Author name: Devora Samet

(One minute read) Last week, I wrote about a 6-year-old child who has a visual disability and has been taking away his friend’s stuff and hiding those items. One of our blog readers, Chavi Hornig, responded with something very deep, and I wanted to share it. “Maybe the child wants his friends to know what […]

(One minute read) Question: A 6-year-old child who has a visual disability has been taking away his friend’s stuff and hiding those items. This is going on for a few weeks. The social skills teacher wanted him to learn perspective-taking skills and tried taking his things away so that he can experience the feeling of

(One minute read) Family vacations are supposed to be fun and memorable experiences for all family members. But when children travel with their families, they don’t necessarily leave their grievances and squabbles behind. Instead, they often take their sibling rivalry on vacation, too.That doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. We, professionals and parents, can

(One minute read) Giving feedback, both positive and negative, is an important part of teaching social skills and is also part of life. AND there’s a way to do it that makes it more effective and palatable.Quick Tip: Use the word “AND” instead of “BUT” Why? When we give feedback and use the word “but”

(One minute read) Sometimes I break my head (well, not literally) trying to figure out how to explain certain abstract social concepts to kids. Or how to get a kid to take the perspective of others. A simple, yet powerful strategy is the “Un”Golden Rule. Well, the Golden Rule is to treat others how you

(One minute read) What do you do when a child nags and nags, and the red and green picture was not enough to help the child, teen, (or young adult) stop or decrease the behavior?Your can write a social story that helps them understand a bit more about nagging and what it feels like to

(One minute read) What do you do when a child nags and nags and nags and nags and nags?You have several options here. First, you can draw a red and green picture demonstrating the behaviors of red –“nagging” and green – “asking once and accepting ‘No’ for an answer.” Did you know…uThis picture was taken

(One minute read) I was doing a school evaluation on 5-year old David who had a history of lots of aggressive and hurtful behaviors, and then the bell rang. The teacher called up one row at a time so that the students would get their coats. Suddenly, David grabbed Sophia, a petite sweet classmate, and

(One minute read) What is the #1 antidote to resistance and behavioral problems in children with special needs? Parents of children with special needs know better than anyone else that typical and simple tasks that happen every single day and should take no more than a few minutes to complete, can take hours and hours,

(One minute read) If you are doing a reward system in your home, or you are guiding parents to reward their children for green behaviors through tickets and praise, what is the magical number of tickets and/or praise parents should be giving in order for them to see REAL change quickly?Well, that magical number is