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Special Education Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant challenges and obstacles for many individuals and families, including those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related developmental disabilities (Eshraghi et al., 2020; Eshraghi et al., 2022). Children with ASD often depend on a combination of...
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10 Tips to Help Autistic Kids Transition Back to In-Person School
Transitions are tough. As many schools make plans to shift from distance learning to in-person instruction, families, students, and educators face an adjustment period. That’s especially true for students with autism spectrum disorder, because transitions can be particularly stressful and...
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Supporting Caregivers During the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed the lives of many. Beginning in March 2020, many became immediately isolated, experiencing increased stress and anxiety. Parents caring for children of all ages were impacted by these variables the most. It is already known that parenting is a stressful...
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How Physical Distancing Brought Us Even Closer Together
Five years have passed since I last wrote about our social recreation group CASY Sparks, previously known as Project CASY (Community Autism Socials at Yale) in the Spring 2016 Issue of Autism Spectrum News. CASY began to flourish in 2016 with the establishment of the Daniel Jordan Fiddle...
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CDC Launches COVID-19 Resources for People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Care Providers
The COVID-19 pandemic has created unique challenges for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). To address them, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created a COVID-19 toolkit with communication resources explaining in plain language how people with IDD...
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The Pandemic Has Devastated the Autism Community. It’s Also Been an Important Learning Opportunity
The world has been living through a global emergency since the coronavirus pandemic took hold early last year, and autism families have been hit particularly hard. People with autism thrive on routine and predictability, which are precisely what was lost amid COVID-19. While I know autism families...
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Community Living in the Era of COVID-19
As we cope with the disruption of this pandemic, many of us are wondering what our new normal will look like on the other side. Before COVID-19, many people with disabilities went to day programs or had individualized 1:1 staff supporting them at work or in activities in the community. Now, because...
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Maintaining and Improving Skills During COVID-19 with Robot-Assisted Instruction
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many children are falling behind due to compromises in therapy and education services. Children with disabilities who previously had stable access to regular in-person therapy are losing that access, leading to regression (Jones, 2020). While tele-care and remote video...
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Transitioning Back to School During COVID: Using Visuals and Other Evidence-based Strategies for Children with Autism
To say that schools have changed a lot in the past few months is an understatement. And, as a result, our students need to learn new rules and routines before they can start learning about academics. At the beginning of each school year, you typically teach this information. This year, it is much...
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Life in the Time of COVID-19: An Autistic Perspective
Like many autistics, I have been drawn to science fiction as far back as I can remember. The idea of an epidemic infecting the human race has always been a common theme in science fiction and is probably as old as the genre itself. As such, I have seen and read more stories about pandemics than I...
