Tip Give your child the opportunity to play a musical instrument at an early age. Help your child explore and experience the practice of playing music and look for her favorite instrument. It may take time to land on the perfect instrument that matches your child’s interest and needs. Be patient don’t give up. Why

If you are expecting your child or students to consistently comply, obey, agree, and follow your directions every time you ask her, you must be dreaming. This is just so unrealistic. Whether your child/student is on the autism spectrum or not, it is unlikly that you’ll to be listened to all the time. Parents and

“There’s no reason to miss out on holiday gatherings” Here are some tips to help parents of special needs kids to enjoy the holiday season and be part of their community and stay connected to their family and friends. Don’t turn down any invitations. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how interesting your experience was. Read the

Family gatherings are around the corner! Most people love to celebrate traditions and keep cultures. Soon you’ll receive many invitations to join lunches, dinners, parties with your family and friends. Parents with kids on the autism spectrum, tend to decline these invitations and find an excuse to escape all kinds of gatherings. As much as

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. Dalai Lama Research shows that people are becoming less happy, less fulfilled and less satisfied over the last two generations. Fifty years ago depression was known to affect people over thirty; now even children in elementary schools and adolescents are suffering from depression.

Watch an interview with Temple Grandin that inspires “hope”. She briefly touches on most aspects of autism. templegrandin.com/ nadia shanab

You may have noticed that most of my articles are about trying to help parents and educators raise and educate kids with autism. So, most of  the tips I suggest are usually targeting the kids. But, how about parents and educators themselves? Can they always be in their greatest shape, best mood, and ready to provide

The following tips can be applied in classrooms as well as at home. Be positive in scanning the environment for possible behavioral precipitants. Reduce or eleminate stressors, to the extent possible. Read the student’s cue and signals and react before inapporopriate behavior occurs. “Plug in” activities designed to reduce stress and anxiety before behavioral disruptions

The Instructional Assistant’s Mission Statement Know well both your students and the disabilities that they manifest. Learn to take your students’ perspectives, and realize that they have significant difficulty taking yours. Always look beyond your students’ behaviors to determine the functions that those behaviors serve. Be neither blinded by your students’ strengths, nor hold them

Before you ask a student to follow your directions and be compliant, you have to build a good relationship based on trust and respect between you. A child needs to know that in a case of emergency she/he can trust and rely on you to help her/him out. On a school site the child needs