Problematic behavior, such as biting or hitting in response to unpleasant events, can emerge at different times in a child’s life, and is considered developmentally normal. The behavior often reduces to tolerable levels when caregivers express displeasure and redirect the child to respond more appropriately to the situation. However, in some children, the behavior can…
In October 2016, OAR’s Board of Directors authorized funding for six new applied autism research studies in 2017. These new grants, totaling $178,866, bring OAR’s total research funding to over $3.6 million since 2002. This is the final of six previews featured in “The OARacle” this year. A quick Google search of “parental stress and…
As information consumers surfing the internet, we often find ourselves inundated with programs and treatments that claim to be effective, even when there is no scientific evidence behind the claims. Evidence-based practices (EBPs) on the other hand, are interventions that have been shown to be effective based on the scientific literature. So far, the National…
This article is an excerpt from OAR’s “Understanding Autism: Professional Development Curriculum.” For students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), temper tantrums may be triggered for a variety of reasons. Because many children with autism have difficulties communicating in socially acceptable ways, they may act out when they are confused, afraid, anxious, or stressed about something.…
In this week’s blog post, a teacher and mother to a son with autism discusses the power of play. This piece was originally published on Jessica’s blog, Changed for Good. Ben won a tiny toy shark from the treasure box at school the other day. As soon as we got home, he announced that he…
At age 67, Garret Mathews was diagnosed with Aspergers. In this piece, he writes about his relationship with this father through the framework of his Apergers. So what kind of a life did this Aspie have growing up? It was dominated by my late father, the high school football coach and perhaps the most authoritarian…
This post was originally published on Respectfully Connected and is re-posted here with permission. A lot of the messages parents and disabled advocates send to families are about helping us deal with our misplaced grief after a child has a diagnosis. Messages that encourage and challenge us to accept our children and find ways to work with their unique…
“Autism and the Family: Understanding and Supporting Parents and Siblings,” by Kate Fiske, Ph.D., BCBA-D, is a new release by the W.W. Norton & Company. The publisher describes the book as useful for therapists and educators in understanding “the experiences of parents and siblings of a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from the time…
One afternoon I got a phone call from a woman living in another state hundreds of miles away from her childhood home, where her elderly mother and brother still lived. Her mom had just passed away, and she did not know what was going to happen to her brother, who was 60 years old and…
When my brother and I summited Mount Quandary, a 14,000-foot peak in Colorado, I was afraid the other hikers would think I had forced him into finishing the climb. He was fresh to Colorado from sea level. He was breathing in deep, heavy gasps and was dressed only in shorts and a T-shirt for the…
