-
Back to School Tips for Parents of Children with Special Needs
As families soak up the last few weeks of summer vacation, they may be starting to think about back to school tips for the new school year approaching. For parents of children with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, it can take a significant amount of preparation to create a seamless...
-
Five Tips on How to Best Support a Sibling of a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Being the sibling of a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other medical or developmental diagnoses can have its challenges, but it can also provide opportunities in building resiliency and compassion towards family members and others. The Center for Autism & Neurodevelopmental...
-
Learning the Powerful Language of Inclusion: A Mother’s Journey to Acceptance and Hope
This article on inclusion was developed from three major strands. First, the document’s inception originated from the author’s experience as an early-childhood special educator, a parent, and an administrator working with families. Second, the background came from the writer’s qualitative...
-
Supporting Parents in the Transition Process
Adulting was on Oxford Dictionary’s 2016 short list for word of the year. “Adulting” is an endearing word that flashes an instant, sympathetic understanding about the scary, confusing, and sometimes dull aspects of being a grown-up. Parents watching their children’s wobbly advances toward...
-
Autism Plus Wandering
When Liane Kupferberg Carter’s son Mickey began “escaping,” as she calls it, around age 2, “he was greased lightning,” she says. “I couldn’t take my eyes off him for an instant or he’d disappear — in malls, supermarkets, or in any public space.” As her son got older, things...
-
Helping Children with Autism Fall Asleep and Stay Asleep Without Medication
Sleep is an essential restorative process for every child’s body and brain. Sleep has been shown to promote growth of one’s muscles, bones, and skin, help protect the heart, combat germs, sickness, and injuries, and impact one’s weight. Further, research has shown that sleep helps individuals...
-
Assessing If a Diagnosis is Necessary: Clinical Utility of an Autism Diagnosis Across the Lifespan
Family members of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often have mixed feelings about labeling their loved ones with the term autism as this represents a life-long disability. They may be concerned about stigma, fearing that others will avoid, judge, or exclude their family member with...
-
“The Lighter Side of the Spectrum – a Mom’s View” – A Vulnerable Child
When my son Jack was about four years old, I lost him in the mall. I was pulling a sweater on over my clothes to see if it would fit, and in the three seconds it took for me to poke my head through the fabric, he was gone. One minute, he was there, standing right in front of me with his overalls...
-
“The Lighter Side of the Spectrum – a Mom’s View” – Did You Know?
You may not know this, but a couple of months ago I un-friended you on Facebook. I mean, we weren’t exactly friends in the regular sense. We never met for coffee or talked on the phone or texted each other. We don’t even live in the same state, and I haven’t seen you in over ten...
-
“The Lighter Side of the Spectrum – a Mom’s View” I Know Why He Has Autism
Hi, my name is Carrie Cariello. I am forty-two years old. I am married to a man named Joe and we have five children. Twelve years ago, I gave birth to a baby boy with a neurological disorder called autism. It impacts the way he eats, sleeps, talks, and thinks. He is considered special needs,...
