Many kids participate in after school activities. Usually everything goes as planned but occasionally things can go awry. Groups and activities are cancelled for lots of different reasons. A typical child may be disappointed. They may cry, whine or complain.

If your child has autism, this disruption in the regular schedule can present a huge problem for a parent – the child with ASD may display significant behavior challenges.

One way to plan for these unexpected events is for parent and child to keep a calendar.

Every Tuesday Ethan goes to baseball so mom draws a baseball on each Tuesday of the month.  On Monday night Coach John calls the parents of the children on the team to let them know he is cancelling practice because he is ill.  To help Ethan understand, his mom could cross out the baseball on the calendar or put a "not" symbol over it. She could show Ethan the calendar and discuss the change and if need be, add a favored supplemental activity such as park or bike riding.

As time passes, and Ethan becomes more accustomed to using the calendar, mom can use the calendar to add more significant scheduling information such as times and people, which may in turn help reduce any preservative questioning that may be occurring.

If you’d like to find out more about this topic, try:

Hodgdon, Linda M.E.D., CCC-SLP Visual Strategies for Improving Communication Quirk Roberts Publishing 1995

Now that the dust is beginning to settle with the kids going back to school, here’s something to keep in mind while checking out their progress over the coming weeks.

What is your child’s learning style?  Even if they’ve adjusted well to the new routines, and they make good grades/perform well, is the delivery of their education tailored to their learning style, and is there anything you can do to help at home?

There are two primary methods of communication that children respond well to:

1. Verbal Communication – Your verbal learner will have a special affinity with communication in all its forms.  Reading, phonics, language…all grasped with greater ease by verbal learners.  If your verbal learner takes more time to understand math concepts, have them write out or explain something to you in their own words, working it through till it makes sense and is phrased in terms they commonly use and understand.  Grasping and recalling something that is couched in familiar language patterns is much easier than working through a concept that has an unfamiliar turn of phrase or layout.

2. Visual Communication – Your visual learner will love the arts, responding well to visual stimuli and direction.  Although verbal, visual learners may have a little more trouble when it comes to reading or spelling, and can take advantage of their learning style by applying pictures to words they are trying to learn.  Have them draw or imagine a word as a picture (for example, write the word ‘dog’ using the d, o, and g for the head body and tail, and then add legs and ears to complete your dog picture), or draw an outline of something and incorporate the letters of the word within it, curling them to fill the space.  Your visual learner will recall the image they created with greater ease than attempting to remember the letters themselves without artistic embellishment.

Which one best suits your child, and are your teachers/caregivers making the most of it?  Taking the time to present a difficult concept in one of these two ways will help your child work through it, and gift them with a better understanding of the subject.  Even if your child does well is school, learning can be made simpler by utilizing your child’s learning style.

The changes have been coming thick and fast, but we are hoping that you like the new look to the website!

We have attempted to add even more info about using visual schedules effectively, what it is that makes them important for all children, and how they can help you whether you are at home, in school, or even in a therapy session!

Check out the new ‘About Visual Schedules’ page for some useful links to autism related advocacy groups, as well as a cool link to one of our favorite sites…Mrs Riley!  If you are thinking of using Do-N-Slide, you might want to check out Mrs Riley to compliment the existing picture packs that come with your Do-N-Slide!

We always welcome feedback, so drop us a line any time – especially about our new look!

‘Oogles n Googles’ and ‘Every Dog Has Its Day’ are sponsoring a family fun night at the Abacoa Amphitheater on Saturday June 20th!  The event takes place from 6-9pm, and there will be lots of fun events for all the family…including the furry ones!!

Events taking place include:

Dog Fashion Show

Childrens’ Amusements

Food

Specialty Shopping

Services For Pets, Kids, and more!

Best Dressed Dog Contest

Pet Owner Look-A-Like Contest

Largest/Smallest Dog Contest

Best Pet Trick Contest

Charity Auction

Demonstrations By Local Pet Experts

…and More!

All proceeds from the evening will be donated to the Autism Project of Palm Beach County, so come along and enjoy!

If you are a returning visitor to the Do-N-Slide website, welcome back!  You may have noticed a few changes!  If you are new to the Do-N-Slide website, we welcome you, and hope you find lots of great information here!

We have updated the site with new colors and graphics, and have included all the great hints, tips, and information from our old site.  In addition, you can now use our shopping cart facility to change order quantities, review your order, etc, etc.

You can now also join our Facebook Do-N-Slide Group, and follow our blog posts via RSS feed (just click the little icons above to sign up!).  Kim and I will continue to share all the news, events, and info we gather regarding all things Do-N-Slide, and we’d love to hear your feedback at any time.

E-mail us and let us know what you think of the new site!

Kim and I were excited to tape an interview with our favorite local news anchor Kelley Dunn with the WPTV News Channel 5 News (NBC).  The segment on local ‘Mompreneurs’ aired this evening, and we wanted to share the story with those visiting our blog.

The video can be viewed for a short time on the WPTV news website at WPTV News Channel 5.  You can also read a print version of the story on the same page.

We’d love to hear your feedback – let us have it!