Autism sailing challenge: getting the boat! Having picked up the towing vehicle from Elaine at Western motors on a Friday evening, I headed back to our office in NUI Galway to pull up maps of our planned journey to pick up our new boat 'Lea Ho' in Callan, Co. Tipperary. When we got to our [...]
Autism sailing challenge: The adventure begins! Having worked out a date and time to pick up Lea Ho, the boys newly acquired sailing boat, one important detail had to be worked out. Our car, the one that we rebuilt together as a family (see: our post on this) had no tow bar. We needed [...]
For those who are regular readers of my blogs, speaking about the abilities of autistic children is a common theme. And in many of these blogs you will see sport pop up frequently particularly as we head into the summer months, as we are now. These blogs cover a host of outdoor (and some [...]
Autism: understanding and setting expectations One of the most important yet least understood areas of special needs parenting is the area of setting expectations. Here Enda and Val talk about some of their experiences getting the balance right. For me the whole area of assessments, schools, special services, sports and expectations is an [...]
Managing behaviors: start with understanding communication In a very great number of conversations with families the issue of behaviors (or lack of) comes up when we speak about their autistic child. What I'm speaking about here is the behaviors that crop up in social situations like going shopping or eating out. The kind of thing [...]
The parent advocate and special needs families I am often asked by parents who made the most difference in the lives of the boys after diagnosis - a parent advocate, speech therapist, a school, a clinic or someone else? And what were the decisions we made that helped most in bringing the boys forward. [...]
Overcoming language disorders and building a future for our children comes in the most unexpected places. For millions of children to world over, language disorders and deficits are a major obstacle to just about everything. I remember Conor's teacher saying to me once that 'he was so intelligent but fundamentally unteachable'. Imagine saying all that in just [...]
The Autistic child and communication I remember the early days of confusion surrounding Conor and Eoin after the autistic child "diagnosis". Both boys had been described as intelligent to Val and I, but at the same time unteachable and unreachable. What a nightmare, all I could think of was Dustin Hoffman in Rain man. The idea [...]
Want to teach time? Many special needs parents ask me how to teach time to their non verbal autistic child. As with the Animated Language Learning program, visual strategies are the way to go: Help your child to x off each day on a calendar in a visible location like the kitchen. By doing this [...]
We all have tough days And in the case of parenting special needs children a lot more so. At times just trying to get through the day can be such a trial. Not to mention all the uncertainty and worry we carry around with us. So when I felt really worn-out scratching my head wondering why [...]
