Rosanne Papadopoulos is an occupational therapist and RDI consultant in Winnipeg. You can read more and find her contact information at her website, Discoveries in Therapy. It’s Saturday morning and I am feeling self-regulated! After a long week of work, I had a great sleep, am sitting next to the warmth of a fall fire in the woodstove on my soft […]
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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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Service dogs are fast becoming an accepted and recognized support for children and adults with autism. In addition to helping with safety concerns such as wandering, service dogs also provide social-emotional and sensory support that can help children cope with a sometimes chaotic world, give them opportunities to interact and play, and even help them sleep well. Here is one family’s story. […]
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When our daughter was four and in ABA, like any other preschooler, she would get upset sometimes about having tasks to complete. So her behavioural consultant came up with a plan: when she was distracted or uncooperative (which really, I think, meant she was trying to avoid having to do things that weren’t important to her for fairly long periods of […]
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“The truth of this book and the truth of your journey from diagnosis to acceptance is that unless you acknowledge your own vulnerability and develop your ability for self-compassion, your growth as a parent will not fully be complete. Guilt and self-blame are heavy stones in your boat as you row down this river. Compassion for yourself is wind in […]
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This morning, I came across a mother wishing she could have an IEP for herself. Her reason? There is so much to manage and to learn for parents, especially when your children need support to meet their potential. She says: How does one set goals for, say, the next six months, and then, gulp, work towards them? In a family […]
Read moreThe last post was on understanding our children as the key to helping them be alert, calm and ready to engage with their world. To expand on that idea, here are some thoughts about what to do when they aren’t calm at all… What do you do if your child is yelling at you all the time? We arrive at […]
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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 […]
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