Life Lessons...

What would you like to see? The time for planning is now. Let me know via email or my Facebook page what you would love to see me offer this summer.

The social skills groups will continue as usual but maybe twice a week?

Or a parents' group or parents' series of talks?

Wanting to get started on an autism remediation program? I am working on offering this as a per session option, instead of a package, and incorporating much of what I have learned from doing Relationship Development Intervention with families, but with some changes as well.

Learning struggles? Look into the cognitive interventions we offer to remediate the underlying processes that cause dyslexia, low test scores, continuous struggles to achieve in school. We've had some remarkable results with clients lately.

Anything else that I am missing and you need? Give me a call or email or post it and I will look into it.

It may only be March, but summer is right around the corner, really!

Read on and smile, this is so true! If you don't have a teen, you will someday....

When Your Dog Turns into a Cat

I am a sucker for holidays. I love them and see them as a milestone to mark time by. I like to remember holidays past, where we were last year, and where I hope we are next year. Easter is yet another one of those markers. Coming this year, right after our spring break, it has been even more reflected on than usual as I had time to actually think and reflect, not always an easy task with a busy schedule!

This year Easter and the Easter season of new beginnings is especially meaningful to me as I look back on where I was a year ago. A year ago, I was in the middle of chemotherapy and facing radiation after that. I was scared, exhausted, sick, bald, aching....you name it. This year as I looked at my children in church yesterday, I was so grateful for just the ordinary things in life. Being healthy, having my family there with me, having a house and a job that is my passion, having made it through last year, and just the boring normalcy of life that has returned.

Never underestimate the value and power of normalcy- routine- stability. We feel that we should buy our children things, take them to neat places, spend lots of money on them- but really what benefits them the most is just being there for them, letting them feel they have something/someone they can count on, knowing they have food, a house, a parent who cares and makes them a priority. I hope I don't forget the lessons I learned this past year, one being just to appreciate each day the things that we most take for granted- the people and daily routines of our lives. Those are truly blessings - use this Easter season to remember to appreciate those things anew!

Happy Easter from FLS to you!

After Easter, we will be beginning the last grading period of this school year. While most of us are in the mindset that it is almost over, in reality there are 9 weeks of school for our children to still get through. Some tips to help you through in the next few months:

Take this opportunity at spring break to get new folders and clean out your child's backpack together.

File papers in an expanded file folder.

Label one folder a homework folder and discuss with your child putting all homework to be done and to be turned in in this folder.

Buy a small notebook and encourage them to write assignments in here.

Reinforce their efforts to be more organized- offer an organization prize each day or week (a small treat, a dollar, a Blizzard, etc).

Reorganize the homework area.

Buy some new pens and pencils, even crayons and markers to spice things up.

Begin planning for summer now. We will offer a study skills group this summer. Let us know if you are interested as we begin planning.

Remediating autism through developing cognitive thinking, learning to communicate better with your child, and providing daily opportunities to help your child fill in the missing stepping stones is what remediation is all about! I have been an RDI- (Relationship Development Intervention) Certified Consultant now for several years. It is not an approach that is widely known about, but it should be. I have seen amazing results with this approach. With this, we work with coaching the parents in improving their communication, setting up opportunities throughout the daily routine of their day, learning to read their child even better, and identifying the missing developmental steps to be addressed. I encourage you if you are interested to research more about this approach or call me for more information. All ages, all levels of autism, respond to this and all the families I have worked with are very happy with their results and the relationship they have developed with their child.