autismfamilystory. com

There seems to be no end in sight at this time because of Covid-19 and reality is soon set in that our kids might not go back to school for this school year and the responsibility of educating them is on our shoulders. Today I am continuing on part two of my blog series. In the last blog post, I shared some tips for parents on how we can take care of ourselves and help our kids during this crisis. I highly recommend please go back and read that post before you read this as it is very important for us as parents to be strong and healthy both mentally and physically to care for our kids. It works on the same principle wherein if you are traveling on a plane and there is sudden decompression and oxygen masks drop we need to put our own mask first before we can help anyone else. Today I am going to share some images and resources I am using with my son to give his day some kind of structure and normalcy. like all kids with autism he needs a schedule and a routine which helps him ...

We are living a new normal life during this corona-virus pandemic and at present there seems to be no sight of the end of this as the whole world is affected by this. It is a reality we cannot do anything about it but accept it and continue to live our life taking it one day at a time. It is a very difficult time for everyone but very hard for parents with special needs families. Our kids thrive on consistency and structure which is lost at this time. It is very hard for them to adjust to a change in routine and now it is even more challenging. We have to find ways to keep our kids entertained and to give their day some kind of structure. I am sure we all are doing our best but the main reason I am writing this post today to share some ideas on how we as parents can take care of ourselves so we are in a better position to help our children. I want to stress how important it is for us as parents to take care of ourselves first so we are in a better position to help our kids as they ...

We are living in unprecedented times today with the COVID-19 pandemic. It has forced countries around the world into lockdown. Social distancing has become a new normal for all of us. School closures are new normal and at this time we don't know if kids can go back to school before the next school year. It is difficult for all of us but it is more difficult for special needs families. It is well-known fact kids with autism thrive on a routine which in turn reduces anxiety but at this time there is a disruption in the routine which is causing stress to the kids and the families. We the parents of kids with special needs have been conferred an additional responsibility of educating our kids with special needs as lots of teachers are sending resources home either online or paper-based for our kids to work during this time. Our kids do not learn like typical kids and they need a hands-on approach to learn. Lots of parents have no experience in teaching their kids. I am going to out...

It is very hard to believe we are living today in unprecedented times. The coronavirus pandemic is going on all around the world and nobody is immune to it. It is crazy how things have changed rapidly over the past few days and it is hitting us at hard at home. This all started in China a couple of months ago. I don't think anyone of us thought it will get so bad as we all are in it together. The events started rolling since last week when schools called for extended breaks as many of the schools are in March break now. This change of routine is hard for all of us but especially hard for our kids with special needs as we know our kids with autism thrive on a routine. They are calling for all of us to practice social distancing by staying indoors and do our part to stop spreading the virus. The reason I wanted to do this post is to provide parents with some of the resources and strategies which are available today for us to help our kids get through these difficult times. ...

Today I am going to talk about some of the materials you need to buy up front to make your own resources for your children. It is a little bit of investment upfront but trusts me it will pay for itself in the long run. Having the materials at hand helps you to save money as going to places like Staples or other commercial places gets very expensive especially when they charge you on a per-page basis. 1)Printer- A good quality printer is a must-have resource you need in your tool kit to make any kind of resource. There are good quality printers available commercially at a reasonable price. I own the EPSON ET-2550. It comes with super tank ink which can last up to 2 years. It has saved me tons of money over the years. I spent a lot of money before I owned this to print resources. The other thing you will need is a good quality printer paper or card stock whatever you can afford to make your resources durable. 2)Laminator-  This is a must-have product if you want to preserv...

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...