Dental Care for Children With Autism Children with autism are likely to suffer many more oral health problems than children without autism. Parents and caregivers can do several things to make oral hygiene and dental visits easier for their autistic kids. Implementing behavioral techniques, using autism-friendly dental products, and seeking out dental professionals with specialized …
In our early childhood center, we have children who range in age from 3-7 years old. To have meaningful sessions with children, play therapy is an effective technique. This is because play is a core component for child development. According to Lynne Kenney and Rebecca Comizio, play is crucial to the child’s cognitive development, motor …
What is Social Emotional Learning? What does it look like? These questions are commonly asked by parents, yet they are commonly demonstrated by students daily by their interactions and interpersonal relationships established in the classroom with their instructors and peers. According to the ‘Committee for Children,’ Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is, “the process of developing …
What does it mean to be a black or brown boy with ADHD? It can mean he displays symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, but he does not have a diagnosis. It may mean that a black or brown boy is appropriately diagnosed with ADHD, but because implicit bias is an issue facing schools and society, he …
When students engage in challenging behaviors it can be frustrating, confusing, and elicit other unwanted feelings. At times these feelings may interfere with our ability to look at the behaviors with clear eyes and ask: Why is this behavior happening? To answer this question and understand the behavior, one must consider a few fundamental concepts …
One of the biggest concerns for teens with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is their social communication skills. As students become older, the focus of their speech therapy starts to stray away from the academic side and focuses more on the social aspects of communication. For example, how to initiate, continue and end a …
Why Incorporate Visuals? Visuals are beneficial supports for children with limited verbal communication. Hodgdon (1995) proposed four reasons for using visuals within home, school, and community environments: (a) visuals increase children’s reliability (they are more likely to know what to do and then to do this repeatedly), (b) visuals encourage children to be more independent, …
What are milestones? Milestones are skills and behaviors that children gain as they grow up and continue to develop! Milestones are broken up into “stages” and/or “age ranges” because all children hit milestones at slightly different times. Language milestones include articulation, receptive language, expressive language, social communication, cognitive-communication, and literacy expectations. It’s important to remember …
Using visuals at home is an effective and costless way to improve children’s speech and language skills and abilities. Visual aids have been shown to help advance communication. Visual aids can be broken down into any object that is viewed – it could be an object, picture, or sign. Visual aids can fall under the …
Our lives are full of transitions and tasks that need to be done daily; these could be things such as doing homework, getting paperwork done, or making dinner for your family. These may be simple tasks that everyone does, but some individuals may have a more challenging time than others. Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum …
