That is wonderful news! My happy news of the day was ds negotiating with us. Every Thursday we get the rotisserie chicken and fresh salad special our grocery store offers and lately a dessert. Since we have been on holidays and/or visiting family lots this summer and there has been way too many desserts of late. Dh was telling ds that we would be getting back on track and not getting any today. Ds came back a few minutes later with his win win plan, which was how about we get dessert on the first Thursday of every month and when it was agreed to he decided to put it in his planner. It seems so small, but it shows that he took sometime to think about what might be good solution (instead of complaining), involved some perspective taking and I loved how he made a beeline for his planner afterwards.

I agree. It is a problem with generalization that is very common for asd. It will come up in all sorts of areas. Just when you think your child has acquired a skill you will find that presenting it in a new way will cause a blank stare and a need to backtrack. To try and combat that I have always tried to present things to ds in many ways and to bridge the connections that most children will naturally pick up on their own.

Is she seeing an OT? It could be the exercise is actually ramping her up and she might be more regulated with some heavy work. That said, my first thought was could it be anxiety related? Anxiety in children doesn't always look like people expect it to.

The fact that our son had ASD was the reason we choose to homeschool. In recognizing when it might be time to get some help, I wanted to share one of the most helpful epiphanies that I have had raising ds10. It is simply distinguishing between "doesn't want to" and "can't". Often, I would think maybe ds just doesn't like <insert any commonly liked childhood activity here>, but really his displeasure, avoidance or lack of interest in many of those activities was because he currently couldn't do those things. I think that it is very natural for parents to default to the "doesn't want to" answer since we are all trying to respect our children's individuality, but a child's play is the foundation for all of their learning and it merits investigation if your find yourself thinking that often. I know asking that question and breaking down what I thought were the barriers or lacking prerequisite skills for ds to enjoy certain play/activities has made for a much richer and fuller childhood for him and has done wonders for his overall development.

I don't have an answer for you! I just know that ds really struggles with it and all of these workbooks seeking him to reflect on himself are just beyond him. Of course, a good chunk of that is also his age, but I just keep running into how much of this will be a problem for ds if I don't cultivate it now. We have spent lots of time this year specifically targeting that along with supporting his interests. I believe following his interests is what will in large part cause the biggest gains in that area. Thankfully, we are and are seeing some progress. Just thought I would mention it since I imagine it to be a problem many of those with EF challenges are facing.

Keeping in mind my ds is only 10, but I have seen the book you mentioned and didn't think too much of it. I have not seen this one, but have heard good things about it: http://www.amazon.com/Executive-Functioning-Workbook-Melissa-Mullin/dp/098877500X/ref=pd_sim_14_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=0KCZXKMX2QZTDMRWKWF2 Also, what about the 7 habits book and workbook for teens? Something to consider is what your son's overall self awareness is like. For any of these resources to work, I am finding that to be the big stumbling block/determining factor for ds.

I am back from holidays and am back on track. Just finished week 6 day 1. Looks like all of you are doing so well!

I would have him assessed by at PT, it is honestly the fact that you mention the delay with jumping. That is a bit of a red flag. Gross motor skills are all over the map at that age, but a trained eye will be able to suss out if he is having any difficulties. Also, I say trust your gut, if you think your son is dealing with some slight gross motor delays then you are probably right. Further, you are also right that early intervention can resolve them much more easily.

I am not too far into it, I just finished the first section on self knowledge and about a 1/4 through the second section. I am enjoying it and had a couple aha moments about how I can set myself up for better success by tweaking things to be more inline with my tendencies. When I originally did the Happiness Project some stuck and of course some didn't. From what I have read in Better I can already see a pattern in what ones stuck and why others didn't. It will be interesting to see if I find myself having even greater success in working through The Hapiness Project this time around. This is really very timely for me, thanks for starting!

I would like to join! I just started reading her third book Better Than Before Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives. I read the Happiness Project but not Happier at Home.

Week 5 day 2 is done. Went pretty well, hopefully day 3 goes okay. Now I have to scramble around as we are leaving at 2 for vacation. Which also means my week 6 may be on hold till we get back! It should be an active vacation though so hopefully that will balance it all out.

Yikes! Sorry to hear that. Hope you are okay.

This is a bit of a sidetrack, but building on Lecka's thoughts. It is important to ensure that your husband is helping him navigate some of this boys socialization stuff (I don't mean to imply that he isn't already). I remember hearing Brenda Myles Smith speak and talking about how often since the large majority of therapists are women that we are teaching these boys social skill rules from a girls/women's perspective and that just doesn't apply to how these young boys relate to each other.

Well I am behind again this week! Just did week 5 day 1 today. I think I will be okay for day 2 not sure about the 20 minutes on day 3. Greta, have you tried tying your shoes with a loop lacing lock? It can help give your ankles a bit more stability without having the laces too tight for your feet.

Yes, this is the general level of scaffolding that ds requires to learn the day to day chores and routines, and we approach it very similar to your apprenticeships except I should spend a bit more time giving him more background as to the why behind tasks. l also love how you told them you were starting them so they wouldn't be worried about doing things right the first time or remembering everything. That is always such an issue with ds. He would totally love me calling them apprenticeships, I will have to steal that! Thanks!

Basically. He checks the pictures at the end to make sure it matches. Instead of the usual visual schedule of all the steps it is more a visual completion check. Good luck, hope it results in some clean rooms for you!

I just used the iPad, I am sure the kindles would work just fine. Obviously, I am aware ds is a visual learner, but I was surprised at how little repetition this took. It seems as those just slowing down and taking the pictures as we did the routine gave him the checklist he needed for what to look for and to know if the task is done. It is so lovely to see him be able to independently navigate and sequence more involved multi step routines.

So a couple months ago I was getting sick of nagging ds about cleaning up the bathroom after his bath and needed to find a solution. The one I came up with was to take pictures as we cleaned it up together of what it is suppose to look like and where things should be kept. It worked so well! He has not even looked at the pictures since but has made sure everything is put away and cleaned up without so much as a reminder. We used the same idea for his arts and crafts area and that has also worked perfectly. For whatever reason previously doing the step by step instruction didn't seem to stick, but adding the step of taking the picture after seems to have cemented in his mind what it is suppose to look like. Don't know if it is only something that will work for my ds, but thought I would share in case it helps out someone else.

The Thinking About You Thinking About Me book is great for any age group and for understanding the whole approach of all the social thinking materials. For younger kids beside set Lecka mentioned, the Whole Body Listening books are great as well as We Can Make It Better and Movie Time. Of course, I am a big fan of Zones of Regulation and have been using that with ds since it came out. I heard that the writer is coming our with a second Zones book, very excited to hear that! Lecka, I wish the Incredible FlexibleYou was around when ds was younger. I had a chance to look at it and thought it was fabulous. I do think that no matter the language level introducing and using that vocabulary around your child as much as possible is helpful. Mainly because I think that way these discussions around the concepts just happen more frequently and naturally. At least that is how it has worked here.

Code: 20Years Sale is on till end of the month. I don't think I have ever seen their stuff on sale before, so if you have been thinking of ordering now is probably the time. Happy shopping!

Well I am a day late, but I finished week 4 day 3 just now. I think I am ready for week 5. We are nearly half way through!

I agree about smaller firms and lines blurring. I do think times have changed and without prior legal assistant experience or training you would be hard pressed to get a legal secretary job. I know for sure my city it is nearly impossible to get a legal assistant job without a two year diploma program. In fact the main 6 big law firms in my city hold at least 2-3 recruiting events a year and ours generally hires 8 students every year. They wouldn't bother looking at someone with no background knowledge.

Just finished week 4 day 2. That was hard! I had to take a bit longer recovery between the 3 and 5 min run. Trying to decide if I will do this week over or just push on to week 5, which looks easier to me! I can manage the five min of running with the three minutes of recovery. I won't finish this week till Sunday as I try to make sure I take a day between each run. Happy running/power walking everyone!

I am in Canada so not completely relevant, but thought I would add that here paralegal positions have most certainly increased over the years but are generally in direct relation to the size of firm. If you have a few big firms near you, I would call up their HR department and ask them directly what they are looking for qualifaction wise. If you don't have many bigger firms nearby it maybe a much harder road to employment. Here those kinds of positions are still largely filled by legal assistants with experience.

Yes, I can certainly see why he would be liking the tally ho and wooly bully game, lol! I just love how many areas and skills you can target with games.