Hi Everyone, We just received our first volume purchase from a school! Get The Social Express for 50% buying 20 or more! To Do this (FOR NOW) Go to itunes, search for The Social Express, then click on the drop down arrow and select copy link, then paste that link in the Volume Purchase Portal or www.volume.itunes.apple.com/us/store Have a great weekend and thank you for all the work you do to help our kids!
One thing our twin boys have in common with apparently most people in the world is their love of computers. Our early riser especially likes to play with it before the rest of us are even awake! The last few days the computer he uses hasn’t been working. Surely he MUST want to use it. He LOVES it. But, will our child with autism simply ask us for help to get back to one of his favorite activities?
This is a question that goes back eight years. As toddlers they would stand at the gate by the stairs screaming even though they knew the words, and/or signs, for up, down, open, and help. At least we knew what was troubling them, which was not always the case. Their adamant avoidance of language left them alternating between screaming and being mute.
I remember when one of the boys ate five waffles in one sitting. I didn’t even know he was hungry. I felt so sad. The psychology and sociology classes I took in college made me think indicating needs such as hunger and pain is what made us human. They never mentioned autism.
Here are some of the things we did to get our kids with autism to ask for help:
Modeling: “Say, I need help zipping my jacket.” And have them repeat it.
PECS (picture exchange system): Have them point to, or bring you, the picture of what they need. You can take your own photos of their favorite food or toys.
Hiding: Put their backpack, or other necessary item, out of sight to try to engage them.
Prompting: “If you need help getting the computer to work, you need to ask Dad for help.”
One of the issues we had with their early success was just trying to recognize the success. They both had a problem of projecting their voices, which may be a problem for your child with autism. They would say ‘help’ for example, but even the people standing very close by couldn’t hear them.
Another issue is time. This all may sound simple, but for kids with autism, practicing how to ask for help is a goal for the long haul. In the beginning, if we hid their favorite stuffed animal that they slept with every night, they would simply go to bed without it. Out of sight, out of mind. Eventually, they asked for their animals.
This morning one twin prompted the other to ask Dad for help. We’ve waited a long time for today.
What have you done to get your child with autism to ask for help?
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]As we shared in our last post we learned a ton as we started our autistic twins education inside the public school district.
Having taken a ‘deer in the headlights’ approach to our first IEP (Individual Education Program) meeting, it was more of a survival technique than a strategy. The twins were just two, and we had no advanced knowledge of what an IEP was prior to being immersed in one. Here are some thoughts we learned along the way that we wanted to share with you on your journey to educate your child with autism in the public school system.
Workshops. Our Regional Center provides meetings twice a year for parents to learn about the special education process. This includes explaining what an IEP is, tips for preparing for the meeting, and your rights.
Standards. Your school can provide you with a pamphlet each year that outlines the standards for all subjects for your child’s grade. This will help you see where they are headed and where your child will need a goal.
IEP. IEP’s are prepared by the school team to assess the child’s current status and prepare for the future year. They are held annually. Every three years they include an expanded assessment prepared by the school psychologist, and additional questionnaires prepared by the parents.
Meetings generally begin with a review of the goals from the prior IEP. The new IEP starts with an overview of Present Levels, a review of the new Goals, then Accommodations, Modifications and Services that will be provided. You are welcome to invite other team members you are working with outside of school if you have any.
Present Levels. It can be difficult for you to read about your child’s behavior, or level of functioning, seeing it on paper, while other people are around you, even though you live with it. It’s difficult. You may feel defensive or taken back, or in denial. A lot of emotion can come up.
Maybe being around them at home you get used to their behavior. Maybe you don’t see it because life forces you to ’just keep swimming’. Maybe they’re getting away with behaviors at school that they don’t even try at home or maybe the school is exaggerating.
This is a piece of the having a child with autism in the public school system puzzle you will have to get used to on your own. Just be aware that this could be upsetting and that everyone is there to help. Keep in mind that you can’t get to the solutions until you examine the problem.
Goals. Our approach has been to ask each team member in advance of the meeting for a copy of the new goal. There’s a lot of information to go over in an IEP meeting (especially when you have 2 kids on the autism spectrum).
Having a little of that information in advance has been very helpful to us. When goals are presented to us at the meeting for the first time we often don’t have feedback, because we are just trying to take it all in. When we have a chance to review them in advance we feel empowered to roll up our sleeves and be a part of the team.
Accommodations, Modifications and Services. The latter part of the IEP will specify what is needed in terms of personnel and provisions to accomplish the goals. Staff may assist your child in the classroom, or in small groups, or even one-to-one.
Standardized testing may be taken in a smaller setting and with more time. Even seating in the classroom may be discussed. Does your child do better being closer to the teacher, or closer to the board, or in the back of the classroom where no noise is behind them?
Anything that can advance the education of your child is welcome for discussion. Please let us know if you have questions in the comments section below. We’d also love to hear things that worked for you as you worked with the public school system for your autistic child’s education. Good Luck.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
You’re so excited! You just discovered the app store on your computer or your mobile 
device, however, your head is spinning with the amount of apps available for kids with autism. From social skills to math and everything in between, no worries, I know how you feel. I remember my first time checking out apps and thinking ‘how in the world I am going to know what is a gimmick versus what will actually hold my twins attention?’
There are tons of free apps out there and just as many for less than $5.00. My first advice for you is to download an app based on a target area which you are currently working on. I found the non educational apps such as Angry Birds, Bubble Popper, Can Knockdown and Ant Smasher (just to name a few) to be good for my twins to play just for fun. Some of these actually seem to have helped with hand and eye coordination as well.
Be careful though not to let them play some of these apps for too long. Angry Birds in particular seems to make one of my boys extremely anxious. I understand as I have clocked several hours playing this addicting game myself. Here are just a few apps which I have found to be very useful for my kids with autism.
TT Clock- A great app for learning how to tell time
Kids Math Fun- Another great one for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They have it broken out for different grades which is nice
Vocabulary Builder- Learn a new word every day
Sentence Builder– One of my favorites!
Question Builder- A great way to learn who, where, what and why questions
Story Builder- Helps to teach what will happen next.
Shell Lagoon- Works on Homonyms, Synonyms and Antonyms
Piano Plus– A fun way to learn how to play the piano
A Checklist for Choosing an App for Kids with Autism
Making a checklist before jumping into the app store makes a lot of sense to help you decide which app to buy.
1. Write down your target areas.
2. Read reviews before downloading.
3. Ask you therapist or teacher which apps they are using and you can download the same to supplement at home.
4. Make sure to open up the preferences or setting in each new app (if part of the app) and customize to your child’s ability.
5. Pick up a few fun non-educational apps which can be used for downtime fun.
Can you tell us which apps you like to use for your kid(s) with autism?
Image:iStockphoto.com
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]You probably ask yourself every day, assuming you are a parent of a child with autism, ‘what is it going to take for my kid to make a friend?’ Or, how many times have you said either out loud or to yourself, ‘yeah, right? A play date, don’t think so….’
You know the core deficit for kids with autism is the inability to relate to others, but can you actually teach these kids how to socialize? We know for sure children with autism certainly will not learn this by observation, so, the only way they are going to learn social skills is to teach them. Before we founded The Social Express, we tried several different approaches to helping our twins with social learning. Here are groups we have participated in:
Resources or Tools That Helped Us
A Regional Center program called The Star Program consisting of kids with autism.
The Soar program, a program in our elementary school which pairs a ‘typical’ child with a ‘buddy’ learning social skills.
An after school program at our school called “Bunch of Friends” that may or may not include ‘typical’ peers.
Each one of these programs were building blocks for our children to learn how to socialize. All of these programs included adult intervention. The programs providing the most peer interaction proved to be the most beneficial, particularly if outdoor play was included. Programs exclusively for kids with autism, conducted in an indoor room, often provided more examples of inappropriate behavior than appropriate behavior.
We used Carol Grey’s Social Stories to help our kids learn social skills they needed to learn at various times. These included: keeping the right distance between friends, borrowing and returning supplies, and even bathroom etiquette and recently the twins have really enjoyed using Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking® Seminar.
While our twin boys are alike in many ways, the peer playmates they respond best to are very different. One of our boys responds best to girls who are full of energy, basically bossing him around to engage in dramatic play. Our other son would exit stage right in that situation. He is more likely to hang out around a mellow child.
As I am sure you know, every child responds differently to various approaches to teaching. Our twins happen to be visual learners as are most children on the spectrum. The Social Express exploits this learning method by incorporating video modeling, engaging characters, an interactive environment with lots of social situations they experience on a daily basis.
The key is patience, and making sure that when you have a moment which requires social skills, try not to do the talking for your child, and see if they will respond to the situation appropriately. For example, when greeting a familiar person, let them have a chance to say hello, if they don’t, then this becomes a teachable moment. You need to remember that this is a marathon and not a sprint.
This is how we helped our children with autism. If you would like to share what you have done to help your kids with autism, we would love for you to share. Please use the comment section below.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
