Teasing and arguing among siblings is a common parent complaint – and most of us have either experienced it as parents or as a sibling when we were growing up. I just recently came across a paper written by my older sister when she was in 7th grade. She describes me: “”I have a little [...]
This is designed for ASD kids who are verbal and have good understanding of language, for the approximate ages of kindergarten through 6th grade, although it could work for some children younger or older depending on their developmental level. It’s a simple intervention but effective. ASD children struggle with following instructions. Often, they just [...]
If you came into my office at work, you would see that my office is quite plain. This is by design. Like any good therapist that works with children and adolescents, my office used to be cluttered with toys, doll houses, stuffed animals, art supplies, fidgets and so on. As I started to see more [...]
This is a very simple but very effective tool that assists with task completion for kids on the spectrum. Every day when I’m at work I have parents asking for help regarding task completion and compliance for their autism spectrum children (although I have to mention here for the sake of fairness, that parents of [...]
Most families affected by autism of any ilk are familiar with the need for routine. At times, their ASD family member’s need for routine may come across as frustratingly rigid, leading to difficulties with ever being spontaneous or doing things in a new or different manner. My autism spectrum father had many many routines, including [...]
My last post on the use of visual schedules as a way to add structure to the day, got me thinking about one of the most common requests I get from parents, namely “How do I get my child to shower (or bathe, or actually clean themselves when they do shower, or not use all [...]
I have heard it said that structure is the glue that holds children with special needs together, and I don’t think this is far from the truth. When parents bring in their children who are struggling in for therapy, one of the first things we will look at is whether or not there is some [...]
Rewards need to be motivating to your child and not just be something you think your child should like. Rewards do not always need to be toys. Rewards can include your time to or a special privilege (such as a later bedtime, a sleepover, extra computer time). The rewards need to fit within your budget [...]
I thought I would take a diversion from my writings about diagnosis and talk about summertime! This really came to me today when I was thinking about the ASD kids that I see in therapy and how they divide into two camps (no pun intended) when we look at how they do over the summer. [...]