The answer to this question depends mainly on the child’s level of awareness of herself, both socially and cognitively. Some high-functioning children already know that they have autism. They know their condition very well, and are able to describe it precisely. This category of children knows its strengths as well as its weaknesses. Moreover, they

You can read my new article about meanstreaming in the online edition of the San José Mercury News or in the Cupertino Courier local news edition. Click here. nadia

As I mentioned in the previous post, schools are going to welcome their precious students very soon. Parents, please read the fact sheet and make sure to share it with your child’s teacher(s). Co-operation between home and school is major key to your child’s success. Communication facilitates the mission of raising and educating our children.

A new school year is around the corner and about to emerge! Parents and educators are you ready? Here are some tips to help you get off on the right foot. Bear in mind, there are three main goals in raising and educating children with autism that we are working on: Independence Better Social Skills Stronger Communication

The Early Start Denver Model (DSDM) is a comprehensive behavioral program that reduces cost of special education services throughout the schooling years. When joining this program many services and therapies will be reduced. The program is clinically controlled. Social skills and interaction showed great improvement following this program. Even if the first two years in

What should you do if your child is bored in her/his school? Do you know why is she/he bored? Is the program too easy for her/him? In this case your child needs to change the current placement which needs to be discussed in the IEP meeting seriously with no delay. You definitely want your child

A very insightful article in the the British “Guardian” newspaper, what parents of children with autism think about a cure. Some parents are very realistic, others are in denial. How does the media participate in helping/discouraging parents. Cure? Therapy? What is the most important support, resources do parents need? Read what parents say here: www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/01/parents-children-autism-cure

For paraeducators who wish to learn more, here are the classes and workshops offered in this conference: members.csea.com/cseaMail/attmentuploads/cml_1212_1.pdf The 16th Annual Paraeducator Conference is coming up April 10-12, 2013 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California. Attached is a registration brochure offering a tentative list of classes available to attendees. While this cutting-edge conference has always

When we try to classify individuals with autism on the spectrum, we usually refer to two major categories: HF, high-functioning and LF, low-functioning. Ironically, it was decided to use the word spectrum or continuum to include the whole range of autistic people. If you consider the Bell Diagram/Graph/Curve that describes the natural distribution of any

The American Psychiatric Association voted this weekend to remove the diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome from the so-called bible of psychiatry, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders. People with Asperger’s will now more likely be diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorder. The APA says the change will lead to more accurate diagnoses for people with