Suspected Autism - Parents in serious denial

[sunnydays]

I am not trained or qualified to diagnose anything either, but I do feel it is part of our job to let parents know if we see any potential signs of their child not developing "normally". Sometimes parents don't realize their child is different because they don't see the child with other kids. We are with the child 9-10 hours per day in a group of children and most of us have a fair amount of experience with children. I will also risk losing a client rather than keeping my mouth shut and saying nothing about the problems I see. Now, I would never say "I think your child may be autistic" because I am in no way qualified to make this judgement. But, I have said "It seems you child's speech is not where it should be fo his age" or "Have you noticed that you child does XYZ?". After that if parents choose to ignore, we have done what we can, but to say nothing at all seems wrong to me.