Last week I was training a small group of therapists who work with a cute and lively five-year-old named Marty in her family’s home. After two years in an intensive home-based treatment program, Marty will start senior kindergarten this fall and we all felt enthusiastic that her new teacher Ms. Kay had joined us to [...]
You’re invited to click and play this Beatles video to enjoy music while you read the article on love and autism below. Love, Love, Love…Love is all you need”, John Lennon famously sang these words to the world in the ‘60s. The message is as relevant today as then, but for some reason we have [...]
A commonly believed and repeated myth is that people with autism lack imagination. Autistic children don’t play with toys or people like their neurotypical peers do. There’s no argument about this fact. Due in large part to their communication challenges, most children with autism are unable to show or talk about their imagination. It is [...]
Current research supports the idea that the factors contributing to the behaviour, communication and learning challenges of people on the autism spectrum are multifaceted; Therefore, I believe, treatment should be multi-faceted as well. Treatments such as Applied Behavioural Analysis and special diets are important and can contribute to positive development but they are simply not [...]
Fact: You act differently when you feel differently. If you’re like most people, you’ll drive a car differently when you’re upset than when you’re happy. You’re tone of voice will sound less friendly when you’re impatient than when you’re grateful. Bottom line, your attitude impacts your behavior. How you feel changes how you act. So [...]
This morning during a training session with therapists, I led a discussion about the nuances of teaching “eye contact” to our autistic student. We came to three important conclusions: 1) Eye contact should not be so narrowly defined as only eye-to-eye contact.
If you’re going to teach a child social skills like how to make friends then you need to think about how you yourself make and keep friends. Really, think about it. When I start working with a family with an autistic child, we first have a discussion about what it means to be social: “How [...]
RT @Alderson_J: Stop! Take 5 mins- focus all your attention and love on the child instead of the schedule. Your To Do list won't disappear, time will.
RT @Alderson_J: Stop! Take 5 mins- focus all your attention and love on the child instead of the schedule. Your To Do list won't disappear, time will.
RT @Alderson_J: Stop! Take 5 mins- focus all your attention and love on the child instead of the schedule. Your To Do list won't disappear, time will.
RT @Alderson_J: Stop! Take 5 mins- focus all your attention and love on the child instead of the schedule. Your To Do list won't disappear, time will.
RT @Alderson_J: Stop! Take 5 mins- focus all your attention and love on the child instead of the schedule. Your To Do list won't disappear, time will.
