One of the important foundations of successfully working with kids is that you need to get to know them. Each child is a unique individual. Kids with autism are no exception. Under what conditions do they feel comfortable and curious, so that they are ready to learn? The idea to understand is regulation. It’s the main concept of the first […]
Read moreWhat is Floortime all about anyway? This post (the first in a series) is about explaining what DIR/Floortime is, in ordinary parent language. How does this approach to autism intervention help us understand our kids better, and what strategies does it offer? I write this as a parent who has gone through training in our local program, taken one online […]
Read moreFor parents, having a school experience that works for our kids is the equivalent of “winning.” That’s especially true for parents of children with disabilities – we are aware of their vulnerability, and we often feel pressure to help them grow as quickly as possible. There’s been lots of great advice about preparing our children (and our schools) for a […]
Read moreUpdate: The Family Resource Centre library is now located on the main floor of the SSCY Building at 1155 Notre Dame Avenue. If you go into the Rehabilitation Centre for Children and head down the hallway, you’ll find yourself in a large, welcoming room. At one end there is a well-equipped play area with lots of toys, and to one side […]
Read moreUpdate: Making Waves is now known as Swimmingly. Information can be found at www.swimminglymb.org. Our kids love water play. Especially at the lake. In fact, our daughter won’t come out – she so enjoys the feel of the water as she bounces and splashes. Two summers ago, we noticed she really had no fear. If we weren’t nearby, she would […]
Read moreOur family belongs to a church. And in all honesty, without the support of our church community, I don’t know how we would have survived the last five years. Having a community to stand alongside you is important for any family, and all the more so for a family of children with autism or other special needs. Last weekend I […]
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Something innovative is happening in Canadian schools – particularly in British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan. It all has to do with self-regulation: the ability to remain calm, alert and ready to learn. The Canadian Self-Regulation Initiative is a project based on the research of Dr. Stuart Shanker of York University. The goal is to to coordinate and share the best […]
Read moreBooks and reading are important in our house. My husband and I are both readers, and we believe reading is an important foundation of learning at any age. When our children were born, we filled our bottom bookshelves with books for babies and toddlers, and got ready…but there was a glitch. Both of our children were very averse to letting […]
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The air is getting crisp, and September is approaching… If you have very young children, maybe they’re getting set to enjoy nursery school or kindergarten. Their classrooms are child-centered – lots of opportunities to play with a variety of toys, to explore and learn at centres, to interact in small groups with adult support at the developmental level that they […]
Read moreWell, that doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as Floortime, but all the same, who wants to be indoors in the summer? Here is a list of activities I think might engage my children. My list doesn’t look much different than a list of activities for typical young children, but the difference is in the purpose. We won’t […]
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