Parents everywhere are struggling with how to get through the day with their child with autism, now that schools and programs are closed due to the coronavirus. What seemed like a short-term school closure has become a long and indefinite shut-down of academic programs, behavioral services, and therapy appointments.
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The holidays are here, and for families who have a child or children with autism, gift opening can turn into an unpleasant experience. Parents invest time, thought, effort, and money into making holiday gift opening fun and memorable tradition. When a family has a child or children dealing with autism, the joy of opening gifts for kids with autism can be squelched by several factors.
This leaves parents, siblings, grandparents, and anyone else involved in the gift opening festivities feeling blue. Here are some tips for preparing your family for successful and fun opening gifts for kids with autism that can be employed regardless of the age of the child.
Drowning is a leading cause of death in children with autism, which makes keeping kids and teens with autism water safe a top priority. A child or teen with autism is 40 times more likely than a typical child to die from injury related to an accident.
A child with autism is 160 times more likely, compared to the general pediatric population, to die from drowning. There are several reasons for such high (and depressing) rates, as well as several options for keeping kids and teens with autism as safe as possible around water.
So you have a child or teen with autism, and summer is here. Have you looked for summer camps for kids with autism or other special needs? This presents a problem many special needs parents face every year: what options are out there for my child that will keep him/her busy while safe and feeling included?
Many community programs are ill-equipped to take summer camps for kids with autism unless the kids are more or less independent and don’t have behavioral challenges.
Aggressive behavior in a child or teen exhausts every parent who must deal with it. When a child with autism who is already struggling in so many ways also displays aggressive tendencies, parents and caregivers can feel locked in a daily battle with too few options.
Aggression, defined as hostile or violent behavior toward others often with a readiness to attack, can put family members, and even strangers we come across during our day, in danger. Understanding aggression in the context of autism is a first step in dealing with this behavior. Fortunately, once thoughtfully examined, there are options available to families dealing with aggression.
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Emergency evacuations are difficult and stressful for anyone. For families with special needs children, an evacuation could present such a challenge that making a plan becomes critically necessary. However, not everyone has a plan, let alone an idea of where to begin.
Emergency preparedness is something we all should take seriously and we all tend to put off because we don’t have the time or perhaps the desire to think about it. Evacuations become suddenly necessary at times, and without a plan in place, those evacuations can turn our lives upside-down in an instant.
So, the disaster that sparked an evacuation creates a second level of disaster in our lives when we are forced out of our homes, schools, or offices with little warning and no supplies. Coping with the fallout and surviving successfully depends on our preparedness. (more…)