60 Social Situations and Discussion Starters to Help Teens on the Autism Spectrum Deal with Friendships, Feelings, Conflict and More

“I think parents are a key component to teens understanding the social puzzle. No one knows a child better than their parent and every family has its own set of values. If parents work together with their teens it will not only bring guidance to the teen but also insight to the parent on how their teen thinks. Parents can guide their teen to responses that are acceptable within their own family values.”

March 4, 2011Autism

JKP author Jan Greenman attends the Ambitious About Autism charity launch at the House of Lords, UK

By Jan Greenman, author of Life at the Edge and Beyond: Living with ADHD and Asperger Syndrome. Last year my son Luke spoke to author…

January 19, 2011Autism

How to Make School Inclusion a Success for Children with Autism – An Interview with Kay Al-Ghani and Lynda Kenward

“Children with ASD are not good at generalising. They cannot transfer knowledge from one situation to another. Something as simple as having a different symbol to show ‘choosing’ for example, may result in the child being unable to understand what is expected. Not all schools have access to symbol writing programmes or they may be different from those used by early years practitioners. Parents usually have no access at all and are not even aware of the visual symbols they could be using to aid their child’s understanding at home…The aim of the book is to promote and foster collaboration between the home and the school. This will result in improved generalisation of skills and opportunities to exchange ideas and to decide what methodology works best for the child.”

January 11, 2011Autism

How Social Enjoyment Groups Work: An Interview with John Merges

In December, JKP author John Merges shared some thoughts about his passion: helping young people on the autism spectrum enjoy social interactions – an important skill…

December 13, 2010Autism

John Merges on Social Enjoyment Groups for young people with Autism Spectrum Disorders

“Social enjoyment, as both an important life and employment skill, needs to be taught and practiced as early as possible. We need to provide our young people with safe, predictable situations to practice enjoying a social interaction. The successes I’ve seen in my own work demonstrate that social enjoyment is indeed a skill – and thus, can be learned.”

December 8, 2010Autism

How Teachers and TAs can help Students with Asperger Syndrome access the curriculum in inclusive classrooms

By Gill D. Ansell, author of Working with Asperger Syndrome in the Classroom: An Insider’s Guide Being a Teaching Assistant is not what it once…

November 9, 2010Autism

How Educators Can Help Students with Asperger Syndrome Relieve Anxieties at School (and Avoid Meltdowns at Home!)

By Gill D. Ansell, author of Working with Asperger Syndrome in the Classroom: An Insider’s Guide. Often, a child with Asperger Syndrome (AS) will seem…

November 8, 2010Adoption and Fostering

Kay and Haitham Al-Ghani on ‘Learning About Friendship’ – Stories to support social skills training for children with ASD in the classroom

“One small boy in my class was having great trouble going on school outings because he would not wear a seat belt. The bus driver came to tell me that he would not be allowed to go on any more trips. I thought this was rather harsh and so the very next day I told my class a story about Tedrick the teddy who would not wear a seat belt…We role-played the parts of the driver, the teachers and the other children on the bus. I emphasised how happy the driver was when all the children wore their seat belts and I asked the boy in question if he would mind taking Tedrick on the next trip. Guess what, that boy was the first one on the bus doing up his own and Tedrick’s seat belt!”

October 26, 2010Adoption and Fostering

‘Organize Your ADD/ADHD Child’ – An interview with JKP author Cheryl Carter

Cheryl R. Carter is a former special needs teacher and the founder of Organized Kidz, an organization that assists special needs children with organization and…

October 13, 2010Autism

Working with Asperger Syndrome in the Classroom – An Interview with former Teaching Assistant and JKP author, Gill D. Ansell

“As a Teaching Assistant I felt able to work closely with the students with AS; to get to know them as a person; to get to see the world the way they see it and from there develop strategies to help individuals. Sometimes, I tried new strategies which in reality were just ideas I had which I thought could work with a particular individual – that’s why it is important to know the student as an individual.”