So how do you accomplish everything we’ve discussed on a limited budget?  It’s not as hard as you might think – Here are some very basic tips: Decide what the most important change should be (paint color, replacing furniture, buying a new bed).  Make changes in order of priority.  It’s...

There are many different ways a person with autism can be affected by music. For example, certain music can foster a desire to communicate with others.  This is often in due part because music can help break the patterns of social isolation. Music can also be used to motivate spontaneous movements while...

There are few things more rewarding than being able to change someone’s life for the better. It’s even more gratifying when your work can help an entire family. The weekend of July 11th, 2009 I was fortunate enough to have the most profoundly rewarding experience of my career while turning skeptics...

I believe that love and learning are two experiences a child shouldn’t have to earn. Sometimes life presents you with learning opportunities quite naturally, like when you touch something hot it hurts, or when you stay up late for too many nights your attention starts to blur. Another form of learning...

One of the most challenging endeavors is getting a child with autism to be more independent and assertive.  Professionals and parents agree that this goal is crucial, however many children with autism remain deficient in this area of independent functioning because of a lack of comprehensive understanding...

There are many different pitfalls one can fall in to when creating the décor for a child’s room. The first and most popular is the traditional tendency to be attached to color based on gender. Pink for girls.  Blue for boys. While I think the majority of parents have begun to break away from that...

“There is a considerable body of research in which total communication was compared with speech alone and/or with manual signing alone to teach receptive and/or expressive vocabulary to children with autism who had limited or no functional speech.  In general, the results of these studies suggest...

In my last article I examined two widely-held myths regarding language and communication which I referred to as part of speech-language pathology’s “folk lore”. Myth #1 had to do with taking the act of speaking for granted, based upon the fact that since so many people are able to speak effortlessly,...

This article examines speech-language pathology’s “folk lore” – the commonly held myths about language communication that all too often stand in the way of student progress in this critically important area of development. Myth #1: Talking must be easy since so many people do it so effortlessly. Nothing...

When you think about a regression, words like fear, loss, and failure often come to mind. By definition, a regression means going backwards, or in terms of human functioning, the return of previously alleviated negative symptoms or patterns.  The autistic brain has difficulty being able to consistently...