her pseudo-psychologist told her to stop helping my cousin around (whos 7 years old mind you) because she needs to learn to be an “adult” as a new a baby is coming and she has to look after herself now. I’m just worried; I actually had a fight with my family this morning because I was sleeping and I woke up to yelling because my cousin kept complaining about the tag in her dress driving her insane and no one would take 30 seconds to cut it off, so naturally she begins to stim and them, the alleged adults in the situation, solely resort to yelling and calling her stupid. I cut off the tag and did her hair because my aunt refuses to do her hair now after the psychologists advice, EVEN THOUGH, she never even took the time to teach her to do it in the first place. I just feel bad, there’s a pit in my stomach.