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Preparing for a Successful Holiday Season
Parties! Gift giving! Twinkling lights! The holiday season can be a source of joy and excitement for some but for individuals with ASD the holidays present unique challenges. With communication, planning, and patience, individuals with ASD and their families can successfully navigate and enjoy the...
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Providing a Safe Haven for Special Siblings
We know that, in most families, the longest lasting relationship one has is with his or her sibling. When one of those siblings has a special need, the dynamic of this lifetime relationship can be significantly impacted. For some, a brother or sister learns to quickly adapt to new routines of...
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Extending a Helping Hand
As a behavior specialist working in the home with the families of individuals with disabilities there is an exceptional opportunity to identify needs and concerns of not just our direct client, but also the family as a whole. While the primary focus is on the adult or child who needs support, it is...
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Psychiatric Problems Common in Siblings of People with Autism
Psychiatric problems crop up more than twice as often in families that include a child with autism as in the general population. That’s the upshot of the most sweeping study to date of mental health in siblings of children with autism. The findings suggest that clinicians should look...
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Essential Information: Respite Care for Families
Many individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) require significant levels of support in home, school, and community settings. Due to deficits in social communication and interaction, compounded by restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, many will not be able to keep themselves safe and...
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The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation Launches Endowed Fund to Focus on Lifelong Family Support
The Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation, for nearly two decades, has focused its all-volunteer organization’s mission on every aspect of adult life from employment to the arts to health and wellness to residential and recreational endeavors. An integral aspect of the Foundation’s mission has always...
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Family and Professional Partnerships Optimize Successful Transitions to Adulthood
The Centers for Disease Control noted that from 1994 to 2005, the number of children ages 6–21 years receiving services for autism increased from 22,664 to 193,637 nationally. This explosive increase in the number of children identified with an autism spectrum disorder sounds a warning for the...
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Understanding the Father Factor While Raising Children with ASD
Fathers of children with autism tend to be either very involved or withdrawn and virtually absent from interactions with professionals—with the majority seemingly uninvolved. From this observation, many professionals assume that fathers do not wish to be involved. Is this really the case, or do...
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The Sex Talk
So, we’ve got this guy in middle school now. And he is all sorts of cool. Savvy. Phrases like let’s play have been replaced by let’s hang out. He makes scrambled egg sandwiches for himself in the morning and wants to walk home from the bus stop alone in the afternoon. There is swagger in...
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Epic Scenes from a Barbershop
Yesterday afternoon I poked my head into the family room where Jack, Charlie, and Henry were sprawled watching Scooby Doo, and announced we were going for haircuts. “No!” they shouted in unison. “No haircuts!” I told them we’d stop at the school book fair first, and jollied them out...
