4 Steps To Building Trust With Your Autistic Spectrum Child

For an interaction to be trust-building, it must have all four of these characteristics. If all four are present, then it's only a matter of time before you succeed in building trust. On the other hand, if even one of these four pillars is missing, then it won't work.

Are The Holidays Something You Dread?

Before I understood what Asperger’s/Autism was, I took my daughters behavior personally. I thought Lillian’s refusal to go to Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma & Grandpa’s was a direct defiant behavior. When she had a meltdown, I thought she was trying to make the day about her and get her way to make us go home.

Celebrating Differently With Danny

Raising a son with Asperger's, we often had to celebrate in a different way. Here are three examples...

Co-Dependency & The Rope

It's one thing to support someone who is struggling with some very real capability blocks and challenges. It's quite another thing to continue carrying the heavy burdens of someone who refuses to take action or help themselves in anyway.

Demonstrations VS Declarations: How To Know If You Are An Effective Parent

It's one thing to constantly declare that you can be trusted, you should be respected, or you are an authority. It's another thing entirely to demonstrate through action that you can be trusted, you are respectable and you are knowledgeable.

I'm Done Grieving What's Not, Now Let's See What Is

I remember talking to the ABA lady, and she said, "Well, we're really about fixing the things that are wrong." I asked, what can we do to really help him to harness the things that are special that he has that nobody else has because he has Autism? She just had no answer for me.

Having Accountability Conversations: The XYZ Method

Allow me to provide you with a simple but powerful script that you can use as a template for having uncomfortable conversations when you need to hold boundaries... without walking on eggshells.

My Anxiety As A Parent Prevented Me From Seeing This

My name is Sarah, I have a 23 year old and a 15 year old. My 15 year old was diagnosed with ASD and in the beginning, we were pretty desperate. It got really bad. We're talking about near-hospitalization, therapeutic schools, lots of trauma. Day to day life was just nearly impossible.

Teenage Girls & Late Diagnosis

In high school, Sophia would have these bouts of meltdowns. Normally she would get out of them, but one in particular, she was 15, and she was in her bed acting like a two year old. Literally, not just figuratively, pulling the covers over her head, not talking.

Why Won't They Just Listen?! - The 3 Essentials of Communication

Obviously when you said “clean your room” you and your son both had very different definitions of what that phrase meant. This difference in definitions, assigned meanings, and understandings is one of the most common sources of conflict we see every day.

Why Rewards & Punishment Don't Work

I am prompted to expound on this topic because I am frequently in frustrating positions trying to explain to others why their well intentioned suggestions of a rewards and punishments model will not work with my neuro atypical daughter.

You Aren't A Bad Parent. Here's How We Know.

The so called “bad parents” aren’t the ones reading about Asperger’s advice & help, and aren’t the ones that are seeking to get better.