The email from a parenting website trumpeted its member survey in boldface: “The 20 Most-Hated Baby Names.” The deliberately incendiary choice of words set off the kind of prickle I get when I know I’m being manipulated. Wow, I thought, wouldn’t a name have to be downright appalling to inspire emotion as extreme as hatred? [...]
Two words about medications: be thorough. You should never dispense medications to your child just because a doctor says so; you need complete information when a psychotherapeutic medication is recommended as part of your child’s treatment plan. Some physicians may not disclose all the information they should without your prompting, and some prescribe medications “off [...]
Common threads run through all autism conferences and workshops I attend. Every time I take the podium, I marvel at the setting, a gathering of parents and teachers of children with autism, the likes of which didn’t exist as recently as fifteen years ago. In the years since writing my books about teaching and raising [...]
Three little words: behavior is communication. This poignant reader question, from my Positive Parenting Solutions guest blog appearance, gets to the heart of what happens when a child with autism cannot communicate his needs. Q: I teach children who have autism, so I often wish I could get inside their heads to know what’s motivating [...]
The first weekend of the new millennium found me in a hairdresser’s chair in front of a stylist I didn’t know. When she was done, my hair swung in a decidedly post-modern arc, and I was a redhead. The person returning my gaze in the mirror looked a bit familiar, like a relative you don’t [...]
Health, hygiene and etiquette matters often seem difficult for children with autism to understand and accomplish. Parents constantly ask me for advice on haircuts, nail trimming, shampooing, table manners, etc. My books address all these issues at length, but don’t we all know that children are often more willing to learn from peers than adults? [...]
This piece originally ran in my February 2008 newsletter. It is still 100% relevant and compelling. If you’ve never mapped the health history of your family, you can’t know what clues are waiting to be revealed. —— I’m at work on an historical novel based on a branch of my ancestry, and one of my [...]
Yellow—the color of sunshine and butter and chicks and daffodils. Yellow—the color of jaundice, danger signs, cowardice and lemons. Yellow is a two-faced hue. It can signify hope, happiness and cheer. Or it can signal decay, neglect and weakness. The term yellow journalism was coined in the 1890s to describe news stories that employ salacious [...]
from my March newsletter: The Cat’s Pajamas: Demystifying idioms for concrete thinkers One fine day I sat in the boardroom listening to a firebrand project manager describe the timeline and strategy for the next customer acquisition campaign. Only days earlier she had told me she was sick to death of enduring meetings with men who [...]
Here’s another reader question from my Positive Parenting Solutions guest blog appearance. Read all the questions and my answers here. Q: My son is four, and we have bad days that leave me in tears. It’s so hard when I don’t understand what he’s trying to communicate. Screaming (I compare it to a car alarm) [...]
