A Message to Parents

Dear Parents, I am finally back after a long silence for almost two years. It is very hard to disengage myself from thinking and writing about...

Archive for January, 2013

Continue: Be Specific Not Frustrated

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

Anecdote A student was in the middle of writing on a lined paper, but wasn’t really staying on the line. I told her: “Write on the line please!” Usually, this particular student is good at staying on the line, but for some reason she wasn’t doing it at this specific moment. Not to my surprise

“Higher Maternal Age Predicts Risk of Autism”

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

Increased risk for autism linked to older maternal age. A research analysing the link between maternal age and the risk of having children with autism. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120426104959.htm nadia schanab

Be Specific Not Frustrated

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

How would you feel if you asked a child to run, and her response was to run in her very same spot she was standing on? Anecdote It is the PE class and the routine activity is to start off by running a lap to warm up. All the kids are running and even racing

Teach Children to Pretend

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

Anecdote: Inflexibility After reading a lullaby (poem) to her class, the teacher wanted to bring out the best of the poem. She decided to act out and animate the message that the poem was trying to convey. She picked up the little, light-weighted kids to model the mother’s character in the poem. One of the

Mozart Effect on Individuals with Delayed Development

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

I once wrote an article about the benefits of playing Mozart’s adapted music for children in classrooms. My experience was very successful in reducing the number of temper tantrums that some autistic child used to have. Listening to Baby Mozart’s CD helped children relax and focus on their tasks. The classroom was more peaceful and

Autism Songs by Ryan Walsh

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

Take a break and listen to some beautiful songs. www.youtube.com/playlist?list

Free Interactive Concerts for Children with Autism

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

Your child pobably loves music like many other children with autism. You have also tried to satisfy his musical interest and got disappointed with people’s looks and whispers. Your dream is to take your child to a concert and be able to enjoy listening and participating in a concert without being sigmatized. Watch the video. Please

Employment of Adults with High-Functioning Autism and Asperger’s

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

Adults with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s Syndrome have some qualities that typically developed people (off the spectrum) don’t. According to Marc Lazar,program director at Aspiritech:”They can find details that most people miss, they’re able to focus for long periods of time, and they really savor specific kinds of work like software testing, lab work and

Asperger’s vs. High Functioning Autism

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

What is the difference? Unlike high-functioning autism, individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome didn’t have delayed speech in their early childhood. To the contrary, they can be very eloquent and fluent in their speech. In addition, they have no problem making eye-contact. They also didn’t necessarily have delayed cognitive development. However, they share some autistic traits with typically

A Revision to ASD Is Proposed In DSM-5 in May 1013

By Nadia Shanab | Uncategorized

“A revision to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is proposed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders version 5 (DSM-5), which will be released in May 2013.[8] The new diagnosis will encompass current diagnoses of autistic disorder, Asperger’s disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, and PDD-NOS. Rather than categorizing these diagnoses, the DSM-5 will adopt a dimensional