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Social Deficits in Team Sports and PE: Help for Kids on the Autism Spectrum

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Most kids participate in physical activity with their peers, both within and outside the school setting. Social skills play an essential role in peer interactions. Children with ASD or High-Functioning Autism (HFA) often have difficulty playing with peers, because they have difficulty handling reciprocal conversation, making eye contact, playing social games, sharing with others, taking turns, understanding social cues, and simply making friends. Even though kids on the autism spectrum desire social interaction with others, they have a hard time finding and keeping friends due to their social difficulties that frequently stem from a lack of skill in initiating and responding to various situations. Other areas of impairment that relate to social interactions in kids with HFA include: problems with social distance (i.e., knowledge of personal space) difficulty understanding unwritten rules, and when they do learn these rules, many apply them rigidly interpreting things lite...

COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS (Dec., 2018 and Jan., 2019)

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How Children on the Autism Spectrum Can Learn Self-Help Skills

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Our top 10 picks on products to help children with High-Functioning Autism and Asperger's to learn how to regulate their out-of-control emotions and behavior - on their own!

Parenting Teenagers on the Autism Spectrum: Double Trouble?

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Most experts do a great job of presenting the problems children with Asperger’s (AS) and High Functioning Autistic (HFA) face during their adolescent years, yet they offer few solutions. The years from twelve to seventeen may be the saddest and most difficult time for these young people.  This is not true of every adolescent on the autism spectrum, though. Some do extremely well. Their indifference to what others think makes them indifferent to the intense peer pressure of adolescence. They can flourish within their specialty, and become accomplished musicians, historians, mathematicians, etc. "Special needs" adolescents typically become more isolated socially during a period when they crave friendships and inclusion more than ever. In the cruel world of middle and high school, AS and HFA teens often face rejection, isolation and bullying. Meanwhile, school becomes more demanding in a period when they have to compete for college placements. Issues of sexuality and...

Best Tips for Parents of Newly-Diagnosed Children on the Autism Spectrum

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“Our 9 y.o. child was diagnosed with autism (high functioning) just last week. We’ve had our suspicions all along and I must say it’s a relief to know exactly what we’re dealing with. Now we can develop a course of action to help. On that note, would you have a list of the most important things we should begin to work on in helping our child be the best he can be given his newly-discovered condition. Thanks in advance!” Below are 22 crucial suggestions on how to help your child with high-functioning autism (HFA). Some of the ideas will be very helpful, and some may not work at all. So, be prepared for some trial-and-error as you dial in the most effective strategies. Flexibility, creativity, and a willingness to continue to learn will help you as you raise your "special needs" youngster. 1.    Ask your youngster's teacher to seat him or her next to classmates who are sensitive to your youngster's special needs. These classmates might also serve as "budd...

School Phobia in Students on the Autism Spectrum

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At some point in their school career, High-Functioning Autistic (HFA) children are significantly challenged by anxiety. School phobia (known to professionals as school refusal), a complex and extreme form of anxiety about going to school (but not of the school itself as the name suggests), can have many causes and can include related anxiety disorders (e.g., agoraphobia and selective mutism). Symptoms include: a racing heart fatigue frequent trips to the toilet nausea shaking stomachaches Young children on the autism spectrum (up to age 7 or 8) with school phobia experience separation anxiety and cannot easily contemplate being parted from their parents, whereas older kids (8 plus) are more likely to have it take the form of social phobia where they are anxious about their performance in school (such as in games or in having to read aloud or answer questions in class). HFA children with anxieties about going to school may suffer a panic attack if forced which ...