Tag: autism

Posted on Autism

Toward an independent lifestyle – Karra Barber talks about her new skill-building workbook for teens and young adults on the autism spectrum

“My son is seventeen and is approaching the age of maturity. In an effort to prepare him toward an independent lifestyle (his goal as well), I knew we needed to build his life and community skills. I wanted him to feel confident in everyday tasks such as buying food, returning an item at the store, going to the bank, washing clothes, using public transportation or making himself a meal…”

Continue Reading
Posted on Adoption and Fostering

My Parent has an Autism Spectrum Disorder: Barbara Lester talks about her new book for children and teens

“I always knew that my father seemed different from other fathers, but back then I didn’t know there was a name that described this difference or that there might be other people who had similar issues in their families. Once I realized that my father had an ASD, it helped me better understand and get along with him. I have found that over the past ten years there has been an exponential increase in the amount of information available to parents to help them understand their ASD children, but almost no information for children or teens to help them understand their ASD parents. I wrote this book to begin to fill that gap.”

Continue Reading
Posted on Adoption and Fostering

Interview: JKP author Georgina Derbyshire Stands Up for Autism

“Some things that our children say or do can be especially poignant in certain situations and, quite often, they can say things that are so truthful, we just wouldn’t dare say them ourselves! There shouldn’t be anything sad or embarrassing about situations like these. We should see the humour in it and not feel guilty to laugh out loud. I think it is important to embrace moments like these as we have enough of a hard time and laughing can help redress the balance. Laughter is very good for stress too, so there’s no excuse!”

Continue Reading
Posted on Autism

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.”

Continue Reading