TDLC Blog

How did your parents teach you to tie your shoes? Bunny rabbit? Loop, swoop and curl? There are songs, poems, and rhymes dedicated to teaching this task. They are cute, but they may not be helpful for a child with autism. While it may seem like a simple task, tying your shoes is made up of lots of smaller tasks. This is true of many self-help skills and daily tasks children have to perform.

When I was a kid some of my favorite things to play with were the pots and pans from the kitchen cupboard. I would sit on the kitchen floor and bang away on the bottom of the cookware with a couple of wooden spoons. I am pretty sure my musical endeavors single-handedly kept Tylenol in business, what with all the headaches I gave my parents. When my parents finally kicked me out of the kitchen so they could make dinner (and salvage their eardrums), I would dump Legos all over the floor and build worlds for the Lego people to inhabit.

Creating and attaining goals for your child.

As usual, I digress. However, this blog is about having a game plan for you child. No, I am not talking about your IEP goals, or what the consultant or therapists wrote down for you. I am talking about analyzing what you want to change, how to go about changing it, and then measuring your progress. I think the reason people get too scared to set goals for their family and children is that they feel like a failure if that goal is not achieved.