Autism: 10 Lessons for the Course of Life

Lesson #10: "Plan For The Life Ahead: High School and Young Adulthood"  In this final episode of 10 Lessons, Dr. Rick summarizes the lessons covered throughout the podcast, and speaks with three families about how they each navigated their children on the spectrum through high school and beyond. Other areas of discussion include Diploma vs Certificate, Guardianship, and College.   Show Notes...

Lesson #9: "Getting Ready for True Academics: 5th grade - If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere."  In this episode, Dr. Rick talks with the McCormick family about their perspectives on how they successfully navigated their children through school.   Show Notes Stanley Greenspan MD and Serena Weider PhD, Engaging Autism , 2006 - gives a good description of the higher functional emo...

Lesson #8: "Making Friends: How to Promote Social and Self Awareness (Who Cares About Theory of Mind?)"  In this episode, Dr. Rick speaks with Jeff, Heather, and Kate; as well as Jill and Liam about their experiences with forming friendships, as well as social and self awareness.   Show Notes Winner, Michelle. https://www.socialthinking.com/ – This website has a large number of options for ch...

Lesson #7: "How to be School Savvy - Give The Children M&M’s (Meaning and Motivation)"  In this episode, Educational Consultant and Advocate Sara Huvaere speaks with Dr. Rick about how to advocate for your child's educational accommodations, knowing your rights as a parent, and how to help make your child's education meaningful and motivating.   Show Notes Sara Huvaere, M.Ed. Educational...

Lesson #6: "Learn to Read then Read to Learn: The critical importance of the 3 R’s"  In this episode, meet 3 families who share their practical insights on how to help children on the spectrum ‘learn to read and then read to learn’. The twins, Amelia and Abigail, are homeschooled and learn to read fairly early with lots of creative ideas from their parents, especially mom; Alex has a reading disab...

In Lesson #5: "Welcome Misbehavior: The Immature Expression Of Legitimate Feelings!"  In this episode of 10 Lessons, Dr. Rick talks with The McCarthy family about misbehavior, how it often manifests as a result of children not having the means to express their legitimate feelings, and the importance of recognizing those feelings. He also discusses the 3 types of parenting patterns, the 3 types of...

In Lesson #4: "Please! Delay Kindergarten!"  For the child with autism, delaying kindergarten offers them an opportunity to make a full year of developmental progress as they get ready for the academic and social demands of school. In this episode Dr. Rick describes the 7 Habits of Highly Successful Kindergarteners and interviews two sets of parents who describe the creative ways they helped their...

In Lesson #3: “When Will My Child Talk? Interaction, Imagination, and Emotion, O My!” In this episode, Dr. Rick interviews Dawn and Alex Ham-Kucharski. Dawn is an author with a new book, Autism from Diagnosis to Adulthood and Alex is Dawn and Rich Ham Kucharski’s son, a young adult with autism. The lesson in this episode is that the whole family matters. Dr. Rick, Dawn, and Alex explore the parado...

In Lesson #2: “The Whole Family Matters: Parents who take care of themselves take better care of their families” In this episode, Dr. Rick interviews Dawn and Alex Ham-Kucharski. Dawn is an author with a new book, Autism from Diagnosis to Adulthood and Alex is Dawn and Rich Ham Kucharski’s son, a young adult with autism. The lesson in this episode is that the whole family matters. Dr. Rick, Dawn,...

In Lesson #1: “When you do what the child loves, the child with autism will love to be with you.” Dr. Rick interviews Jeff and Heather about their daughter Kate and what it takes to get started with a  successful intervention program.  They share their struggles with grief and getting Kate’s diagnosis of autism, about trying out different therapies until they found what worked, and how i...