Personal
“Stop Crying”
“Stop crying” was one of the most repeated things I heard in my childhood — definitely the most repeated “correction” I ever heard. I was constantly crying too much. And constantly in trouble for it. […]
behavior
At Home
Personal
Maladaptive Coping
I had a kid recently who is not on my caseload. Their teacher asked me offhandedly about something they do, what I would call a stim. In their case, they pick at the skin on […]
Autism
Self-Advocacy
[Image descriptions: The first image has a title, “The Challenge with Teaching Self-Advocacy…It’s not them, it’s us.” over the top of an image of a child playing in a pink play tent filled with colorful […]
Philosophy
Progress Doesn’t Have to Be Perfection
A few nights ago, one of my children had a complete and total meltdown. Screaming. Crying. Yelling for their dad, who was not available, working from home in the closed office. (Dad is the stay-at-home […]
At Home
“Destructive” Play
“My child won’t play without being destructive. He is extremely smart, but he bounces off the walls and is destructive. We try redirecting him. We try positive reinforcement. We try using incentives. We use time-outs. […]
At Home
Reward Charts
Two people have asked me questions about reward charts in the last week or so, so that seemed like a reasonable question to answer next. The reason for both of them asking it was because […]
Philosophy
Describing Without Judging
If I could get everybody in the world to learn one concept about the way they interact with children…well, actually, I have about a bazillion that I might choose from. I’m pretty bad at choosing. […]