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TAG Winter Wonderland 2021

TAG Winter Wonderland 2021

2021 Winter Wonderland Our annual Winter Wonderland Event was held Dec 2021 This event is special for our team and families. We enjoy games, events and treats.Related PostsWe're Here Whenever You Need Us9466 Black Mountain RdSuite 100San Diego, CA 92126 Phone: (858)...

RDI® Connections Center Resource

RDI® Connections Center Resource

The Connections Center (Relationship Development Intervention) RDI® is a family focused intervention which strives to remediate (treat until they are no longer deficits) the core deficits of autism.

What Does an ABA Program Involve?

What Does an ABA Program Involve?

Good ABA programs for autism are not “one size fits all.” ABA should not be viewed as a canned set of drills. Rather, each program is written to meet the needs of the individual learner.

How does ABA Therapy work?

How does ABA Therapy work?

Applied Behavior Analysis involves many techniques for understanding and changing behavior. ABA is a flexible treatment and can be adapted to meet the needs of each unique person.

Electronics & Autism

Electronics & Autism

For many, using electronics is like an addiction, because the child feels so much more competent when using electronics than engaging in dynamic interactions.

Feeling Nervous About The Challenges of a New School Year?

Feeling Nervous About The Challenges of a New School Year?

Parents all over the world toss and turn with the start of a new school year. Parents of children with special needs have additional fears about the quality of their school, the appropriateness of their child’s placement and the endless worry about making sure their child is able to enjoy meaningful, authentic relationships.

When to seek Speech Therapy for Your Child

When to seek Speech Therapy for Your Child

While a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) has many areas of expertise, (fluency/stuttering, social language, overall language development including grammar, vocabulary, understanding concepts, following directions, etc.), the concept of articulation, or sound production, may warrant the most questions for parents of school-aged children.

The Hidden Foundations For Fine Motor Skills

The Hidden Foundations For Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills can be defined as the skilled coordination and movement of the small muscles of the hands, fingers, tongue and mouth. An occupational therapist can help a parent understand and identify the hidden foundational skill areas that are impacting the child’s growth.

Who Benefits from Art Therapy?

Who Benefits from Art Therapy?

Art Therapy can be used as a window into the unknown inner world of the client or the relationships present during a session, yet it is up to the therapist to help those involved use the art for self discovery and also as a safe alternative to expressing feelings.

Videos

Links

Research Links, Materials, Biomedical

First Signs is devoted to educating parents and pediatric professionals on the early warning signs of autism and other developmental disorders.

www.firstsigns.org

Autism Society of America is a national non-profit organization dedicated to providing education, advocacy, research, services, and support for families and professionals.

www.autism-society.org

San Diego Autism Society of America is the local ASA chapter. The SDASA strives to provide extensive information and resources for families and professionals. A few of the programs include monthly informational meetings, an informative newsletter, conferences, a monthly pool party, and funding for CAMP I CAN, a summer Surf Camp, and swim lessons.

www.sd-autism.org

Division TEACCH hope to enable children with autism to function as meaningfully and independently as possible in the community.

www.teacch.com

Sensory Smarts provides extensive information regarding Sensory Integration. It includes functional techniques, sample sensory diets, information about different types of sensory input as well as recommended sensory toys.

www.sensorysmarts.com

Teaching Materials

Future Horizons is a leading publishing company dedicated to providing resources for parents and professionals in the field of autism. This site includes books, journals, videos, medical resources, and conference information.

www.futurehorizons-autism.com

The Lake Shore Learning Store provides extensive educational materials, classroom furniture, organizational tools, and toys for teachers and parents.

www.lakeshorelearning.com

Diff Learn is a web site dedicated to supplying autism specific materials for parents and professionals. These include a variety of visuals, programs, games, puzzles, timers, books, flashcards, software, handwriting tools, etc.

www.difflearn.com

Research/Biomedical

The Autism Research Institute (ARI) is devoted to conducting research, and to disseminating the results of research, on the causes of autism and on methods of preventing, diagnosing and treating autism and other severe behavioral disorders of childhood.

www.autismwebsite.com/ari/index.htm

The National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR) is devoted to funding biomedical research for autism and related disorders.

www.naar.org

Cure Autism Now (CAN) is an organization of parents, physicians, and researchers, dedicated to promoting and funding research with direct clinical implications for treatment and a cure for autism.

www.cureautismnow.org

Celiac.com is a web site dedicated to providing information for people on gluten free diets due to celiac disease, gluten intolerance, dermatitis herpetiformis, wheat allergy, or other health reasons.

www.celiac.com

The Gluten Free Casein Free web site is a free resource for parents who are implementing the GFCF diet. It includes books, educational videos, vitamins, and liquid calcium.

www.gfcfdiet.com

The Gluten Free Pantry provides gluten free recipes, products, and resources for parents and professionals.

www.glutenfree.com

 

 

RDI® Specific
Autism Aspergers: Solving the Relationship Puzzle by Dr. Steven Gutstein. This was the first book to describe the model and theory of Relationship Development Intervention (RDI™ Program). The reader will begin to learn the basics of a new developmental program that will open the door to lifelong social and emotional growth for individuals on the autistic spectrum.

Steve Gutstein, psychologist and autism specialist, sought to discover why children with autism lack the social skills that come so easily to the rest of us. The result of his efforts is an innovative program – Relationship Development Intervention – that takes social skills teaching to the next level. You’ll learn about the social development pathway of the nondisabled child and the life-changing detour taken by children on the autism spectrum.

However, instead of leaving you there, Autism/Aspergers: Solving the Relationship Puzzle describes ways to steer children with autism onto a bright new path of self discovery and social awareness, one that will ultimately bring them home to meaningful friendships, shared emotions and heartfelt connection with the people in their lives.

Dynamic Thinking and Development
Cradle of Thought by Peter Hobson. This is Dr. Peter Hobson’s brilliant book which explains the basis of his theory that Autism can be thought of as a failure to develop active mental engagement. Dr. Hobson is a Psychiatrist and Experimental Psychologist who is a professor at the world-renowned Tavistock Institute of the University of London. His theoretical approach is at the cornerstone of RDI®. (HL1)

Emotional Development: The Organization of Emotional Life in Early Years by Alan Fogel. I think it is the single most important book re: the development of RDI… Dr. Alan Sroufe is generally recognized to be the world’s leading expert on children’s emotional development. In this technical but brilliant work, Dr. Sroufe details the developmental sequences that lead to children’s learning to successfully function in dynamic systems and to crave incongruity and cognitive challenge. (HL1)

The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are by Daniel Siegel. Dr. Daniel Siegel has produced the first non-technical, readable book about the amazing development of the human mind. He provides excellent sections on the way the brain communicates, the development of episodic memory and a host of other areas that are essential reading for anyone seeking a background to RDI. (HL1)

The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children by Ross W. Greene, Ph.D. In The Explosive Child, Dr. Ross Greene proposes that challenging behavior should be understood and handled in the same manner as other recognized learning disabilities. In other words, difficult children and adolescents lack some crucial cognitive skills essential to handling frustration and mastering situations requiring flexibility and adaptability. The Second Edition of The Explosive Child is the internationally acclaimed book that provides a more contemporary conceptualization of inflexible, easily frustrated, explosive children, and describes a new, practical, comprehensive approach for helping these children at home and school. This approach – called the Collaborative Problem Solving Approach — is aimed at decreasing adversarial parent-child interactions, reducing family hostility, and improving children’s capacities for flexibility, frustration tolerance, communication, and self-regulation. A perfect companion to the book, the DVD, Parenting the Explosive Child is also available through www.rdiconnect.com.

Early Relationships and Relationship Development
Developing Through Relationships by Alan Fogel. Dr. Fogel is the developmental psychologist who has had the most influence in bringing the study of co-regulation in dynamic systems to the forefront of developmental psychology. His work, especially his explanation of the co-regulation process, was a revelation to me and is still a foundation for progress in RDI. (HL1)

The First Relationship: Infant and Mother by Daniel Stern. For over 30 years, Dr. Daniel Stern has been known as the most poignant narrator of the parent-infant experience. While this book is somewhat dated, Dr. Stern’s vivid narrative accounts and illustration provide a timeless glimpse into the miraculous dance that begins at birth between the young infant and caretakers. (HL1)

The Infant’s World by Philippe Rochat. Dr. Rochat has been recognized on the leading edge of the new generation of developmental psychologists. Dr. Rochat’s volume, while quite readable, also is a detailed account of the most recent findings about infant’s development of mental processes that only a few years ago were thought to occur at a much later developmental stage. Rochat nicely summarizes the research literature in an understandable manner. (HL1)

I Love You Rituals by Becky A Bailey. I Love You Rituals offers more than seventy delightful rhymes and games that send the message of unconditional love and enhance children’s social, emotional, and school success. Winner of a 1999 Parent’s Guide Children’s Media Award, these positive nursery rhymes, interactive finger plays, soothing games, and physical activity can be played with children from infancy through age eight. In only minutes a day, these powerful rituals:
Prime a child’s brain for learning
Help children cope with change
Enhance attention, cooperation, and self-esteem
Help busy families stay close
Affirm the parent-child bond that insulates children from violence, peer pressure, and drugs, and much more.
Easy to learn and especially effective in stressful situations, I Love You Rituals gives parents, grandparents, caregivers and teachers inspiring tools to help children thrive.

Joint Attention
Joint Attention: Communication and Other Minds edited by Naomi Eilan, Chirstoph Hoerl, Teresa McCormack, and Johannes Roessler. Joint Attention has been a pivotal concept in Autism for over twenty years. Unfortunately the concept has been misrepresented and grossly misunderstood in many clinical approaches. This volume presents the thoughts of world experts in Joint Attention including Michael Tomasello, Dare Baldwin and Peter Hobson. Each chapter places a unique spotlight on a different aspect of joint attention. The book provides an important foundation for anyone wishing to understand the nature of joint attention impairments in autism spectrum disorders. (HL2)

Master-Apprentice Relationship
Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive Development in Social Context by Barbara Rogoff. Barbara Rogoff has spent her long career studying cultures in all parts of the world to determine the ways that parents and communities facilitate the development of productive thinking and problem solving in their children. This book details some of her findings and is a cornerstone in developing our concept of the ‘Master-Apprentice’ relationship. (HL1)

Intelligence
Wisdom, Intelligence and Creativity Synthesized by Robert J. Sternberg. This is the latest work from noted Yale University professor Dr. Sternberg who, more than any other scientist has worked to understand intelligence in a real-world manner. In this book, Sternberg provides an alternative model for understanding intelligence and many cogent ideas for assessing it and developing the types of cognitive abilities that are most related to real-life success. (HL2)

Language Development
How Children Learn the Meanings of Words by Paul Bloom. No account of modern understanding of children’s language development can be considered complete unless it includes the work of Dr. Paul Bloom. His elegantly written, powerfully convincing work provides a unique door into our modern understanding of language development. In this account Dr. Bloom focuses on a single, critical aspect of language; how children come to understand the meaning of words. (HL2)

Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition by Michael Tomasello. Dr. Tomasello has been acknowledged as one of the world leaders of modern developmental psychology. This volume is especially important to those in the autism community, as it provides an up-to-date understanding of the amazing progress that has been made, in the past twenty years, in understanding language development. This book should be considered essential reading in a field that is still largely mired in a 1950’s Skinnerian view of language as “verbal behavior”. (HL2)

Sensory Processing
The following two books are recommended by The Autism Group, Inc. with descriptions by Amazon.com

The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Processing Disorder by Carol Stock Kranowitz. The Out-of-Sync Child broke new ground by identifying Sensory Processing Disorder, a common but frequently misdiagnosed problem in which the central nervous system misinterprets messages from the senses. This newly revised edition features additional information from recent research on vision and hearing deficits, motor skill problems, nutrition and picky eaters, ADHA, autism, and other related disorders.

The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun, Revised Edition: Activities for Kids with Sensory Processing Disorder by Carol Stock Kranowitz. This book is the revised and updated edition of a groundbreaking special-needs activity guide. This revised edition of the companion volume to The Out-of-Sync Child includes new activities that parents of kids with Sensory Processing Disorder can do at home with their child, along with updated information on which activities are most appropriate for children with coexisting conditions such as Asperger’s, autism and more.

Learning and Educational Resources
Awakening Children’s Minds: How Parents and Teachers Can Make a Difference by Laura E. Berk. In this very well written book, Dr. Berk provides a well-written, easily understood account of the practical application of Vygotsky and the development of children’s mental life. Dr. Berk takes difficult concepts such as the Zone of Proximal Development and makes them both understandable and useable. This is an essential volume for any professional or parent. (HL2 and HLP)

Guided Reading: Making It Work by Mary Browning Schulman and Carleen DaCruz Payne. Guided reading is a proven method for teaching reading as a thoughtful, reflective process. The guided reading method is based on understanding reading as an integrated process involving perception, thought, reflection and emotion. It provides an excellent method for parents to actively participate in ensuring that reading is learned in a “connected” manner. (HLP)

Creative Homeschooling: A Resource Guide for Smart Families by Lisa Rivero. An excellent text for parents considering or already engaged in home schooling. The book takes a good deal of the fear away from home schooling and offe

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