November 22, 2021Dominika WehbeBlog

As adults, we are constantly using visual support to navigate through our day-to-day activities. Things such as maps, calendars, our to-do lists, even our watches are visual aids. So why not provide similar support to our learners on the ASD spectrum?

What are visual aids and why do we use them?

Visual aids are picture, objects, sign language or text that enhance the understanding of spoken word(s) communicating a concept or idea. It helps children with ASD to process the whole message of information. For individuals diagnosed with autism, many are visual learners. When used effectively, visual aids have great potential for facilitating and enriching the socio-communicative contexts experienced by children on the spectrum.

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September 13, 2021Vaibhavi AggarwalBlog

COVID-19 outbreak has shattered many personal and professional lives. Together we faced withdrawal, hopelessness, difficulties in concentration, feeling of being less productive, disturbed sleeping and eating habits. Many people felt sad, anxious, and unhappy. During these uncertain times it is important to count our blessings. Try gratitude! It is as powerful as possible.

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August 16, 2021Cindy HsiangBlog

“We SURVIVED the first Lockdown!” July 2020, while some families scream out of frustration and relief, others reflect their achievement and gain. One shared experience from parents is “I never knew my child CAN do that!” The imposed Lockdown has brought out the challenges, along with the opportunities for families to connect, or reconnect. No doubt about the challenges, we are well informed by the news and critiques. I would like to spread some antidote reflection from parents and families with children on the spectrum.

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July 2, 2021Neeti GhaiBlog

How well the being residing within your body feels?

We often think of ourselves as just a body and forget that the “being” residing within this body is the real “YOU”. This being within you is made up of a plethora of experiences, actions, thoughts, activities and behaviours. The health of the being within us plays a colossal role in the quality of life we experience here on this earth as a humans. This contributes to the bigger picture that is our overall state of wellbeing, which affects our day-to-day enjoyment and comfort.

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May 21, 2021Ilaria ScarcellaBlog

“Say lolly or I won’t give you lolly”. How many times do you find yourself saying this sentence? As parents with a child with a severe language and speech impairment we often try to elicit our child’s speech by asking them to say the word before giving them their favourite food or toy. How many of us have stopped to reflect and wonder “Does this strategy really work?”

Let us have a look at what the research says.

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April 19, 2021Alicia Van ZylBlog

Emotional regulation refers to a person’s ability to understand and manage their emotional responses to situations. Toddlers are often witnessed throwing, what is loosely described as tantrums, in shops when they do not get the toy they want. They are incredibly sad and do not yet understand their own body’s response or know how to express their unhappiness. Imagine for a moment: You are watching a clip exploring a mountain range. Suddenly your body starts feeling hot, your palms become sweaty and your heart beats faster. You do not understand what is going on and do not have the words to describe it someone. This is what it might be like for a child experiencing big emotions.

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March 9, 2021Andrea FigueredoBlog

Each year that begins, we are challenged to face endless personal and family tasks and obligations. The school break generates changes in our routine, and for most of us, we have to quickly adjust back to established schedules, tasks and activities. Every change generates the need to assimilate, accommodate and finally adapt to the new reality. This is a psychological process that we all go through. During the process, different emotions are aroused: neutral – positive and / or negative. It is important to keep in mind that there are no good or bad emotions but that each emotion is produced to give us information about how we are feeling in a certain situation. That is why it is important to be able to welcome all our emotions and break old beliefs.

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February 5, 2021Neeti GhaiBlog

As human beings we all are motivated by different kinds of things. For example, waking up in the
morning is much better when accompanied by the smell of freshly brewed coffee. Going to work
everyday is fuelled by the anticipation of the weekend just lurking around the corner. We look
forward to things that reward us with joy and are more likely to do them.

We are wired to repeat behaviours that fuel the reward centres in our brain. It could be a
smile from a co-worker, a favourite lunch or a positive comment from a client that has the potential
for us to want to repeat the same behaviour again.

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January 19, 2021Cindy HsiangBlog

Internet overuse could not only potentially cause addiction, extend existing pathologies, and even worse, damage social functioning.

If you don’t use your leg muscles to walk for a week, you will notice the efforts to walk again. If we do not use what evolved over millions of years as biological social interaction, like reading a person’s face, observing someone’s postures and gestures, listening to the tones of speech, and processing further non-verbal information, then our social capacity is likely to weaken.

Living in a group and sharing tasks in a group has its evolutionary value, compared to a lonely isolated life. As a consequence of a social life style, a number of emotion-related capacities, such as reading expressions in someone’s face and listening to varying affective speech melody while being actively engaged in direct communication, has been imperative to social functioning.

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