Not every family is able to attend church over the Christmas holidays, but lots of us want to teach our children about the Nativity. I teamed up with my daughter to bring you a free Autism-Accessible Sunday School Lesson on the Nativity of our Lord. How is it autism-accessible? sensory rich images for focus video modeling of another child participating concrete examples of big ideas imitate it at home predictable: watch as often as you wish To make it even more accessible, use this video along with an in person telling of the Nativity story. Download the Nativity story photos from my post, “Holiday Tips for Making Christmas Easier for Special Needs Families,” and use them to sequence the story as you tell it.…
writing, autism, & theology as a mother of joy
Posts from the “autism” Category
Holiday Tips for Making Christmas Easier for Special Needs Families
Feature article
Summer Kinard
Posted on December 5, 2018
The feast of the Nativity approaches, and with it, anxiety. How will your family get along when everyone’s home? How will the kids do when you travel to visit relatives? Will you be welcomed at the church when you finally get a chance to go? For families with special needs, these questions are layered with the weight of additional needs. This week I’m sharing what I’ve learned from teaching and living with persons with special needs. Bookmark and share these best practices for home, travel, and church with special needs during the holidays. THE GIFT OF 12 DAYS Spread out gifts over 12 Days. Instead of subjecting sensitive family members -and let’s face it, lots of other folks, too!- to the overwhelm that comes…
“Do not worry, for the very hairs on your head are numbered.” I remember the first time I came across that verse. I was fascinated, in awe. My mother was in school to be a hair stylist, and I was around hair culture every day. I remember sneaking my mother’s hair styling manequin and trying to count the hairs. I kept losing track! Later, I remember telling children about this verse for the first time. There are some things that children know to be impossible: counting sand, stars, hairs, the number of times a sparrow drops to the ground to steal a crumb. We are small, and these things (stars excluded in actuality but not in appearance) are smaller, and we can’t keep track…
Tagged: Bible, God who sees, peace with autism
Here are my Top Ten Tips Plus One on how to focus your children’s attention. Don’t forget to click through to the shopping lists at the end for more ideas and how-to’s! Rocking and swinging make for great calming effects and full body-brain coordination. Balance boards and balance stools/balls allow for movement while learning in a room with others. If you use a balance board or other tool that makes a clunky sound, you might prefer to do so over a square of carpet liner or foam kitchen mat. Calisthenics. All of those dorky looking floor exercises from the 70s and 80s actually do great things to your nervous system. Much of our attention and emotional and sensory regulation happens through our bodily movements.…
Categories: advice, autism, concrete thinking, curriculum, encouragement, faith, family, homeschool, life lessons, overcoming blocks, teacher and writer, Uncategorized
Tagged: accessible home, adhd, autism, focus aids, homeschool, homework, neurodiverse, resource guide, spd, strategies, tips, top ten
PRINTABLE PDF VERSION: 3 Tips to Improve
Tagged: add, adhd, asd, autism, autistic, back to school, neurodivergence, odd, ot, spd, transitions
“Well, of course growth spurts are good things,” you might say, if you don’t know what they look or feel like. I’ll let you in on the number one secret that throws off autistic progress: Growth spurts will produce feelings and behaviors appropriate to the developmental age at which a neurotypical person usually meets the milestone. That means that if you have an autistic preteen making strides in therapy, he can suddenly have what looks like a psychotic episode to the uninitiated, or to the hyper-observant and autistically in the know, a growth spurt that looks exactly like the disregulation that happens in a typically developing two year old. Remember the terrible twos and threes? They have a reputation because the brain connections formed…
Autistic Brain Owner’s Manual Lesson 3: The Early Nerve Gets the Attention
Summer Kinard
Posted on May 19, 2018
Our brains starting at the brainstem work from the inside out. There are some types of experience that we process before we even think about them. These include first emotions and then visual input. Language and other higher thought comes later. What this means is that your nervous system (and everyone’s nervous system) feels first, sees second, and thinks third. For autistic people, language processing can sometimes be a challenge. It’s important to know how the brain works so that you can build on what’s already working. Feelings First In every human being, no matter their cognitive level, emotions are functional. Emotions are precognitive. That means they are processed in the spinal cord, the brain stem, and the deep brain before they reach the…
