Blog

Pencil Tapping, An Inclusive Activity Thinking Beyond the ABC’s Behaviour   I recently provided a full day seminar to a small group of school based professionals. During questions and answers, one of the educators asked me how I would suggest they handle the following situation: “A boy with autism in the 5th grade is sitting […]

Recess Jungle : How it Impacts the Lives of Children with Autism Sarah runs up to a child on the playground at recess time. She pushes the child and runs away looking back at the child while giggling. The child immediately tells the supervising education assistant (EA) that Sarah has pushed him. The EA knows […]

Regardless of whether you are crying or laughing, if you cannot control your emotional state, then you are dysregulated. From time to time most of us need a little help staying well regulated. Sometimes we need a walk, a hug, to yell, scream, cry, or even talk to a trusted friend. Individuals on the autism […]

While delivering our Simulation Game program one day, two adults sat together chatting while frequently reminding the students to “be quiet”.  After the program, one of the ladies came up to me saying, “Heather, can I ask you one question?” Following the program questions are typically about the program, therefore I turned to the lady and said, […]

While delivering our Autism Demystification programs at a local school, a wonderful grade four student on the autism spectrum said, “Don’t want friends”. During recess, I watched as this same child walked around the playground beside the EA (education assistant). While his same aged peers were completely engaged in peer social play, he stayed close […]

Facing the Crowd Six Strategies to Help the Bullied Parents Bullying, regardless of its form, usually stems from a lack of understanding, acceptance and empathy. As parents of children with autism, we worry about our children being bullied. We protect them from it in every way possible. However, as parents of children with autism we […]

It is the first week back at play groups at the Friend 2 Friend Play Centre for children with autism after the holiday break. The play theme this week is space. A highly motivating theme that is very versatile, becoming almost anything that the players imagine it to be. This flexible play theme is especially important on […]

Raising Children with Autism: The importance of Affinity Based Peer Play Activities Does your child like trains, animated videos, Angry Birds, Dora, Star Wars, Frozen, toilets flushing, plane propellers? While some of these affinities may be considered to be conventional, others may not. Regardless of your child’s affinity, using those affinities to bridge the gap […]

Necessity, are Mothers of a Children On the Autism Spectrum I will never forget the moment my child was diagnosed, I started to cry, but not because I was upset that the doctor had agreed with my suspicions. I cried out of relief that someone finally saw what I saw, that someone finally believed me. […]

Raising Children with Autism: Demystifying Classmates, Neighbours, Family and Friends The autism community has changed in a great number of ways over the past 23 years (the age of my son). For example, when Friend 2 Friend Social Learning Society started delivering our first Autism Demystification program in 2002 we were not “permitted” to use the […]

I wish I had a dime for every time a parent of child with autism has asked me “should I tell” either the school, classmates and even sadly sometimes the individual themselves.What is disclosure? It is a noun that means “the action of making new or secret information known” (Wikipedia 2016). When you share with someone information […]