autismfamilystory. com

We continue to be still amid the coronavirus pandemic which led to school closures for kids from all over the world. In some parts of the world school year is almost done for this year and summer vacations have started. All of a sudden we were pushed into the world of distance learning wherein the responsibility to teach our kids fell on our shoulders with many of us juggling both roles still working remotely at home with the additional responsibility of educating our kids through distance learning. I personally was a bit apprehensive as to how my son will cope with remote learning as he is a child on the spectrum and he like many of the kids on the spectrum needs an individualized type of learning with alignment to their IEP goals. The point of writing this blog post is to share some strategies which I used with my own son .we still have almost a whole month of school left before summer break officially starts. It is a well-known fact our kids thrive on a structure to reduce frust

It has been almost ten weeks since we all have been home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We all have been practicing social distancing. It is becoming very important to limit our trips to the grocery store. This means we need to make sure we are stocking up on the right kinds of foods so we can make healthy and nutritious meals for our families. We must feed our kids healthy foods as it is in such times all our efforts can unravel quickly if we don't do some advance meal planning so we can have our fridge and pantry stocked with the right kind of food which will provide us with some comfort and help us to increase the immunity of our kids and family as a whole. I am going to share some of the strategies I have been following for the past few weeks to keep my family well-fed during this time. We have a medically vulnerable child at home so going to the grocery store at this time is not an option for us. We have been ordering groceries that are delivered to our doorstep at a small

We continue to live in our new normal. It is a well-known fact that kids won't be going back to school for the rest of this school year. It is a vital role we as parents are playing currently in helping our children learn through distance learning which is a new norm for all of us. Some kids lately are resisting learning this way and many parents are faced with an important question on how they can help their kids learn by avoiding power struggles which are not fun for anybody. I am going to tell you a little secret today which will alleviate this problem to some extent. We all know kids on the spectrum are obsessed with technology and different gadgets like smartphones, chrome books, tablets, and many more devices. I would love to make a confession here I am obsessed with iPad apps and own countless apps some of which are free and some which I have purchased over the years and use it with my son today. I do limit his screen time as I know that is a big concern for all of us but

There is a new way we all are leading our lives at this time during the coronavirus crisis. Social distancing is still in effect. Hopefully, we will see light at the end of the tunnel we all are in right now. It has been hard on all of us but very challenging for our kids with autism who are sensing there is something going on but cannot express it to us as most of them are non-verbal or even if they speak they still cannot express it to us. So here AAC comes in to play. For those of you who don't know what AAC is. It is short for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. The purpose of this is to provide the child or adult with a form of communication. These come in two forms a low tech option like PECS which is the short form of picture exchange communication system, communication books, or boards.  There are high tech options like dedicated speech generating devices, also Proloquo2go,, Touch Chat, and many more apps. I am not a speech therapist but I am trying to share som