Using Video Modeling to Teach Social Skills

Video modeling, the use to use of videos of adults or children performing specific actions or tasks, has become widely used to teach children with autism how to do a variety of social and other skills. There are some commercially available videos, but many people have begun to make their own videos specifically tailored to [...]

Great Article on Alternative Treatments for Autism

An article recently published in the Exceptional Parent magazine (February 2009) by Lee Shelley Wallace, discusses alternative treatments for autism. In the article she defines “evidence-based” treatments, gives tips to families about how to begin treatments and evaluate their efficacy, and gives information on the most common alternative treatments for autism.
Ms. Wallace suggests that when [...]

Sensory Processing Dysfunction – Vestibular Activation

The occupational therapist at my school recently attended a workshop regarding vestibular activation which can be used for people with autism to address sensory processing dysfunction. These exercises are used as part of Sensory Integration Therapy (SIT) to help people organize and process incoming sensory information (movement, visual and auditory) in order to integrate all [...]

Sensory Integration Therapy

Sensory Integration is the process through which the brain organizes and interprets external stimuli such as movement, touch, smell, sight and sound. Autistic children often exhibit symptoms of Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID) making it difficult for them to process information brought in through the senses. Children can have mild, moderate or severe SID deficits manifesting [...]

Neurobiofeedback

Neurobiofeedback, also known as neurofeedback or EEG biofeedback, is an alternative therapy that trains clients to control their brain activity using visual feedback. This type of therapy has been used to treat things such as alcoholism, ADD/ADHD, epilepsy, mood disorders and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Clients are hooked up to an EEG machine, their brain [...]

Inclusion…are we doing everything we can to make it work?

As many of you know there is a movement within the schools to ensure that children with autism and other disabilities are included in the general education classroom. As a teacher in a school district I find myself asking the question: Are we actually doing everything we can to make it work?
The answer that [...]