Alfie Kohn thinks a lot about parenting and teaching kids. He’s a well known leader and expert in education – if you’re a teacher, you’ve probably read something written by him. Recently he turned his attention to the research – and differences between – autism therapies. In the following article, he starts by reviewing the ethical concerns about ABA, and […]
Read moreBy Rosanne Papadopoulos What is Self-regulation? and what does it have to do with parenting or teaching? Saturday morning and I am feeling self-regulated! After a long week of work, I had a great sleep, am sitting next to the warmth of the first fall woodstove fire, on my soft high-backed chair, listening to the wind and the waves of […]
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In September 2017, CTV Montreal reported on Ellis, a minimally-verbal boy with autism. The story was that one day, his parents discovered that Ellis “could think, could talk, through pictures.” His father had begun drawing household items and simple situations in an effort to connect, and Ellis drew back in response. Over time, Ellis also began to make changes to […]
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Building Bridges Through Sensory Integration: Therapy for Children with Autism and Other Pervasive Developmental Disorders by Ellen Yack, Paula Aquilla, and Shirley Sutton Building Bridges Through Sensory Integration is a book written by three occupational therapists. Their goal is to offer a resource to explain what role sensory differences play in autism, and what occupational therapists can do to help […]
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Overview Tablets are everywhere. For many children, iPads or other tablets are common as learning tools in schools. Families of children with autism seem particularly drawn to owning tablets. People with autism often have difficulties learning and communicating, because of the way autism affects how they develop and experience the world. For example, autistic people can be more inclined to […]
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Communication and literacy are important goals for improving quality of life for autistic children. However, parents and teachers may need more strategies for supporting these goals. A Land We Can Share: Teaching Literacy to Students with Autism by Paula Kluth and Kelly Chandler-Olcott is an excellent and practical resource for helping kids on the autism spectrum read and communicate. The […]
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I work with a child who’s hard to connect with. Why is it so hard? What can I do to make it easier? Great question! Relationships are one of the things that make life worth living. For children with autism, differences in communication skills, sensory processing, interests and behaviour may all contribute to problems developing and nurturing relationships. Whether you’re […]
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Should your child’s peers know what autism is, and that your child has it? The answer depends on the child and the situation. Our family decided early on that it would be more helpful than harmful, and so every year, when our children enter school, we have made sure that there is an opportunity for our children’s new classmates to […]
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We tell ourselves stories and live by the stories we tell ourselves. -Joan Didion Recently I had coffee with a friend. We talked about the trip he and his wife took to Vietnam. He told me about the beautiful places they saw, and also about the homeless woman he met outside his hotel. He talked about their friendly greetings every […]
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Individual Education Plans (IEPs) usually focus on behaviour – what we want kids to be able to do. In order to know what a child has learned, they have to list goals that are specific and measurable. A Developmental perspective, on the other hand, thinks about how a child relates to others, and how they think. Developmental goals tend to […]
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