Childswork-Childsplay Blog

Through our years of seeking ways for my daughter to be a part of our community, the most special place we have found is as the manager/helper for our girls' high school soccer team. As I spend the month of...

We are a society of people who do not give "unnecessary" thanks. We don't go out of our way to praise people for doing the "right thing". And it doesn't matter why they're doing the right thing, whether it's their...

Before I became a stay-at-home mom/zookeeper to four, I was the director of a nearby autism center. We ran all kinds of programs out of the university-based center but my favorites were the programs that involved the siblings. There was...

Even though my daughter with autism is already late into her teens I have only been "married with autism" for seven years. I was a single parent for the first half of her life and have been navigating the world...

Since my daughter is already into her late teens I often get asked how I explained to her that she has autism. I always think long and hard about how to answer this question and wonder if there is some...

One of the things almost everyone has to do when the new school year comes around is back to school clothes shopping. For many families, it's not that big of a deal. However,  what if you are a special needs...

Starting a new school year can be full of anxiety for any student (and parent) but for individuals with special needs the anxiety can be much more severe. The typical Meet the Teacher night most likely will not calm the...

When my oldest was about three months old it became clear that there was not a parenting book out there that could help me. She did not meet her milestones. Well she did, just months, sometimes years, after they were...

Two Years after High School, Those with Autism Likely to Be Disengaged For teachers and school counselors in the K-12 system, integrating classrooms and curriculum for special education students is a constant challenge. Whether these students have learning disabilities, speech/...

This morning my RSS fee came across a lovely article from one of my favorite parenting columnists, Sean Bean. And, yes, I said columnists as I usually read Sean’s writing in the physical copy of Parenting magazine, but I digress....

[caption id="attachment_1475" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Image courtesy of Sheela Mohan"][/caption] Students with autism spectrum disorders are usually very fortunate in their K-12 education. Throughout the past few decades, knowledge about the disorders and pressure from the private and public sector has...

Parents, teachers, and friends of children with autism see the challenges they experience every day. They know that environmental factors like light, sound, and crowds that would be ignored by neuro-typical children and adults can cause massive upset for autistic...