Category Archives: PDD

Special Exposure Wednesday – The Farm

A friend gifted us with tickets to a pumpkin patch, which we happily used the weekend before Halloween. Turns out it’s actually a working farm the rest of the year so the boy got to “work”, 🙂 Share what you managed to capture this week. Please don’t forget to spread the comment love around.

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Different or Fancy?

It was a relatively easy, but somewhat mind-numbing task to accommodate the child’s fixed preferences at her place setting. We don’t have quite enough “matching” flatware pieces to make it to the next dishwasher run. We tend to run out of teaspoons and case knives before plates and bowls. Over the years of combining two…

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Thanksgiving

Oh, I know, it’s not even Halloween (quite) yet, but just like I’m sure you can find retail locations in your community that are a bit ahead of the game with the witches and ghosts keeping company with the Santas and menorahs, my heart is already set on Thanksgiving. Being thankful is good for you,…

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It’s Not a Race

I think we are about to hit an interesting phase of our family. The younger apparently neurotypical siblings are about to reach certain developmental milestones before their big sister does.  Little boy has just about mastered his daytime toilet learning. One of our first signs that he was physically ready for this achievement was that…

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Thrive with Autism – Tips for Those Looking to Understand

Andrea Richardson and Andrea Warner are two teachers who want to help parents Thrive With Autism. We love these tips from www.ThrivingWithAutism.com that they are sharing; both for parents, and for the community who is trying to understand Autism. Have you ever been in a store, movie theatre, or, yes… even an elevator, and your…

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Anxiety

We attended a special evening story time at our library last week that helped define one of the child’s anxiety triggers. Since her expressive language is still somewhat limited, it is hard to talk about emotional responses like these…especially since she tries to downplay it after the fact. We’ve moved beyond some triggers – like loud…

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Picture Exchange Communication System Hi-tech vs. Low-tech

I originally posted this on my own blog six months ago. I’ve gotten such a great response online and have had people asking me about our low-tech PECS so often that I thought I would post here as well. Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is something we’ve been working on with Chewy. Since he’s non-verbal…

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Progress Report

About eight months ago I shared a story about the challenges of my daughter interacting with neurotypical peers on the playground after school (and presumably during school, though I am not there to witness it.) At the time she was trying to master the game of bar tag, and all of the social intricacies surrounding it,…

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I Went to the Dark Side…

I did it. I went to the Dark Side. All this time, I’ve been super vocal about the difference between being an advocate and being a…. well, you know. Yesterday, all that changed. (To read the whole drama, go here) I felt bad about it all day. I felt like I had worked so hard…

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Bedtime (Yawn) Routine

We figured out a long time ago that the child works best with routines, but with an occasional change of pace. I am also noticing that her apparently neuro-typical siblings can take advantage of routine to create chaos. Recently this has all appeared in the form of marathon bedtime routines that leave me ready to…

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