Colourful Mind Psychological Services

Colourful Mind Psychological Services Colourful Minds Psychological Services providing psychological support to children, adolescents and adults.

Disclaimer: This page is for generalised advice only and does not consider your individual circumstances.

Your child receives an autism diagnosis, and suddenly you’re a parent, researcher, advocate, appointment coordinator and...
20/09/2026

Your child receives an autism diagnosis, and suddenly you’re a parent, researcher, advocate, appointment coordinator and part-time interpreter of NDIS acronyms. The pay remains terrible. 😬

Tap and scroll down for some of the things parents most often wish they had heard during those early days.

For more support with your first steps, download our post-diagnosis guide through here - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bxGjvPTvSKBdRBiv4aBGi0VeppXsHido/view?usp=drive_link

Please note this is general advice and might not fit everyone’s situation.

18/09/2026

Your child receives an autism diagnosis, and suddenly your inner helicopter parent is fully fuelled and ready for take-off. 🚁😅

You may find yourself wanting to help with every assignment, solve every problem and protect them from the big, bad world. Then your child completes the homework in their own way, knows more about the topic than you ever will, and politely reveals that your help mostly disrupted the operation. 🤦‍♀️

Understanding your child through a new lens also means recognising their strengths, trusting their abilities and giving them opportunities to do things for themselves. Sometimes the most helpful thing a parent can do is step back, stay available and let their child show them what they can do.

Share this with a parent whose child has ever made their “help” look completely unnecessary. ❤️

Please note this is general advice and might not fit everyone’s situation.

📷: Ben Stubbs

17/09/2026

Sometimes we see a behaviour and think: “WHY are they doing that?!”

Then we get a little more information and suddenly… ohhhhhhh. 💡

Maybe they’re overwhelmed by noise. Maybe the plan changed unexpectedly. Maybe they’re struggling to communicate what they need. Maybe they’ve held it together all day and home is where everything finally comes out.

When we get curious about what’s happening underneath the behaviour, it becomes much easier to respond with understanding.

Because there’s usually a whole lot more going on than what we can see from the outside.

Follow Colourful Mind Psychological Services for more practical ways to understand and support your child.

Your child’s autism diagnosis can help you understand why certain things have always been harder for them. ❤️I always te...
16/09/2026

Your child’s autism diagnosis can help you understand why certain things have always been harder for them. ❤️

I always tell parents, if your kiddo couldn’t use their legs, you wouldn’t stand them in front of a high sink and repeatedly ask them to do the dishes. You’d lower the sink, adjust the environment and give them a way to participate. The same idea can help them support their autistic child.

Maybe they need more warning before a change, written instructions, a quieter space, extra processing time or another way to communicate. These adjustments remove barriers and give your child a fair opportunity to take part.

Your child is still the same funny, loving, wonderfully specific person they were before their diagnosis. You simply have more information about how their brain works and what helps them thrive. Parenting will always involve some guesswork, of course. Children keep us humble. 😅

Save this post as a reminder to look at the environment, expectations and support around your child when something feels hard.

Please note this is general advice and might not fit everyone’s situation.

Your child has just received an autism diagnosis, and suddenly you realise why the socks, school mornings and very speci...
14/09/2026

Your child has just received an autism diagnosis, and suddenly you realise why the socks, school mornings and very specific breakfast bowl were such a big deal. 💡😂

Tap and scroll down to learn about stretch points, stress behaviours and the clues that can help you understand what your autistic child needs.

Save it for the next time a tiny request creates a surprisingly enormous response.

Please note this is general advice and might not fit everyone’s situation.

11/09/2026

Ah yes, “take it one day at a time.” The emotional-support equivalent of telling someone who’s overwhelmed to “just relax.” 🤦‍♀️

Friends and family often genuinely want to help. Sometimes that help arrives as a well-meaning phrase that belongs on a decorative cushion.

During this time, parents usually need space to speak honestly about how they feel. A simple response can mean so much:

❤️ “That sounds like a lot to process.”

❤️ “I’m here whenever you want to talk.”

❤️ “Would listening, practical help, or coffee be most useful today?”

You need zero perfect words. Being present, listening and making space for complicated feelings is a beautiful place to start.

Share this with someone who could use a gentle reminder that support sometimes looks like listening… and occasionally arriving with snacks.

Please note this is general advice and might not fit everyone’s situation.

📷: Janice Taggart

10/09/2026

You can adore your child exactly as they are AND have feelings about the future looking different from the one you imagined. ❤️

You might feel sad. Relieved. Overwhelmed. Scared. Hopeful. Sometimes all before you’ve even finished your morning coffee.

Having those thoughts doesn’t make you a terrible parent. It makes you a parent processing a lot of new information and adjusting to a different picture of what life might look like.

Give yourself time. You don’t need to understand everything, learn everything or have a perfectly colour-coded plan by Tuesday.

Your child is still your child. And you’re allowed to find your feet too.

Follow Colourful Mind Psychological Services for more kind, practical support for parenting neurodivergent kids.

Nobody hands parents an emotional instruction manual after their child’s autism diagnosis. You often receive a report, s...
09/09/2026

Nobody hands parents an emotional instruction manual after their child’s autism diagnosis. You often receive a report, several new acronyms and approximately 847 thoughts to process before bedtime. 🤦‍♀️

You might feel relieved to finally have answers. You might grieve the future you had pictured, worry about what lies ahead or feel guilty for having complicated emotions in the first place. Tap and scroll down for a closer look at five emotions parents may experience after an autism diagnosis.

For gentle, practical support with what comes next, download our post-diagnosis guide here - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bxGjvPTvSKBdRBiv4aBGi0VeppXsHido/view?usp=drive_link

Please note this is general advice and might not fit everyone’s situation.

Love for your child and grief for the future you imagined can share the same space. Human emotions are complicated like ...
07/09/2026

Love for your child and grief for the future you imagined can share the same space. Human emotions are complicated like that. 💔

Emily Perl Kingsley’s essay ‘Welcome to Holland’ resonates with many parents because it gives them permission to grieve the future they had imagined while continuing to love and celebrate the child in front of them.

Tap and scroll down to explore why the essay has meant so much to so many families.

Read ‘Welcome to Holland’ in full here - https://www.emilyperlkingsley.com/welcome-to-holland and download our post-diagnosis guide here - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bxGjvPTvSKBdRBiv4aBGi0VeppXsHido/view?usp=drive_link - for some gentle guidance on what comes next.

Please note this is general advice and might not fit everyone’s situation.

03/09/2026

Being emotionally regulated is easy… until you remember you're out of chicken nuggets. 😱

If you've ever felt personally defeated by the weekly grocery shop, welcome to the club. Parenting comes with a never-ending mental checklist, and sometimes that mental load can leave us feeling completely drained.

That's why emotional regulation starts with us. Not because we're expected to be calm all the time, but because we deserve moments to recharge too.

Follow us for more parenting laughs, practical mental health tips and wellbeing resources.

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