A three-year-old deaf boy in Nebraska has been told by his teachers to change the way he signs his name because the gesture resembles shooting a gun.
Hunter Spanjer uses the standard Signing Exact English (SEE) to communicate. To sign his name, he crosses his index and middle fingers and waves them slightly.
But school administrators argue that the motion goes against Grand Island Public Schools' zero tolerance policy on guns and violence that prohibits any "instrument" that "looks like a weapon"
Many people are not so happy with this position.
How do you help your child with autism get back into the school routine?
Summer is fun. One reason it’s fun is…there’s no school. Right?
How do our kids fare during the summer?
First, our kids sometimes have a few weeks of school during the summer months. My child attends an Extended School Year program for five weeks each summer. The ESY program is offered by our child’s school district and this program is written into my child’s IEP.
Is an ESY summer program like “real” school?
A new study published in the journal, Nature, found that a man’s age may affect his child’s chances of developing autism or schizophrenia. This is because random mutations in the chromosomes provided by the father become more prevalent as the man gets older.
The research was prompted by the belief that increasing cases of autism in the last few years may be due to the increasing age at which couples are starting families. However, it also noted that the age of the mother had little or nothing to do with the outcome of her child developing autistic traits.
What should you expect from your special needs aide or therapist or facilitator?
First, and this may sound a bit simple, but they are people. They have lives. You must always try to remember that the adults who work with your kids have their own lives and their own problems.
How much does this matter?
In my last blog, I discussed how autistic kids can learn to read social cues or facial expression. I talked about how we added a bonus category to our son’s earnings chart where he could earn extra monthly points if he noticed a social cue.
How do our kids learn social cues? How do they learn to read facial expressions?
It's tough for our kids to learn social cues and/or read facial expressions because they have a tendency to be uncomfortable looking at other people. How can they be expected to read non-verbal cues if they're not looking at other people?
My child frequently has a "high engine." He was taught this phrase to describe how his body is feeling. A high engine means he’s racing inside. His body sometimes has a “low engine” but that typically takes place first thing in the morning. Low engine means he has no energy in his body.
When his engine is high, our child needs to do something to help his body. He wants to regulate his body to get the level to a moderate level, one that he's comfortable with and leads to less body-related behaviors.
A child in Pittsburgh with cerebral palsy was escorted out of a local swimming pool by police for wearing a pair of floaties.
Jen Wymer was playing in the pool with her son Max when a lifeguard instructed her to remove the boy’s water wings, citing pool rules.
I don’t know about all of you, but I’ve had the best of times and the worst of times with child care. It’s not like you can place a general ad or hire the first person off the street as if you were Wal-Mart.
In my first blog about OT, I focused mainly on oral issues, specifically teeth grinding.
OT issues, however, involve the entire body.
Remember, one part of the "OT experience" is trying to teach a child self-help skills. These are life-long skills such as potty training and being able to put on your own clothes. Other issues include brushing your teeth, combing your hair, feeding yourself, bathing your body, drying off your own body, and many more.
