In this piece, Serena Shim, sister of someone on the spectrum, discusses the novel that caused so much controversy in the autism community. Mark Haddon’s best-selling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is a detective story about fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone. It received many awards as well as criticism by the autism…
This blog post has been adapted from “Chapter 6: Life Skills” of OAR’s resource “A Guide for Transition to Adulthood”. Often, the discussion of life skills includes relatively vague, bigger-picture traits, like “focus” or “critical thinking”. While these are certainly important to leading a “successful life” — whatever that may look like for you –…
OAR is hosting a free webinar that addresses problem behavior using a successful team approach on Monday, August 12, 2019 at 1 p.m. ET, featuring Jane Barbin, Ph.D., BCBA-D, LBA. Register now to attend the live, hour-long event, which will include the presentation followed by a brief Q&A session. Parents, other caregivers, clinicians, therapists, and…
Family vacations that involve a road trip can often excite more anxiety than anticipation. And that may be particularly true for families with a child who has autism. An inability to adapt to change and new things can make road trips harder for children with autism, but it doesn’t have to be that way. These…
The idea of ignoring dysfunctional behaviour was one of the hardest concepts I had to wrap my head around when I first entered the field of Applied Behaviour Analysis. I remember playing peek-a-boo with a client on my first day working in a clinic. When I paused the game to ask his instructor therapist a…
The transition from adolescence to young adulthood can create both anxiety and excitement for young people. For students with autism, anxiety may outweigh excitement as they may face greater challenges than their typical peers in attending college, navigating social situations, or figuring out a potential career path. To help reduce the stress and anxiety that…
OAR’s most recent webinar, “Social Skills for Adolescents and Adults with ASD: Finding Relevant Targets for Instruction, Using Instructional Strategies that Work, and Balancing Self-Determination with Skill-Building,” is available on OAR’s website. You can view the webinar video (which runs one hour and 15 minutes long) and access the handouts. Mary Jane Weiss, Ph.D., BCBA-D,…
Earlier this year, OAR set outreach goals for the month of April to spread awareness, take action, and increase acceptance of persons with autism. Here is an update on what we have accomplished as of the end of Autism Awareness Month. Goal 1: Educate youth about their peers with autism. OAR’s goal for April was…
Making friends and maintaining friendships can be a challenging task for any child. For children with autism, difficulties with social and communication skills can make the task exponentially more difficult. Add in time for appointments and therapies and it can seem impossible. Let me reassure you that it’s not. Through a team approach and some…
