Your speech therapist and language. When Val and I look back on the boys' early years, we could remember several specialists who provided communication therapies to the boys. But at the core of the boys' problems, when you cut through all the behaviors, the anxiety and the confusion, behind it all lay a desperate need [...]

The Autistic child and communication I remember the early days of confusion surrounding Conor and Eoin after the autistic child "diagnosis". Both boys had been described as intelligent to Val and I, but at the same time unteachable and unreachable. What a nightmare, all I could think of was Dustin Hoffman in Rain man. The [...]

A great many parents worry about Disney animation overstimulating their autistic child. Without question an unsupervised autistic child can become over stimulated watching Disney animation. I remember Conor as a young child glued to his favorite Disney animation and becoming totally over stimulated. It was clear to me that Conor enjoyed the experience of watching Disney animation. But I [...]

Learning readiness and sensory integration If your child is everywhere at once and has the concentration span of a goldfish, how can you teach him anything? Our special needs children frequently have difficulty processing sensory information. What this means is that they have difficulties learning from their senses. They are not learning ready. Learning readiness [...]

Feel you can't go shopping with your autistic child? As parents of language impaired children with the kind of behaviors that this brings, I frequently get asked about family activities. We all live in a society that is constantly checking the P's and Q's of life, what is acceptable and what is not. Despite all the [...]