autismfamilystory. com

We all know kids with autism need specialized individualized programs put in place for them to make progress in their learning goals in terms of their academic, behavior, social skills and self-help skills. This is the reason why an IEP (individualized learning plan) is put in place for every child. I struggled to find appropriate resources for my son right from the early days. The community classrooms did have resources for kids to work in the school but they did not have enough to send the resources home for me to practice with my son. Also the commercially available resources available in specialty stores were too expensive to buy. I started doing some research in this area to see what kind of resources were available online at a fraction of a cost. I came across a site Teachers pay Teachers accidently five years ago. Thus started my journey of making resources for my son. This is the world's first and largest marketplace with millions of resources. The greatest benefit of ...

One of the core deficits of autism is difficulty in communication. This is evident from the fact that 40% of kids with autism are nonverbal even though most of them have average or above-average intelligence. The cause for why such a high percentage of kids are nonverbal is unknown. In the case of our son he started babbling around the age of two but never really developed verbal speech as he started showing signs of autism and began showing regression in skills. He became silent even before a formal diagnosis. He remained silent for the next couple of years. He started saying some single words around the age of four and we used to hear a new word every day even though it never progressed to saying a sentence. Even though he was still not speaking we were very hopeful he would speak one day.  Around the age of seven Aarian got diagnosed with a rare seizure disorder due to which he is nonverbal till today. In the meanwhile, during this time at home, he would take our hands to sh...

It is a well-known fact that Autism affects the whole family not just the child with special needs. Siblings play a very important role in the life of the child with special needs It affects them in a myriad of ways . They will be their longer in their brother or sister's life long after we are gone. We all know having a child with autism takes a lot from families. The first thing which happens is as parents we feel responsible to help our kids that we dedicate countless hours to help them and in turn are not able to spend as much time with our typical kids. I am personally guilty of it as well as now somewhere I feel I missed out making a connection with my older son. Even though he is grown up now and understands why I was not able to devote more time to him I do realize somewhere deep down he has developed resentment towards me. please don't get me wrong our older son loves his brother a lot but it is natural for him to feel that way. The other common thread which worrie...

Intensive Behavioral Intervention (IBI) is an evidence-based practice designed to improve core learning skills in areas of language, cognitive, and social development. Aarian started a clinic-based IBI program in September of 2012 around 7 years of age. He used to attend school 2 days a week during this program. The program included a team of instructor therapists working with Aarian supervised by Senior therapist for up to 30 hours per week. A clinical supervisor was responsible for overseeing the development of the child's curriculum and monitoring the overall progress. VB-Mapp assessment was conducted for Aarian and a program was put in place with the following goals. Aarian will increase the scope of his manding which is also requesting for his desired items and activities using PECS book. A total of two 20 minutes sessions per day were run in order to introduce Aarian to a variety of new stimuli in order to identify new reinforcers. In addition to manding for desired ite...

It is a well-known fact that most of the waking hours of a child with autism are spent in some kind of therapy. It feels like there is no life outside of therapy. We feel the need to provide intervention to our kids at every available time. It is very important for us to provide our kids with a chance to be kids because that is exactly who they are. It is vital we help our kids to take part in different extracurricular activities outside of therapy which can help in their overall development. Most of our kids have  poor motor and social skills. Engaging in these activities can help with this. I was very keen on Aarian to participate in different activities right from the beginning. I enrolled him in a gym program since he was four years old. He continued the program until he turned twelve. The program was very unique as it gave Aarian an opportunity to integrate with typical kids. They had relays, noncompetitive gymnastics as a part of a one hour program which Aarian attended on...

Autism is a spectrum disorder wherein the majority of our children are nonverbal. They have difficulty in letting people know about their thoughts, feelings, and the amount of knowledge they have within them. Even though they are nonverbal most of these children have average or above-average intellectual abilities. It is normal for people to judge children on their verbal abilities. If the child speaks they are considered to be smart and capable. Most of the people are ignorant when it comes to a nonverbal child and automatically assume they are not capable of thinking and doing things. So here we as parents come in as we are our children's best advocate. It is our responsibility to help people understand the amazing potential our children have. I personally experienced this as well as you all know our son is nonverbal. I used to think about how will I teach Aarian the letters and letter sounds. One day he amazed us when we came to know he had thought himself to read. Most of t...

We all have dreams and aspirations when our child is born. We all want to do the best for them. The whole dynamic changes when you realize your child has special needs. All of a sudden you feel there is a big responsibility on your shoulders to provide the best possible care for your child. It is a journey you have to undertake for a child you have not for a child you thought you will have. There are many challenges a family has to face when they have a child with special needs.  All of a sudden your life revolves around your child. One of the big struggles is your friends and family do not understand your situation and all of a sudden you feel so lonely and isolated. They talk about different milestones their kids have achieved but yet those milestones seem to be so far away from our kids. It hurts at times even though we are happy for them as to why our child has to struggle to achieve the things we take for granted. They talk about how their children cannot stop talking wherea...