If you have gone to Target or Walmart within the last few weeks, you probably noticed a huge change. Where there once stood grills, lawn chairs and pool floats, you will now see backpacks, pens, pencils, notebooks and more. Oh yes, the school year is approaching. With a new school year around the corner, this typically brings a mix of emotions: happiness, sadness, nerves, worries and more.

As a community we spend a lot of time trying to educate our teachers, therapists, family members, family friends and more, but there is one group that often gets forgotten (most likely because it is the most difficult)…...the children and parents in your child’s classroom.

Everyone knows that during the summer many new movies are released! So far this summer the following children’s movies have been brought to the big screen: “Toy Story Three”, “Marmaduke”, “The Last Airbender” and more! Movies provide us with a variety of SOCIAL learning opportunities both while you are at the movies, as well as when you leave the movies such as: waiting in line, buying tickets, watching previews, eating and drinking different/new foods, sitting next to other children, loud noises and so much more!
Waiting in Line

Summer Fun: Water Fun
Playing in the water in the summer can not only help your child beat the heat, but also work on their social and language skills! Water activities are also a way to help your child meet their sensory needs!
Here are a few fun and easy water activities:
Water Tables
Water tables are a great way to work on a variety of skills!
If your child is non-verbal, here are a few ideas:

Having a lemonade stand with your child will provide MANY great social language opportunities as well as other great skills such as sequencing skills, problem solving/planning/predicting, math, receptive and expressive language learning and more. It will also let your child be an active part of your community; get to know his/her neighbors and to have some summer fun!
Preparing your child for the lemonade sale:

“I need to laugh, and when the sun is out
I've got something I can laugh about
I feel good, in a special way
I'm in love and it's a sunny day
Good day sunshine”
The Beatles couldn’t have said it any better. It’s spring and beautiful outside. Let’s take advantage of this feel-good time of the year by doing something so simple, yet so effective for our children……GOING ON WALKS!

Easter’s on it’s way!
Just a couple more days until Easter. The best tip we can give families when it comes to special occasions, special events, holidays and anything that your child will experience that it not ordinarily in their day to day routine is to PRACTICE! For example, an Easter egg hunt is not likely a part of your child’s daily, weekly or monthly routine so we need to MAKE IT A ROUTINE in order for your child to succeed during that family, community or church Easter egg hunt. How do we do this? PRACTICE!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We are in the second trimester of our third pregnancy. Sam is eight (almost nine) and Luke is now five years old. It's been almost a decade since our first pregnancy and it is amazing how little has changed. Don't get me wrong, there are all kinds of new contraptions, toys, fancy car seats, websites, and other advances that have occurred in the past ten years. What hasn't changed is the lack of information regarding the causes of Autism.

Thankful
In the spirit of Thanksgiving week, we thought we’d take a step back and share a couple little moments with our kids and families that made us smile the past couple of weeks. We feel very thankful to be involved in the lives of so many amazing parents, children and other professionals.
-Being handed a handmade Thank You card from one incredibly cute 5 year old. This was then followed by the best hug I have gotten in a good while.