A demonstration of a token reward system that I made for some of my students with Autism. More teaching ideas and a free newsletter are available at http://www.PositivelyAutism.com/

Today I had to take my 2 1/2 year old son for a physical so that I can register him for the special ed preschool he will be attending this fall. Will was diagnosed with Autism back in April. His regular pediatrician never thought there were issues with Will's development, so I stopped going to the ped's office after all of Will's shots were taken care of. His diagnosis was finally given after many appointments, calls, waitlists etc. - you all know how it goes - that was driven by me, his mother, and not his pediatrician.

I'm sitting here listening to my two boys run around, play, and fight.... half laughing "You can’t get me, Batman!" and half yelling at each other "I told you to stop!!! MOM!!" Sam (7 1/2 years old, Asperger’s) and Luke (3 1/2 years old) are BUDDIES..... they play dress up together, chase, hide & seek, the Wii, wrestle, sword fighting.... usually ending in both laughter AND tears. My mom keeps telling me "You have been praying for a "normal" brother relationship.... and here it is!"

My 3 1/2 year old Luke is a lover of anything sweet. He loves cookies, candy, gum, cupcakes, chocolate... anything made with sugar, and sprinkles make things extra special.
Last week, he found a new bag of mini chocolate cookies in the pantry when he was rustling through there looking for a snack. I found this yummy new product at Whole Foods the day before. He brought the bag to me and asked "Can I have some of these for my snack?". I poured about 8 in a bowl for him and he wanted the details...
"What are these called?"
"When did we get these?"
"Is that all I am having?"

What Worked for Us
Here's an account of all the stuff we've tried in the 10 years since my son was diagnosed with PDD, later Autism. Here's a little "nutshell" account of it, so you can get a sense of the progression:
Chronology:
1996 Diagnosed PDD-NOS "mild to moderate" by a neurologist in St. Petersberg, Florida
1996-8 Placed in a mixed exceptionalities special day class in Sarasota, FL
1996 We started him on high-B6 vitamins, the first thing that helped
1997 We started our own ABA program 20 hrs/wk
1998 We moved across the country back to California