I just picked up a couple of games for ds this past week that I don't think I have seen listed on the board before. Even Stevens Odd - good for fast visual discrimination skills and fun way to work on listening and following instructions. Pickles to Penguins - great for category language skills What games are you playing with your kids these days?

When I have had shin pain over the years it is either time for new runners or I have started out without warming up enough. Maybe give yourself an extra couple of minutes for your walking warm up and see if that helps.

Yes, I agree that is odd to just drop your child off and not mention they are non verbal. I do expect questions and I do tell everyone what they need to know because I want to make sure it is a successful experience for ds. Junie - The good news is that you have families coming back, so I think you are already doing a great job! I have read many stories of moms having a horrible time with Sunday school situations for their SN child. So keep up the good work and see if you can get the director to implement some sort of standard intake procedure so you have the info you need.

I really think those two questions for new kids should give you the majority of info you need. The parents you are dealing with are used to answering questions about their child, but they do want their child to be seen as a child not their dx. I think those questions also send the message to parents that you are wanting to work with them. Those are two key things I look for when I am looking for any program for ds. Programs that want many specifics about my child signal to me that they are more about managing my child then about accepting and working with my child.

Tough position. Would filling out a very brief index card size form help? It could just be basic info and a "what do we need to know/what can we do to ensure your child's time here is a positive experience?" That way parents don't have to answer in front of their child or have others over hear. Then they can all be filed by first name, and availble for anyone new helping out.

Week 4 day 1 is done. Thanks to all you lovely ladies! I have been busy finishing up at work for my 4 weeks off and haven't been able to get home in time to fit in a workout. Was thinking this week was a write off. Last night I read all of the progress you ladies are making and made sure I got myself downstairs to the treadmill this morning before heading to the office for my last bit of cleanup. After that I am off till August 4. Eagle hope your ankle is feeling better. Happy Canada Day to any of my fellow Canadians on here!

Week 3 day 3 is done. Going to try my best to carry on with week 4 but may stay at week 3 for another week. I will see how the first one goes on Monday.

I just finished week 3 day 2 and did a bit of strength training as well. I am a little nervous about next week, it looks hard!

I was surprised to see my fitbit said I managed 2.9 miles today in the 30 minutes. The previous weeks have been around 2.5. I have always been a fast walker and have a fairly long stride.

Week 3 day 1 is complete. I also did a bit of strength training today as well. Keep up the good work ladies! Eagle, how is your ankle doing?

Week 2 day 3 is done. Bring on week 3! Not that the scale really matters, but i stepped on mine today and it is down 3 lbs since starting. More importantly, I noticed the other day at work climbing the four flights of stairs to one of the other departments was way less effort then in the past. That is the type of gain that really keeps me going, since I think I forgot my body is designed to feel well.

Oh no! Hope you are on the mend soon. I can tell from your posts you have been really enjoying the workouts. Week 2 day 2 is done. My IT band is a bit sore, so I think I will be watching some tv while on the foam roller for the balance of the evening.

Week 2 day 1 is done! I went while ds did his physio class and it is hot out! So I am a sad looking mess waiting to pick him up.

Well done everyone! Week 1 day 3 is done. Didn't manage to do my yoga on Thursday, but I did go for an hour walk and did a set of steep outdoor stairs. It is 15 flights of stairs so I think it counts as a workout this week. Will try for my yoga DVD on Sunday. Look forward to week two.

Week 1 day 2 finished. I also wanted to do some weights after but ran out of time. I did manage my HIIT workout yesterday and have my yoga DVD planned for Thursday. Now I am off to watch some news while using my foam roller for my IT band - it always gets very tight from running. I booked a massage for Saturday. My work benefits cover it, so it isn't a budget breaker and is good for my overall wellness.

Oh how timely finding this! I would love to join in with everyone. I did day one today and then did about twenty minutes of weights (biceps, chest and shoulders). Tuesdays I usually do a HIIT workout while ds is at his PT session. So I guess I will aim for Wednesday as my day 2.

While not the cheapest option a strategy that has always worked well for us is to set up a few private sessions with the instructor beforehand. That way we have time for them to get to know ds, and for us to figure out if they are a good fit for ds as an instructor. There is a great series of books out called either can I tell you about or let me tell you about blank disability. I know they recently came out with one for DCD/dsypraxia. It might be worthwhile to get as it is great to give to coaches and others that may not be familiar with DCD (which is often the case!)

This site is a great place to start. The online workshop is good and they have lots of general info and book suggestions as well. http://dcd.canchild.ca/en/

A few thoughts pop to mind about what I see as common issues that I always have to ask myself whenever I run into issues with ds: Generalization - the arch nemesis of many parents to children with autism, lol. Just because he can do something in one environment doesn't mean that skill will carry over to other environments. Once a skill is taught you have to look at how you can get that skill to carry over. For some kids that means looking at teaching that skill as if they were starting from scratch again! Flexible thinking - He sounds to me like he very quickly turns things into expected routines. Ds was very much that way and still is to a much lesser extent now. These expected routines are very comforting to him and help him to navigate things around him, especially things he doesn't fully understand or have much control over. This is where visual schedules are definitely going to help you out. He will need the visual schedules and tonnes of pre warnings about what is going to happen and most likely a meltdown here and there to get him to alter some of that. Environment - Ds is extremely sensitive to his environment. So exactly like your pool changing example ds would not change in the change room by himself for swimming. He was way to anxious to go into the change room himself. It took me probably close to 4 months of small goals to get there! It has always helped me to think about teaching ds like this: When a toddler starts out learning puzzles you don't sit them down with a 500 pieces puzzle and say go for it. It starts with a peg puzzle and even then you may only leave them with having to figure out where one or two of the pegs go and then work up to the whole puzzle, and so on.... Some kids naturally go from those 4-6 pieces puzzles straight into much larger puzzles but some kids need to work through every next step with your assistance along the way. Whenever I run into trouble with ds it usually because I have skipped some steps on the learning puzzles progression and have asked him to do something without all of the background knowledge that he needs. I have certainly provided some background for him, but I haven't broken the skill down enough. Which of course in true essence is what ABA is doing. We never did an ABA program with ds. That doesn't mean we didn't look at things from the lens of ABA and look at how to break things down for ds. We used a more Floortime approach. That was mainly because when I look at ds and his anxiety and his level of perfectionism when he was younger ABA would not have been a good fit for him. In fact all of the therapists we saw did not think that ABA was the way to go with him. It was also not something I felt I could do day in and day out that it would have needed. So I went for what I could do which was Floortime and Hanen. I have to run but will try to come back and expand my thoughts later this evening. Hopefully, the above makes some sense.

Teaching Theory of Mind and Big Picture Thinking are two books that were very helpful for ds.

No easy answers to motor planning trouble. I would be surprised to learn that it is limited to only having fine motor planning trouble, has she been assessed by a PT for her gross motor as well? Generally, the best things that have worked here are probably what you are already doing. Visual and auditory cues, breaking things down to each single step, and using the goal plan do check method. After she starts to get the plan down slowly fading the cues (visual first then auditory). You can also use backwards chaining to help with the success factor. It takes lots of repetition to get the plan to move into a more automatic like response. Our OT worked on lots of rhythm activities as well and having ds keep a movement pattern to a ryhythm for a minimum six times. I can't remember the exact reason for the 6 times, but I believe it was something about it becoming automatic movement pattern in the brain. So she started with fairly simple activities like clapping or jumping to the beat for as many times as he could manage. He had a very hard time with that, but eventually got it and moved on to more eloborate movement patterns. Are there specific fine motor activities that are giving her trouble?

I have been thinking about you as well. I am glad you got some answers. More importantly I am glad you felt heard by the psych. I don't understand how some of these professionals operate when they don't even bother to really listen to what a parent is experiencing. They seem to just nod and listen politely but you know they have completely discounted what you are saying. If I can help I anyway, please let me know! I have lots of experience with my own little complex ds and am happy to pass on anything we found that has worked here. And don't worry you will never use him having asd as an excuse. That is not your style. You will use it to advocate for him in getting services he needs and for communicating with those who run community programs so that he can get any accommodations required to make him more successful. You will also use it to give yourself some grace in parenting him.

I haven't been around much so I didn't realize you have been having trouble getting the assistance you need. Hope this one answers all your outstanding questions.

Well having done many things over the years for ds and his social skills, this is how I would probably approach it. 1. A good book that is perfect for his age, fairly inexpensive and super easy to use yourself is: We Can Make It Better. https://www.socialthinking.com/books-products/products-by-age-range/k-2nd-grade/we-can-make-it-better-a-strategy-to-motivate-and-engage-young-learners-in-social-problem-solving-through-flexible-stories-detail Our social group used it once or twice and I liked it so much that I went ahead and did the rest of it with ds. We worked through the stories as it suggest in the book and I used the iPad to film both the before and after versions. We would then watch them and discuss various things I noticed to help reinforce learning. Since it was ds being a character it wasn't really about correcting ds' behaviour which made it easier for me to give ds lots of feedback. Ds loved it and did get lots out of it. You can target probably at least a 1/2 dozen different social skills areas and goals with that simple program. 2. The Incredible Flexible You - how I wish this program was around when ds was younger. My girlfriend just got back from a conference about using it. Such a fantastic program. It is pretty pricey though.

Do you think it would help further his understanding of the concept of self control to have a sorting game of things he can control and things he can't? I know that was helpful for ds when he was around that age. I made up a whole bunch of slips of paper and we read each one and decided which pile they went in. We also did the self control bubbles game that you always see on Pinterest. Some other good activities can be found on this blog: http://www.pleasantestthing.com/2012/06/brain-rules-inspired-game.html I also like the My Mouth is a Volcano book by Julia Cook. You can find lots of accompanying ideas for that book on Pinterest. All these things have been helpful and at least I know ds full understands the concept and how it feels. That said he is hardly the poster boy for self control, so I probably should not offer any suggestions! I do see some success with it though, so we just keep at it.