Reach Your Child's Potential with Professional Insights
Learning the hidden curriculum social rules of society remains a struggle for autistics long after they grow up and leave school. For example, even though I am an over 50 woman with autism, over the past few years, I have learned a lot of new-to-me hidden curriculum items. The “hidden curriculum” refers to all the [...]
Many recent news stories have dealt with the negative side of peer pressure and bullying – especially for those kids who might not “fit in” as well as others. I’d like to focus on the power of positive peer pressure. Over the past five years, I spent many weekends facilitating music festivals at my church [...]
There are days when I wish I came home from work and my six year old son, Norrin, would run and greet me at the door, bombarding me with questions before I had a chance to take off my coat. My Reality Most days, I have to initiate. I’ll stand at the door, call out [...]
Mornings seem to be a difficult time in many households with children. The transition from sleeping to waking, the rush to get out of the house, and anxiety about the day ahead all combine to make it an especially tension-filled time. Add to that a child with special needs and mornings can be downright awful. [...]
I’ve met some pretty amazing dogs in my life and we have one in our family. His name is Huck and he is a full-size Labradoodle. But the dogs who participate in the K-9 Club Autism program at Austin Dog Alliance in Austin, TX are as special as they come. They are teaching my son [...]
We recently received a query from Lisa, one of our Special readers: “Hi, just wondering if you have any advice on keeping a teenager with Asperger’s, ADHD, and chronic Depression protected from people he thinks are his friends, but who can easily convince him to do stupid stuff that gets him into serious trouble with [...]
Jaylen may not understand a lot of social concepts. He may not realize someone is being mean, or understand what an attitude is, but he definitely understands the concept of being the best. And now he has a bit of an obsession with being the best…at everything. A Competitive Spirit I think having a competitive [...]
Drill, baby, drill! That can be the first instinct when you are a parent of a child with a communication or language disorder. When that child is nonverbal and you so desparately want that child to be verbal. To talk. When J-man was still nonverbal, I dreamed about hearing him say even the most mundane [...]
If you have a child with any kind of developmental delay, potty training may be a challenge an adventure. I’ve been potty training Norrin for a little more than three years. We’ve been through plenty of discarded underpants, stained carpets and wet floors. We’ve gone through bottles of detergent, tubs of disinfectant wipes and rolls [...]
One of the hardest things to do is determine certain tantrum triggers and irritants for our spectrum kiddos and other kids with special needs. Once they start losing control it’s almost impossible to pin down which stimulant proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back… but what if you could nip it before [...]
