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Accommodating Communication Difficulties
Communication difficulties are common because most on the spectrum have difficulty reading body language and interpreting facial expressions or tone of voice – and 90% of interpersonal communication is nonverbal. Words can have different meanings depending upon tone and emphasis. This means the...
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Autism and Hospitals: A Difficult Match
As a resident, you always have that one patient who sticks out in your mind—the one who had some profound impact on your practice of medicine and your life outside of medicine. For me, though, it wasn’t just one patient. It was one patient after another with the same challenge: autism. Having...
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One Father’s Experience Developing Apps to Motivate Son with Autism to Learn
Much has been said over the years concerning technology and education; there has been and still is an ongoing debate about how we can best implement technology into schools to the benefit of children. Our adult life on a day-to-day basis is filled with technology, from touch screens for ordering...
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Technology: The Silver Bullet in Education for Individuals with Autism
The advent of the iPad and iPhone and a host of other hand-held devices have transformed the way the world gathers, manages and organizes information. One device now encompasses just about everything we need to efficiently execute our lives on professional and personal levels. The same advantages...
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Giving Logan a Voice – One Father’s Trailblazing Creation to Help His Son
Logan was born in 1997 and is now aged 18 - what a journey we have all had! He was born 2 years after Maia, his sister, and in the early years developed as we expected him to. He was a very easy baby, sleeping soundly with very little disruption. His motor development was normal and early language...
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Understanding Aggressive and Self-Injurious Behavior
When addressing challenging behaviors, specifically when it comes to aggressive behaviors and self-injury, it’s important to understand the reason as to why these behaviors are occurring before determining a solution. The behavior of all living organisms serves specific purposes; and the reason...
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Why Emotional Literacy Is So Important
Social and emotional literacy develop over time and need to be nurtured just like any other skill such as math or riding a bike. Unlike math or bike-riding, however, the teaching of emotional literacy is often overlooked. It has been referred to as the “missing piece” of education despite its...
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Behavior as Desire for Control in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Occasionally we all need a gentle reminder that autism is not an abstraction floating around in the ether. Autism is real precisely because people experience it, and separate cases of autism spectrum disorders differ so markedly because their subjects are unique individuals with different...
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One School’s Experience Engaging Students with Autism Through Technology
Educators, clinicians, therapists and other professionals continue to look for new ways of using technology to benefit students with autism. Video modeling to teach social or self-regulation skills, individualized computer-assisted instruction, and augmentative communication devices are widely...
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The Technique of “Twitter Speak” May Create More Effective Communication With Your Teens
“Twitter Speak.” What is it and how will it help communication with your teenager progress more smoothly? If you are a parent who has ever been confronted by your child responding with short, disinterested comments when you attempt having what you believe to be a “regular” conversation, the...
