We tell ourselves stories and live by the stories we tell ourselves. -Joan Didion Recently I had coffee with a friend. We talked about the trip he and his wife took to Vietnam. He told me about the beautiful places they saw, and also about the homeless woman he met outside his hotel. He talked about their friendly greetings every […]
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This post is part of a series, taking a quick look at each developmental capacity, according to the work of Stanley Greenspan and Serena Wieder in their DIR/Floortime framework. As a child grows, they add new skills to what they learned in the previous stages. You can find the list of related posts here. After you and your child have learned […]
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This post is part of a series, taking a quick look at each developmental level, according to the work of Stanley Greenspan and Serena Wieder in their DIR/Floortime framework. As a child grows, they add new skills to what they learned in the previous levels. You can find the list of related posts here. Communication is so much more than speech! […]
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At times, finding autism-friendly summer activities, especially new ones, can be challenging. That’s why, when something works, it’s worth sharing. The experience below is one that happened a few years ago; and still stands out as an excellent day trip, made that way primarily by the staff. First of all, the basics. Fort Gibraltar is located in Winnipeg, just off […]
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Canada Day, at the start of summer holidays, is a perfect opportunity to do something fun with the family. Often, though, our family has found Canada Day events to be too big of a commitment, and crowds can be overwhelming. But we can still enjoy the day! Our criteria for autism friendly means: easy to get there, park, and leave […]
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Individual Education Plans (IEPs) usually focus on behaviour – what we want kids to be able to do. In order to know what a child has learned, they have to list goals that are specific and measurable. A Developmental perspective, on the other hand, thinks about how a child relates to others, and how they think. Developmental goals tend to […]
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Baden is the president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network of Winnipeg, and writes from the perspective of a person with autism. This post provides advice that parents may find useful as the school year wraps up. In my time interacting with parents of autistic children, there is one question I have seen more than almost any other: parents panicked by […]
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Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism By Dr. Barry Prizant Published by Simon & Shuster When parents first hear their child has autism, they may experience grief, confusion, or fear. These emotions are accompanied by questions – about who their child will be, and how to parent them in a way that helps them be successful. What […]
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One day, our autism consultant gave us a piece of advice about books and reading. She recommended that we choose books that we could not only read, but that connect with what our child is interested in, and we could act out in some playful way. I realized that we already had several books that were a springboard to back-and-forth […]
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“Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.” -O. Fred Donaldson What would you think if your school told you that they had a plan to help your child with autism make friends and enjoy playing with them? Most of us have fond memories of times we enjoyed stretching our imaginations with our friends. […]
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