True confession of an autism mom: I waited until my son was 5 years old before I attempted to take him to a dentist’s office. Between his oral defensiveness and severe anxiety, I couldn’t figure out how to make it work before then. The only reason I made that appointment was my concern over an [...]
May is Better Speech and Hearing Month. What does that mean to you as a parent? If you are having doubts about your child’s speech and language development, wondering if your child is reaching those speech milestones on time, questions are probably swirling in your mind: Do they have enough words in their vocabulary? Do [...]
Recently I wrote a post giving 10 Tips for dressing a sensory sensitive child. After this post was written we asked the special needs community on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn if they had any additional tips for dressing a sensory child. Sensitive adults and parents of sensitive children responded with their experience and recommendations. Some adults reported [...]
Many individuals with a disability require services like occupational, speech, or physical therapy as part of an ongoing treatment plan. Insurance companies are often required to cover these services; however it was not always clear how those services should be treated with respect to co-pays. Is therapy grouped with primary care or as a specialty? [...]
When travelling by plane, a good part of your trip is spent at airports. In fact, on many trips you spend more time at an airport than you do flying. When traveling with a child who has special needs every step you take needs to be very carefully planned. In previous posts of the Special Needs [...]
Guest Post by Holly Zipperer “Summer learning loss” or “the summer slide” is what teachers call the regression in skills which takes place in the time between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. Research shows that special education students, on average, experience a more significant skill loss than typical [...]
AMBUCS is one of our gracious sponsors of the Great Bike Giveaway In 1919 William L. White had a dream to begin a national service organization for young business and professional men. The organization was called the American Business Club and in 1961 it was shortened to AMBUCS. 93 years later William Whites vision has [...]
Here I am planning a birthday party for my autistic son, and the blogger Autism Daddy just posted about the joy of attending an autism-only birthday party. That got me thinking about what makes a birthday party autism-friendly. Etiquette and tradition may be bent, broken or flushed down the toilet at an autism-friendly party. How to [...]
One day I was hanging out with some friends and we were all swapping funny autism stories. I shared my story with the punchline, “And that’s why delayed echolalia is a mom’s best friend!” But there was one person who didn’t laugh. She looked confused. She asked, “What’s Echolalia?” Echolalia is the repetition of phrases, [...]
Mealtime for families without special needs kids can be difficult, but for those with kids with sensory processing difficulties it can really be an adventure. While there isn’t an easy way around these challenges, there are a few helpful hints that may keep a child’s feeding issues from turning into significant problems. Here are the [...]
