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Planning a Summer Vacation: Travel Tips for Families of Children With Disabilities
Summer travel season is well underway. While traveling with children can be both fun and exhausting, if you are a parent or caregiver of a child with disabilities, even more planning may be required to have a safe and successful trip. This summer, I decided to take my daughter Annie on her first...
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Addressing a National Shortage of Autism Specialists
I remember the day as if it was yesterday – Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2003. It was my birthday, and I had just met with my 21-month-old daughter’s pediatrician to discuss her “global developmental delays.” In the most caring way, he told us, “You will need to see a developmental-behavioral...
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Why I Made the Difficult Decision to Not Have Children
In the last year, I have accomplished a lot. More than I used to think I could do in my life. I made a life decision never to have kids. I underwent a procedure to keep from getting pregnant. I have become a confident woman. I know what I want in my life. My decision is based on childhood...
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The Benefits of Training Parents to Use Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence Charts
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder can exhibit many behaviors their families, teachers, and other supporters in their communities find challenging. Likewise, individuals on the spectrum see the world at large as a challenge, and the people in their lives find the challenging behaviors their...
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Designing Environments to Reduce Challenging Behaviors
Challenging behaviors - defined as abnormal behaviors that deviate from one’s culture in frequency, intensity, or duration - are common among autistics, and have the potential to cause hardships for the autistic and others (Jang, Healy, & Mannion, 2011; Matson & Minshawi, 2007; Myers...
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Managing Back-to-School Jitters: Tips to Help Children With Special Needs Ensure a Smooth Transition
Remember how it felt as a child before your first day of school? Perhaps you experienced butterflies in your stomach or loss of sleep the night before. You were excited to see your friends, but also nervous about what the new school year would bring. That is exactly how I am feeling about sending...
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Smart Home Technology and Autism
Good parents worry about their children’s safety. For most, this centers on keeping toddlers away from medicine, sharp objects, electrical outlets and other physical dangers in the home. As children grow, parents can usually start worrying less about these things and focus on their children’s...
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A Parent Advocate’s Hard-Fought Journey
Throughout Daniel’s life I have advocated for my intellectually challenged son on the autistic spectrum. My journey began early in Daniel’s life, as the parent of an adopted infant from Peru. I have learned throughout Daniel’s life that advocacy is an art that requires flexibility, networking...
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Uniquely Human Podcast #8 – Autism and Personal Fulfillment with Dr. Temple Grandin
Episode 8 - Autism and Personal Fulfillment with Dr. Temple Grandin [su_button url="https://uniquelyhuman.com/2021/01/08/autism-and-personal-fulfillment-with-dr-temple-grandin/" style="flat" background="#1f2656" color="#ffffff" size="4" radius="0" icon="icon: music"]Listen to the...
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Improving Parent Engagement for Your Child with Autism
If you are a parent of a child with special needs, you’ve had to balance many new challenges along with those you already face on a daily basis. Lately, you may be spending more time than ever with your child, but more time doesn’t mean you’re getting more quality time. While it may not be...
