Archive for May 2012

Monthly Archive

Preparing for Your Child’s IEP Meeting

An IEP, or Individualized Education Program, is a document that describes a student’s special education plan.  Every student who receives special education services has an IEP.  Like children with autism, no two IEPs are exactly the same.  The content of an IEP varies from child to child depending on his or her unique needs.  An IEP is intended to be a “living, breathing” document that changes as students make progress towards their goals and as their needs change.  Read full post »

Summer Camp Ideas for Children with Autism

Summer. Vacation.

Two exciting words for many kids and parents. For children and families living with autism, the end of the school year and the long days of summer can be very challenging- and anything but relaxing. Finding appropriate and accommodating summer camps and activities for children on the autism spectrum requires some preparation and planning. We hope this information will help you prepare for a relaxing, pleasant and relatively stress-free summer. Read full post »

Why Do Kids with Autism Do That?

When my kids were young, my son Justin was quite curious about the many odd mannerisms his sister with autism demonstrated.

We welcomed his questions as well as those from his curious neighborhood friends who we were determined to include in our friendly and oh-so-unconventional home. I did my parental best to offer up ideas as to why she does what she does, and thankfully they didn’t question me or ask to see the evidence behind my hypotheses.

We asked a panel of providers to give us their best answers as to why our kids do what they do. Shelley O’Donnell is an Occupational Therapist specializing in children with autism at Seattle Therapy Services. Jim Mancini is a Speech Language Pathologist and Emily Rastall is a Clinical Psychologist, both at Seattle Children’s Autism Center. Read full post »

The Autism Blog’s One Year Anniversary

It has been one whole year since we leaped into the blogosphere and launched The Autism Blog.

We set out to provide a resource to parents, caregivers and families affected by autism. We wanted to write from our heart, but also with our head, as we know a Google search on “autism” can be so confounding and lead to so many more questions than answers. That said, we have picked and chosen the topics we covered carefully. Today we want to share with you what has been most popular (based on the number of page views) and what we hope to do in the next year. Read full post »