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A Meeting of Worlds: Multidisciplinary Teams in Autism Treatment
As Dr. Stephen Shore said, “if you’ve met one individual with autism, you’ve met one individual with autism.” Autism is a spectrum disorder with great variability in support needs from one person to the next. Given the spectrum of the disability, services and care for children with...
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EarliTec Diagnostics Receives FDA 510(k) Clearance for the EarliPoint Evaluation for Autism Spectrum Disorder
The EarliPoint Evaluation is the first FDA-cleared tool to assist clinicians in diagnosing and assessing autism in children as young as 16 months old. On June 10th, 2022, EarliTec Diagnostics, Inc. (EarliTec), a digital health company developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic products for...
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Planning a Summer Vacation: Travel Tips for Families of Children With Disabilities
Summer travel season is well underway. While traveling with children can be both fun and exhausting, if you are a parent or caregiver of a child with disabilities, even more planning may be required to have a safe and successful trip. This summer, I decided to take my daughter Annie on her first...
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Language Development and Communication for Nonverbal Autistic Children
Autism spectrum disorder is one that has a broad range of symptoms, but many with its diagnosis have similar “core” symptoms. Difficulties with language and communication is a shared struggle for many. Thankfully, with today’s constantly evolving technology and research, individuals with...
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Why I Made the Difficult Decision to Not Have Children
In the last year, I have accomplished a lot. More than I used to think I could do in my life. I made a life decision never to have kids. I underwent a procedure to keep from getting pregnant. I have become a confident woman. I know what I want in my life. My decision is based on childhood...
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Crisis Management in Children with Autism and First Responders
Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are more likely to engage in challenging behavior than their neurotypical peers. Severity of these behaviors range from mild to very severe and include topographies such as aggression, self-injury, destructive behavior, pica, and elopement...
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Assisting Caregivers with the De-Escalation of Challenging Behaviors
Throughout my time as a special education teacher and administrator, I have always searched for ways to help my Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) students de-escalate themselves without having to get to a point where the use of a protective hold was needed. This was, at times, a herculean feat because...
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Designing Environments to Reduce Challenging Behaviors
Challenging behaviors - defined as abnormal behaviors that deviate from one’s culture in frequency, intensity, or duration - are common among autistics, and have the potential to cause hardships for the autistic and others (Jang, Healy, & Mannion, 2011; Matson & Minshawi, 2007; Myers...
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Managing Back-to-School Jitters: Tips to Help Children With Special Needs Ensure a Smooth Transition
Remember how it felt as a child before your first day of school? Perhaps you experienced butterflies in your stomach or loss of sleep the night before. You were excited to see your friends, but also nervous about what the new school year would bring. That is exactly how I am feeling about sending...
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Smart Home Technology and Autism
Good parents worry about their children’s safety. For most, this centers on keeping toddlers away from medicine, sharp objects, electrical outlets and other physical dangers in the home. As children grow, parents can usually start worrying less about these things and focus on their children’s...
