Social skills classes for 4-5 year olds
Children with special needs may have trouble following rules, cooperating with others or making their needs known in appropriate ways.
Young children with special needs may have difficulty getting along with other children. Children with special needs may have trouble following rules, cooperating with others or making their needs known in appropriate ways.
For example, a child with autism spectrum disorder often has difficulty understanding that other children have different thoughts and opinions. Children with attention deficit disorder can have trouble taking turns or dealing with their feelings of frustration or jealousy. Read more
Download – Substance Use and Abuse in Teens
Dr. Kari welcomes back Curt Widhalm, marriage and family therapist, to discuss effective ways to talk with teens and build your teen’s resiliency to substance abuse. Teen substance use is a growing crisis in America. Peers have more influence over our kids than ever before. Parents often don’t know what to do when drugs and alcohol become an issue. Parents can teach their teens appropriate ways to handle peer pressure and avoid drugs and alcohol.
Click here to view Mr. Widhalm’s website.
Download – Bullying—It’s Not a Rite of Passage–Mojo UP
On this episode of Special Kid School Talk Dr. Kari welcomes Mr. Mojo to share with us how kids can “Mojo UP” to find their positive attitude to deal with bullying, and how parents can work with schools to put a stop to the aggression. Anti-bullying and youth leadership coach Travis Brown (known as Mr. Mojo), is currently on a nationwide school tour and has received support from the daughter of actor Jamie Foxx. Corinne Foxx has organized an Anti-Bullying Week at her school here in Los Angeles, featuring Mr. Mojo as the keynote speaker. My parents thought bullying was just something kids had to go through—no big deal. But I was terrified to go to school. It’s time for adults to face up the fact that bullying of our school children is the most common form of aggression in America today! Nearly 30 percent of students report being the victim of a bullying incident, and about the same percent confess to bullying other students. Bullying has always been abusive, and we finally understand the problems bullying causes.
Click here to see Mr. Mojo’s website.
Download – Success Against The Odds: Parents Make the Difference
On this episode of Special Kid School Talk Dr. Kari interviews John Paul Engel’s. From the start, John success in life seemed impossible. He nearly died at birth, he was born addicted to the antidepressants his mother had taken during pregnancy, and he suffered from severe brain damage. Doctors believed he would never walk or have any chance of a normal life. He was given up for adoption, but the state planned to institutionalize him for life because of his severe disabilities. Now, a Collegiate Scholar Award winner who went on to earn a graduate degree from the University of Chicago, Mr. Engel is a motivational speaker, author, and business consultant. He is dedicated to bringing to students everywhere practical success advice from some of the most accomplished people in the world by way of his empowering and informative collection of stories and advice, Project Be the Change: Academic & Career Advice From Highly Successful People.
Click here to see Mr. Engel’s website.
Download – Keeping Your Child Safe From Sexual Predators
On this episode of Special Kid School Talk Dr. Kari interviews Chris Mulligan of the Cyber Addiction Recovery Center who tells us how parents can make their kids resistant to predators, how to have frank discussions with your child about the risks of exploitation, and signs to look for that your child may have been victimized. Sexual predators look for vulnerable kids to exploit.
Click here to see Mr. Mulligan’s website.
Download – Homeschooling Your Special Needs Child
On this episode of Special Kid School Talk Dr. Kari welcomes back mother Bobbi Sheahan, mother of a child with autism, who talks about how to homeschool your special needs child, what type of children and parents have the most success with homeschooling, and how to provide your homeschooled child with a social life as well as an appropriate education.
Bobbi Sheahan is the co-author, along with Kathy DeOrnellas, PhD, of the book, What I Wish I’d Known About Raising a Child With Autism: A Mom and a Psychologist Offer Heartfelt Advice for the First Five Years (Future Horizons, 2011).
Click here to see Bobbi Sheahan website.
Download – Sensory Processing Disorder and Anxiety
On this episode of Special Kid School Talk Dr. Kari welcomes Jackie Linder Olson, who shares ways to help your child with sensory processing and regulation issues in the home, community, and classroom. Sensory processing is an area that so many parents are interested to learn about! We talk about how the information a child takes in with his or her senses can be misunderstood by the body and lead to anxiety reactions.
Download – Solutions to Cyber and Gaming Addiction
On this episode of Special Kid School Talk Dr. Kari interviews Chris Mulligan of the Cyber Addiction Recovery Center about who is most at risk to develop cyber abuse and gaming addition, how to determine if your child’s interest is, in fact, an addiction, and what should be done about it. You may suspect that your child (or your spouse, or even yourself) has an interest in electronics that is beyond control. But how can you help?
Helping Your Child Be An Independent College Student
Only a small percentage of students with special learning needs attend college, but parents have the opportunity, from the moment their child is born, to insure that their child is one of the successful college graduates.
Successful students have strong personal qualities that support their independence. The way you mentor your child all through his or her life develops these personal qualities.
The most important step parents can take is to mentor their child to believe in their intelligence and talents and to know in their heart they can meet the challenge of obtaining a college education. This belief supports the effective action steps that parents and students need to take throughout their child’s school career to ensure a college diploma. Read more
Autism Q & A with Dr. Kari
Dr. Kari recently answered questions about autism for a HEALTHathon sponsored by Baby Blog Addict.
1. What are 3 myths you hear people say about Autism?
Myth: Autism can be cured by using (fill in the blank).
Dictionary.com:
Cure — “to relieve or rid of something detrimental, as an illness.”
The term “cure” suggests that complete removal of all causing influences can be achieved, and I believe that the autism spectrum behaviors may have complicated mechanisms that produce and sustain them. At this point, I think it is most fruitful to view the behaviors and symptoms associated with the autism spectrum as capable of being improved to some degree.
There are many useful and effective approaches that help to improve the quality of life for individuals on the spectrum. But no one approach will produce improvement for all individuals with autism. Parents must be wary of any approach that claims to “cure” autism, because a cure just hasn’t been discovered.
It’s important to work with a multi-disciplinary team (for example, doctors, occupational therapists, educators, psychologists) to determine the most likely approaches and methods for each person, implement them, and carefully note the changes. Many people on the spectrum benefit from more than one method, and pursuing a balanced, holistic approach to management of symptoms and behaviors, is most likely to produce the best results for your child. Read more
Find Me On Twitter and Facebook
