The holiday time is already stressful and overwhelming; add a special needs child into the mix, and you’re at a whole other level.  We’ve collected our favorite holiday tips to help you through the season.  Remember each child is different, so what works for one child may not work for another, but definitely try as many as you can!   Take care of yourself first and foremost.  This one is across the board.  Take time to relax and decompress. Don’t create expectations for your holiday season, do what’s best for your family, just live i ..read more

Navigating an autism diagnosis is difficult enough, let alone trying to explain it to your children.  When talking about autism with your child, use age-appropriate words and concepts.  For example, you children may be worried about their sibling’s unusual behaviors impacting their own life, while adolescents may be concerned with what their friends may think, teenagers may begin worrying about their role as a caregiver in the future, and adult siblings may be concerned about their genetic risk of autism for their own children.  The autism conversation is something that wi ..read more

Potty training is a daunting task for any parent.  How do you know when it is time to potty train your autistic child?  More importantly, how do you do it successfully?  Toileting Readiness Checklist Start toileting once your child is demonstrating at least 5-6 of these readiness signs.  Find a 2-3 month period where no big changes or stressors will occur.  Child is able to walk to and from bathroom independently.  Child has the balance to sit on the toilet for 2-5 minutes.  Child stays dry for at least 1.5-2 hours at a time during  ..read more

Discovering the Magic of ABA. It is big commitment, it takes time, but the payoff can be huge.  Analysts are equipped with a giant toolbox of strategies that can be applied to anything – time management, improvements in sports, companies’ operations, training animals, parenting a typically developing child, or parenting kids with developmental disorders, like autism.  A good analyst will equip you with the best tools & strategies for your child, that will give you the best pay off for your time.  We take this toolbox and pull out the tools that are going to work best for yo ..read more

Understanding Selective Eating Having a selective eater can be one very difficult aspect of having a child with autism. One of the diagnostic criteria for autism is restrictive and repetitive behaviors and interests.  Eating the same foods is an example of this.  Autistic children are 5 times more likely than neurotypical children to exhibit challenging meal time behaviors (Autism Speaks).  This includes narrow food selections, ritualistic behaviors around food and temper tantrums related to mealtime ..read more

Antecedent  Behavior analysts try to identify what triggers a behavior and what consequences keep a behavior going.  An antecedent is what happens before a specific behavior.  Analysts view the immediate environment as the major cause of behavior.  This includes the setting, people, objects, events and so much more that is going on around us all the time.  Analysts collect data – called ABC data (also known as functional analysis data) – on what happens immediately before and after a behavior to find out why and when a behavior is happening.   Analysts may a ..read more

So often we hear Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) generalized as autism, but what else is on the spectrum?  ASD is considered a spectrum disorder because there is such an array of symptoms that can be demonstrated in several different ways with varying severity.    The American Psychiatric Association’s DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) for mental health disorders was first published in 1952.  Since then, the definition of autism has changed.  At first autistic behaviors were associated with childhood schizophrenia.  It wasn’t until 1980 and th ..read more

A Better Understanding Up to 80% of children with autism have at least one chronic sleep problem [Autism Speaks]. Insomnia is the biggest sleep disorder in children with autism. Children with autism suffer from insomnia almost twice as much as typically developing children. According to one study, “The spectrum of sleep disturbances [in people with autism] included 54% bedtime resistance problems, 56% insomnia, 53% parasomnias, 25% sleep disordered breathing, 45% morning arising problems, and 31% daytime sleepiness.” [NIH] Many times, people with autism have other conditions like ADHD, anxiet ..read more

Echolalia is the repetition of others’ words, including family members, teachers, or something someone hears on TV, through music, or other means.  It is an adaptive response when a person struggles with saying their own thoughts through speech.  Recent research shows that echolalia is often a means of communication.  Language Development Most kids use echolalia as a natural way to learn language – to learn words, rhythm, inflection and tone.  In typically developing children, echolalia peaks at 30 months and fades by the time the child is ..read more

A ..read more