How to Help Your Child Cope with COVID-19
Dr. Marcia Braden provides tips and resources, including social story and visual schedule templates, to help you and your children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
My Child is Home… Now What? Keeping a Routine — Webinar
In this webinar, Rebecca Shaffer guides us through the importance of having a routine, including providing predictability and lowering anxiety, and how to create and build your own for you and your child.
Behavioral Issues in FXS+ASD
Thanks to FORWARD — the Fragile X Online Registry With Accessible Research Database — plus standardized clinician- and parent-reported data from 25 Fragile X clinics, we now have access to samples large enough to include a breakdown of findings by age groups.
Managing Anxiety … What Works And Why?
Most children who come to see me have a combination of developmental delays, communication challenges and symptoms of anxiety, resulting in frequent tantrums. It is common for parents to share details about their daily struggles.
Enjoying the Fall (including Halloween!) with Sensory Challenges
Halloween can offer challenges for children with Fragile X syndrome. Here we present activity ideas for you to consider, but the important point is to find what works for your family—and maybe it will lead to a new tradition.
Concept and Use of a Sensory Diet
Leading pediatric occupational therapists, Tracy Stackhouse and Sarah Scharfenaker, provide an overview of the concept and use of sensory diet including a downloadable sensory diet template, and an example of a completed template for a sample patient.
Building Social Supports: A Guide for Parents
Limited social skills, social anxiety, and an often narrow range of interests contribute to the difficulties of making new friends.
10 Rules of Time-Out
I have found these 10 time-out “rules” to be the keys to success. They are based on the fundamental principles and incorporate adaptations for children with Fragile X syndrome by accommodating repetition, consistency, and predictability.
Managing Difficult Back-to-School Transitions for Students With Fragile X Syndrome
Several strategies can help in guiding a successful transition. Though if the student changes schools, neighborhoods, or programs, additional support is required.
Visiting the Dentist
I learned pretty quickly that visits to a dentist were going to be a challenge for my son, Ian. I demonstrated the process over and over again. I helped him brush his teeth, encouraged him to brush his own teeth, tried different toothbrushes and toothpaste. I needed Bonnie.
Doggone It … Mantras Are Great for Learning!
Mantras, like positive affirmations, really do have power. Mantras are short, positive, instructive statements full of action words. We use them to quiet the mind and focus on thinking and action.
A Holistic Approach to Toilet Training
The challenges of toilet training can be magnified for families of children with Fragile X syndrome. It's not simply that toilet training is delayed, it often requires specific behavioral techniques that address their physical and behavioral phenotypes.
Verbal Perseveration! Verbal Perseveration!
Let's discuss verbal perseveration (VP), a very typical and pervasive aspect of language in Fragile X syndrome. Does VP interfere with daily living and activities? You bet your boots it can!
Proactive and Reactive Behavior Management for Your Child
Behavior management continues to be of tremendous importance to parents and professionals and understanding the etiology of behavior in people with Fragile X syndrome is critical when creating proactive strategies to successfully manage that behavior.
Visual Wizardry: Using Visual Supports to Change your Child’s Life
Visual supports help translate the environment and expectations to an individual with FXS without requiring direct processing of language. This type of information can be processed quickly. Visual supports remain present, so they can be referred to more than one time, whereas verbal directions might be heard and then forgotten. Learning to use visual supports can help alleviate anxiety for the person with FXS and frustration for the person providing support.