Protecting our autistic kids in winter weather

As it starts to get very cold, the snow starts to fall and the days become darker we still want to get out and about with our kids but need to be extra careful with them.  Our autistic kids can't always communicate with us about how their body is feeling and there senses can become overwhelmed by winter weather.  So what can we do to support them?

Autumn to Winter motor skills craft - making a Pine Cone Snowy Owl Family

Learn about the seasons, autumnal materials and animals by making our Pine Cone Snowy Owls  with this fun and easy craft that helps motor skills development too.

It's moony tonight

Our Anthony often says or sees things others either don't notice, or don't think about like he does.  He makes great observations on the way home.  His latest one made me smile. He looked up at the evening sky and declared "The moon is very bright, yes, it's very moony."
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Nervous about 'nearly' as school restarts

It takes all kids a while to learn about time. Waiting can be difficult for the best of us. When we leave the kids with carers I use the same language to indicate how long I'm going to be away from them. 'Right back' is in a few minutes, 'soon' is an hour or so and 'later' is pretty much saying I'm going to be away all day.

Baubley babbles: Aim high with your communication

Welcome to our Baubley babbles, my notes on helping my family talk over Christmas. My sons are both on the autistic spectrum and we have a two year old daughter. Our son, David is five years old and uses a variety of Augmented and Alternative Communication (AAC) to talk. Every school day till school restarts I'll post a one thing I'll be keeping in mind to help us all communicate over the festive holidays. Maybe some things will be of interest to you too.

Today: Aiming High

An opening thought, aim high with your kids communication. My kids make progress at school and I'm not always aware of how much they can do. But I do know David can string several Makaton signs together and when he is using PECS, he is at working at stage 4 + attributes. I also know Anthony's speech targets includes responding in full sentences.

I'm not going to withhold fun at Christmas or expect targets to be hit at all in the midst of present opening. But during the normal parts of the day, I can encourage the boys to request/respond in full sentences as appropriate.  During breakfast it a good idea as its routine. 

Jane is lucky she's at the point of forming  full sentences so she gets constant good modelling too. 

Tomorrow - introducing festive vocabulary

Links

Communication Matters - What is PECS?

The Makaton Charity

Autism, facts and absolutes?

Yesterday was the 1st of December, and according to Anthony, who has autism, this meant it was now definitely 'Winter', he had to open a chocolate advent calendar and all the trees were dead.