Not Your Average Autism Mom

Our life is surrounded by technology. Electronics are a part of everyone’s life but it is important that you understand the negative effects too much screen time can be causing for our children with autism. Some studies suggest that increased screen time in young children is associated with decreased cognitive ability, impaired language development, mood, and autistic-like behavior including hyper...

You can love your child with every ounce of you and worry less.  Yes, that is possible.   Worry is generally based around a fear of something that you have no way to predict the outcome of but here’s the truth… worry never solved a problem.  When we begin to worry, our thoughts usually start with WHAT IF? I know that there are so many things that you probably worry about, I can’t ev...

Raising our children is difficult at times, we know that.  When they exhibit often unexpected and disruptive behaviors it can be hard to determine if it is just a phase they are going through or if there is more?  Autism is not a single disorder, but a spectrum of closely related disorders that share core symptoms, and while every child on the spectrum will struggle to some degree with s...

I remember 20 years ago when Jordan was diagnosed with PDD-NOS and how many questions I had.  Questions about what it all meant? Questions about what I was supposed to do? Was it curable or treatable? Like a disease? I honestly had no clue what getting a diagnosis meant for not only him but for our family.   At the time, I didn’t know anyone who had a child with autism, and listen I was...

Being consistent in our parenting with consequences for broken rules and unacceptable behavior is the only way that things will get easier. It is not going to be easy and you have to go through the hard to get to the other side where it will be easier. Now it is important to know that the goal of a consequence is not punishment. The goal of a consequence is to teach. We need to use consequences be...

We have to stop feeling victim to our lives. We have to stop feeling sorry for ourselves because our parenting journey is different than other people in our family or our friend circle. Look, let's just be honest, raising a child or children with autism is not easy, we all know that. I want all of you to stop thinking about your life and the first feeling you get is overwhelmed or tired. You have...

Things can be different for our families during the holidays.  The holidays are a joyous and festive time of year but for our families who live with an autistic child in our home, this isn't always the case.   From holiday decorations to parties, religious events, and gift exchanges, all of these events can cause increased anxiety for our kids.   No one knows your child better than...

ESY services are defined as special education or related services that are provided beyond the normal school year for the purpose of providing FAPE (Free and Appropriate Education). It is a required part of IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Act and is provided at no cost to you, the family according to the student’s Individual Education Plan. There are many misconceptions about ESY services and...

Self-injury is a very severe form of behavior that has one of the highest risks of medical injury. These episodes can lead to cuts, bruises, broken bones, concussions, and dental problems. Some forms of self-injury most seen in our kids with autism Headbanging/Hitting Biting Scratching Arm Banging Punching Hair Pulling Skin Picking Individuals who are exhibiting these behaviors are doing these thi...

In this episode, I am going to be talking about ways to build a foundation for effective communication with your child’s educational team. The key to effective communication is first to have a willingness to be involved in planning their education. It is important that you are always be prepared for your IEP meetings and what you do or don't do and how involved you are in between those meetings is...

So many of you asked me to address this topic on the podcast so I want you to know that I listen.  Potty training is one of the most asked about concerns of parents of children with autism.  There is no SECRET to it, I promise.  Like so many other things along our autism parenting journey, this is just one more thing that will com Potty training may likely be the most difficult life...

Roughly 50% of our children with autism are likely to wander or elope so many families live with the fear of wandering or elopement every day.  When you have a child who is at risk for elopement, it directly impacts your entire family. You are often limited in the activities you are able to participate in outside of the home due to the fear of wandering. You have to take extreme measures to p...

How you see yourself is creating your entire life. Think about it, do you spend any time at all thinking about what you think about yourself? Most women just think that is who they are but the truth is, you can change your thoughts about yourself and when you change how you think about yourself and what you are capable of, guess what happens, everything outside of you changes. You have to like you...

Today’s topic is a direct result of what some of our members have been going through recently and that is making really difficult decisions. I am adding in a few other things along the way in hopes that this might just be the pep talk that you didn't even realize that you needed. From early intervention decisions to educational decisions, to medical decisions, therapies, social situations, and the...

In this episode, I am going to focus specifically on how Positive behavior support (PBS) can be effective for our kids. Whether it is utilizing a Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) or a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) or whatever type of plan your child’s education program or school team puts together.  The point is that it can absolutely improve your child’s behavior across setti...

Having boundaries will help your child navigate their world and give them an understanding of how they can easily meet those expectations. Boundaries are essentially understanding and respecting the needs of others and today, I am talking specifically about your boundaries as their parent. First, you have to decide what your goal is for setting boundaries. What is the outcome that you are hoping t...

Our kids love predictability and repetition because it gives them a sense of security. Most of our lives revolve around familiar routines, right? We have created these routines to help our children feel safe because I mean, that is just what we do.  We don’t want them to be anxious so as a natural solution, we worked hard to make their environment as predictable as possible. Resistance to cha...

In this episode, we review the importance of incorporating functional skills and a functional curriculum in our children's daily lives.   A functional skill is a skill that a person needs to live independently and a functional curriculum focuses on the life skills a student needs for independent living.  Teaching our children how to function in the world is just as important if not more...

So many things along our autism parenting journey focus on our child’s impairments so today, I wanted to talk about how their relative strengths can play a critical role in helping them compensate for their deficits.   I’m going to dive deep into the importance of understanding how our memory works and more specifically, how their memory works which I think is fascinating.   Rote learnin...

We know is that in autism their repetitive and fixated behaviors are generally their strategies for reducing the chaos and minimalizing their overload by seeking the predictability and routine of sameness. These are all of their attempts to decrease their overwhelm from the stimulation and provide some sort of order to the confusing overwhelming world they are in. Our children struggle with being...

Special education teachers are often tasked with unparalleled challenges over mainstream teachers because rather than developing one single lesson plan, they are having to develop unique plans for every student that aligns with each of their student’s IEP’s. When you think about special education we are often talking about a vast range of different ages, interests, and abilities. Teaching our kids...

In this episode, I talk in-depth about the differences in tantrums and meltdowns.  Their behaviors may look similar but it is important for us as parents to be able to identify the differences so that we know how to best help them.   With a tantrum, the child is generally choosing to engage in the behavior because of their want for something or escaping something that they don’t want. Th...

For most of us, it’s just plain difficult to know when our expectations of our children are unreasonable, right?  I've heard more times than I would like to admit, "but he or she has autism".  In this episode, I am going to talk about why that in itself is never a good reason or answer.   So how do we know if our expectations are realistic? The reality is that if your child is havin...

Many children with autism find the demands of school and the school environment almost unbearable which leads to “school avoidance or refusal”. This is when a child gets very upset about going to school and won’t or can’t go. This isn’t a clinical diagnosis; it is simply a name for an emotional and/or behavioral problem. As our child’s parent, we have a legal obligation to educate our children, wh...

For many of us, maybe even you, speech delay was one of the first things that we were concerned about in our child’s development. For our children with autism not only are they delayed in their speech, but they are often delayed in other areas of development including initializing communication using eye contact, or gestures like pointing or shaking their head. They also may lack eye contact, not...