“Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.” -O. Fred Donaldson Many people have happy childhood memories of playing with friends, when they imagined being and doing all kinds of things. Play is an important part of how children develop and explore imagination, problem solving, communication and friendship. “Autistic play is authentic play.” Cari […]
Read more
Just before April started, the website The Art of Autism posted a list of 84 or so favorite quotes about autism. Many of them were written by people with autism. It is a great list. I thought that in honor of autism acceptance, this might be an opportunity to play with one of the other things I’m interested in: sketchnoting. […]
Read more
Nadiene is the mother of two children: Lincoln, who is a nine-year-old boy with autism and his 8-year-old sister Charlie. In 2011 she and her husband Jay participated in the Relate program at the Rehabilitation Centre for Children, which was then a pilot project. Now their family’s time in Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) therapy has ended. Does time spent in […]
Read more
Often in the first years of parenting, childcare takes the centre stage. The things we liked to do before we had children can just fall away. Children (with and without autism) tend to like what’s familiar and don’t always behave the way we’d like when we take them out in new situations – so it’s easier to stay home and just stick with […]
Read more
Service dogs can be a great help to people with autism. In October of 2015 Jackie shared about her family’s reasons for getting a service dog for her daughter. Here’s a followup post on how things have gone, and how a service dog has helped Signey grow. So, when we decided to buy a service dog for our daughter, Signey, […]
Read more
After our first child was diagnosed with autism, I started looking for resources that would help me understand my child’s diagnosis and what I could do. I read dozens of books about autism, and “More Than Words by Fern Sussman is one of the most helpful. It is an easy to read and practical book that can help parents and […]
Read more
One of the challenges of having a child with a disability is the extra expenses. In addition to increased child care needs (perhaps leading to a loss of income), we tend to have extra costs like therapies and diaper purchases longer than expected for a typical child. We also need to consider the future: will our children need help longer […]
Read more
Any family is healthier when parents have family and friends to help out when things are difficult. Caring for children with disabilities can require a higher level of support. In Canada, many provinces offer funding for respite care for families of children with developmental disabilities. Respite care is when someone else cares for your child, allowing you to take a […]
Read more
One of ADAPT’s key beliefs is that people are the expert of their own experiences. We advocate to government for a range of autism therapy options because we believe that parents know more about what their kids need than a one size fits all program possibly can – parents have an expertise regarding their children that government officials just can’t […]
Read more
One of the difficult things about learning your child has autism is deciding what kind of services are best for them. For example, early childhood intervention can be offered in many different formats, each based on different philosophies of child development. From time to time, parents of children with autism talk about combining therapies – they hope to be working […]
Read more