Celebrating & Accepting Your Child

Have you ever thought to yourself, "I wish my child...". Well, it is often that parents try to make their child into something that they want their child to be, instead of just accepting them for who they are. When we get busy in looking at what our child "isn't," we miss out on the wonderful life in our child. As a parent, your influence on your child is much stronger than you may realize. Susan Stiffelman said, "The way you live in front of your children can either dampen or spark their thirst for exploring their interest and expressing their unique brand of genius.”

Click here to read more about how you can celebrate and accept your own child on RDI Connect

Jump Rope

Today is a beautiful day to be outside, grab a jump rope and head out! Using a jump rope, how would you turn this activity into a two person game where both participants have to think?

There are many different ways to use a jump rope, but the most important things to remember are:

1.     Each participant (parent & child) needs to feel important in the game

2.     Each participant needs a job or a role to help the came continue on

3.     Have fun and enjoy spending time together

Start by using one rope and laying it straight across the ground. Bring your child to one end of the jump rope and go stand at the other end. Reach down and pick up your side of the rope. Look at your child directly so he/she knows that they should pick up their side as well. By working together, spin the jump rope around in a circle.

What variations could you add to this simple activity? Could you change the speed you are spinning the rope or how big your circles are? What changes could you add? Could you add in another participant to jump over the rope in the middle?

We hope you enjoy this activity with your child. Please email us with any questions or any feedback that you have.

How involved is your child?

Do you like to involve your child in community activities and programs? If you are interested, here is a list of fun and exciting summer programs going on throughout the community:

Camp Kostopulos: week long camps in Emigration Canyon for children ages 7 and up. They also have swimming and horseback riding lessons.  Visit www.campk.org for more information.

Children’s Center: offers social skills group for children ages 4 to 10 with Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Visit www.tcclsc.org for more information.

National Ability Center: located in Park City, UT.  They offer a variety of summer programs for children with disabilities and their families.  Visit http://discovernac.org for more information.

The Stable Place: offers group or private horseback riding lessons for children with disabilities.  Visit http://thestableplaceslc.com for more information.

SPLORE Accessible Outdoor Adventures: provides outdoor recreation to children with disabilities.  Visit www.splore.org for more information.

Free Summer Meals: for children under the age of 18, Monday through Friday.  They may be serving dinner at some locations as well.  Visit http://www.uah.org/food-assistance/summer-food/ for more information.

Discounted Children’s Movies: For Cinemark locations, visit http://www.cinemark.com/summer-movie-clubhouse for more information.   For MegaPlex locations, visit http://megaplextheatres.com/kidsmovies for more information.

Always check your local libraries for fun summer events (www.slcolibrary.org) as well as the Utah Family Magazine (www.utahfamily.com).  

Free Issue

Do you enjoy reading articles on how you can help your child? Download a FREE issue of June 2014 Autism World Magazine for great articles about Autism written by other families and consultants.

Click here to download

Taken from Twitter: https://twitter.com/AutismWorldMag/status/476735334634762241?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=fb&utm_campaign=AutismWorldMag&utm_content=476735334634762241

Do You Want Your Child To Use Eye Contact?

Do you ever feel like it is too hot to go outside during the afternoon of a summer day? Well, there are lots of activities you could do with your child inside. One of our favorite activities is baking together. The two most important things to remember as you bake with your child are:

1. It is okay if your cookies don't work - baking is about the experience NOT the end result

2. Make sure you set aside plenty of time to make this a learning opportunity - remember that it is going to take 2 or 3 times longer than if you were to bake alone

Making cookies together as a parent and child (guide and apprentice) is a great opportunity to learn a simple co-regulatory pattern, working together, problem solving, or social referencing, depending on how you set up the activity. Today we are focusing on social referencing, and how to help your child learn and feel the importance of eye contact instead of just telling them to use it.  Instead of teaching eye contact directly, we are going to help you teach your child to know when to reference you. Here is a sample activity of how you could do this during baking cookies together:

During this activity, we are going to use a parent’s emotional reactions to give the necessary information for the child to figure out what to do next. Prior to starting the activity, you should get out all of the ingredients needed for the recipe, and prepare them to fit your child's ability. As you are setting up, make sure that you have the goal in mind of guiding he/she through the process of dumping all of the needed ingredients in the bowl and mixing it all together. Let me reemphasize, your goal is to guide your child through the process of baking cookies, instead of the end result of the cookies themselves.  

You could start the interaction by breaking the eggs into the bowl and then looking at the sugar in a very direct way so the child knows it’s the next thing to add. If the child goes to add the melted butter you could shake your head, “No…”, and then continue looking at the sugar, waiting to see what he/she does. When he grabs the sugar to put in, you could nod “Yes!”, and smile as he/she pours it in. Then you could add the vanilla, he could add the butter, and so on, until all of the ingredients are in the bowl.

In doing this activity, the most important thing to remember is that the exercise is NOT to teach the child how to make cookies. Instead, the main purpose is to teach him to look at you to determine what to do next, and most importantly that it is fun to do things together.

The amount of structure and scaffolding the activity has would need be individually customized to each child.

Temple Grandin Q&A

Maia Szalavitz published an exclusive Q&A with Temple Grandin on the Autistic Brain in TIME Magazine. Are you interested in the opinion and insights of someone who has personally struggled with Autism?

Click here to read the entire article

Guiding Through Water Balloons

As parents, we often feel that the days of summer seem long. When it’s hot outside, send your kids in the yard, and even better, join them! What activities do you enjoy doing during a hot summer day?

With it being hot outside, there are lots of ways to stay cool while spending time with your children. Grab a towel, some water balloons, and head outside!

One of our favorite activities starts with having a towel spread out on the lawn. Together as parent and child (guide and apprentice), grab each end of the towel and hold it off of the ground.  Place a water balloon on top of the towel and see if you can bounce it by working together. 

 Guiding Through Water Balloons

1. Plan ahead by making sure that you have enough time to relax and enjoy the afternoon

2. Buy/get out the supplies - water balloons, a towel

3. Fill up water balloons (child can help or not)

4. Lay the towel out on the ground

5. Grab your end of the towel and look to your apprentice (assign a role)

6. Wait for them to grab their side after referencing you

7. Place one water balloon on top

8. Remember to go slow to allow for those dynamic thinking moments

9. By working together, see if you can bounce the balloon into the air

10. Add in small variations

11. Have fun

12. Add in a change

**These steps will need to be customized to each child specifically**

What variations can you add? Could you do small bounces and then change to big bounces? Try to fling it off of the towel and hit the side of your house? What challenges can you add? Could you try multiple balloons at the same time?

We want to hear about how this activity went!

June Festivals

With summer starting, there are lots of towns throughout Utah that are celebrating their founding and heritage with a family festival. These festivals are anything from rodeos and petting zoos to princess tea parties. These festivals can make for fun family outings!


June:
5-7: Gunnison Valley Dairy Days Only the second annual celebration, there will be a petting zoo, archery tournament, a dance and more.

5-7: South Jordan Country Fest Fireworks, a pinewood derby, a parade and a dutch oven cook-off are only some of the family-friendly activities.

5-8: Utah Pride Festival A 5K, parade and live music are all elements of this colorful celebration.

7: Skypark Aviation Festival Pilots and aviation enthusiasts alike are invited to come enjoy airplanes of all kinds and activities for the whole family.

7-14: Springville Art City Days The week-long festival has a car show, parade, rodeo, teddy bear tea party and more.

12: Kaysville Arts and Music Festival The festival kicks off with a Sunrise Latin Jam, with music and Zumba at 6 a.m.

12-14: Logan Summerfest Arts Faire Celebrate Father’s Day with live music and theater, art booths and local food vendors.

13-14: Ogden Arts Festival With “Kids ARTivities," the festival will get creative juices flowing.

13-14: Orem Summerfest Enter a child into the baby contest, watch the parade and stroll through the booths featuring local arts and crafts.

13-14: Scottish Festival and Highland Games at Thanksgiving Point Traditional Scottish games such as Braemer Stone Putt, where participants see how far they can throw a 22-pound stone, are only part of the fun at this cultural event.

14: WingFEST Like wings? Then you’ll love Wing Fest — where everything is chicken wings and sauces.

14: Heritage Arts Festival Artisans who create brooms, quilts and rugs will be on hand to show their crafts.

14: Coalville Barbeque Festival In celebration of the delicate art of BBQ, the festival will feature many cooked meats as well as entertainment.

16-21: Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days Since 1921, Pleasant Grove has celebrated Strawberry Days with parades, a carnival and pageants. This year will feature golf and soccer tournaments for the first time.

19-21: Nibley Heritage Festival Frisbee golf, a children’s play, a movie in the park and fireworks all make up the Heritage Festival’s weekend of family fun.

20-22: Tooele Arts Festival Food and a 5K will accompany booths featuring local artists.

21-28: Cedar Hills Family Festival The week-long celebration includes a family swim night, a community service project and a parade.

21-29: Lehi Round-Up Besides the traditional rodeo, Lehi will play host to concerts, a Princess Tea Party, outdoor movies and more.

23-29: Cedar City Groovefest This music festival is dedicated to American music from jazz to bluegrass.

25-28: Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival Featuring a keynote speech from noted astronomer Alex Cherney, the weekend will be educational and exciting — a model rocket launch is also on the schedule.

26-29: Utah Arts Festival With the Color Me Rad 5K, culinary delights and local bands providing ambiance, the arts festival has become a celebration of all things colorful and creative.

28: Elk Ridge City Celebration The city will host a parade, a car show and a craft fair.

This information was taken from an article written by Amanda Taylor on KSL.com.

Are You Dreading Summer?

Have you thought about how you are going to entertain your kids for 2 1/2 months? We can help! With the school year quickly ending and schedule changing completely, we want to help reduce stress in your home. Summer is a perfect opportunity to strengthen your relationship with your own child. It provides the opportunity for you to guide your child through summer activities and back-yard games. Each week this summer, we will be highlighting a different activity that you can do with your child. We hope you can get outside and enjoy your summer! Here are a few ideas to kick-start your summer:

Community Activities

Hogle Zoo

Clark Planetarium

Museum of Curiosity

This is the Place Heritage Park

The Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point

The Living Aquarium

Local Farmer's Market

splash pads

parks

fruit picking

Backyard Games

Water balloons & towels (water balloon volleyball)

side-walk chalk

sandcastles in the sand box

swings

4-square

catch

cloud watching

star-gazing

outdoor BBQ

Frisbee

How can you turn these community activities and backyard games into productive interactions with your child? Can you turn these activities into a co-regulatory pattern? We want to hear your ideas!

Do you have any other summer activities that have worked with your family? We would love to hear your stories!

Please email us with any activity ideas, personal stories, photos, or questions:

 nicole@pryorconsulting.net