Everyday Tips

Help strengthen the relationship between you and your child, including their ability to self-regulate with these basic strategies that will help you and your child improve communication about anger and frustration. These strategies will support channeling undesired behavior into more constructive ways to communicate anger and frustration.

Megan Fennelly, a member of the Children’s Specialized Hospital – and mother of an autistic child — shares that it’s important to see life with autism is different, not less. Sorting through the maze of services and attending to your child’s needs can be daunting. In this video, Megan encourages finding support for self-care, acknowledging the job you’re doing as a parent, asking for help, and creating family time in the community by adjusting expectations.

Help your child to better anticipate routines – and changes to routines –by creating daily visual schedules. A visual schedule will help increase your child’s ability to anticipate what to expect, to better manage changing plans, and to provide the structure to help decrease anxiety, tantrums, and meltdowns when changes do occur.

In this video, Courtney Peters from Into the Spectrum presents a tool sheet which gives ideas for activities which are useful for calming a child with autism down when they are experiencing a meltdown, or if they are just feeling frustrated.

In this episode of Into the Spectrum, Courtney Peters and Phil Schlemer talk about the importance of playing with your child and the benefits play can provide to kids with autism.

In this video presented by Family Compass Group, Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) Billie Harber discusses strategies for parents of young children with autism to have successful outings in the community, which can often be a struggle.

In this video, Into the Spectrum’s Courtney Peters discusses four strategies parents can use while playing with their autistic children to develop a closer relationship.

In this video presented by Family Compass Group, Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) Billie Harber discusses strategies parents can use with their autistic children to develop a bedtime routine.

In this video, strategies for parents who are about to send their autistic child to school are discussed. School can be a difficult environment for children with autism, as they are placed into a space which can be demanding academically, socially, and sensory-wise. It is important for parents to begin preparing their autistic kids for …

In this video, Alisa from Creating Connections Australia explains the importance of maintaining good hygiene and helping autistic teens to develop good hygiene habits. Hygiene is important for interacting with others as well as our own health. Alisa suggests approaching this topic with care when talking to a teen about hygienic habits, and also teaching …

“Choose your battles” is something this autism mom and dad duo learned the hard way. They tried “everything” to “make” Max compliant, but it backfired. In this Ability Life Solutions Video Favorite, parents Jake and Claire give great tips and advice to help parents of autistic children find a balance with autisc kids. Claire talks …

In this video, Stephanie from Our LANDing Crew discusses Halloween for autistic children, because it can be a hectic holiday for both the children and their parents. For some children with sensory issues, Halloween costumes can be a barrier to fully enjoying the holiday. Stephanie suggests creating a costume utilizing regular clothes, and to avoid …

In this video, the use of ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) to address delayed use of toilets in children is explained. The video creator makes sure to warn that this can be a sign of an underlying medical condition, so if your child is not using the toilet, you should take them to the doctor before …

In this video from Our LANDing Crew, Stephanie gives parents of autistic toddlers and children tips for potty training. She draws on her experience with her son Noah, who is day-time potty trained only at this point (they are working on night-time potty training). One major tip Stephanie gives is to limit fluid intake 2 …

In this video, Stephanie from Our LANDing Crew discusses some tips for parents and caretakers on travelling with their autistic children. Travelling can be difficult for people with autism for a variety of reasons, as travel means an interruption in the child’s normal routine and an overwhelming amount of information to process. To help her …

In this video, Katherine from Guiding Autism discusses some strategies she uses when travelling with her daughter Samara to help make the experience better for both of them. Katherine shows a visual presentation she put together for her daughter to help her mentally prepare for their upcoming trip, which includes maps and pictures of the …

In this video, FatheringAutism explains his decision to get his nonverbal daughter Abbie her first haircut since she was two years old, and gives some tips on how to make the experience a better one. Although he didn’t necessarily want to cut her hair (he and his wife like her long hair), he decided it …

In this video, Kevin Chapman discusses travelling several times in the past years with his son, Andy, for the first time in his young life. Kevin talks about Andy learning to enjoy the travels, and some tips he’s learned by travelling with Andy. Kevin thinks it really helped Andy that the first place they went …

In this video, developmental pediatrician Dr. Yvette Janvier discusses the sometimes-difficult and always-important task of explaining a child’s autism diagnosis to family members and family friends, many of whom will likely not have been exposed to autism in the past. Her tips for explaining the diagnosis of autism will bring peace of mind to caregivers …

Every parent knows the struggle of getting little ones to bed on time! There’s always one more book, one more glass of water, and one more question that kids will use to prolong the inevitable. Parents with children on the spectrum know how much even more challenging the “going to bed” process can be! It …