Tips, Ideas & Stories

This classic children's play material is so easy to make at home that you'll never want to buy it again! It's best to start simply with your hands and imagination (without bought tools and cookie cutters) to get the maximum sensory experience....

It's winter or autumn and it's dreary outside. You have spent the whole day indoors. Or you've been outside, but your child is still full of energy, running around aimlessly or bouncing loudly on the sofa. You've run out of ideas. It's...

Understanding language Understanding language begins with the child feeling that he or she is an effective communicator and repeatedly experiencing that he or she has loving people around him or her who understand what he or she means when he or she uses his or her body to...

Mouth and face games, which are really a larger-than-life version of face-to-face games for babies, are probably the most important "games" to get an autistic child talking and interested in human interaction....

10 Developmental Strategies to Help Your Child Understand Language Look at what the child is looking at AND look at their face so you can tune into their emotional state. Remember that the meaning of the words is not in the thing,...

Human language is not only a learned behaviour, but consists of complex social communication about emotional-mental states, thoughts and ideas using symbols and cultural meanings. 1. Divided attention When a...

Joint attention Joint attention is the process of sharing the experience of observing an object or event by following the gaze or pointing gestures of another. It is the mental progression from a two-way to a...

6 factors for positive outcomes as identified by Ramey and Ramey 1998: the earlier, the better long-term (usually 2-3 years) and intensive, i.e. between 15-25 hours/week of direct work with the child, about 2 hours per day, and not just information for...

Gestural communication Long before a child learns to speak, i.e. at least in the first 15 months, it communicates through GESTURES: with the hands, fingers, pointing, giving, handing, pushing away, ...BODY LANGUAGE: it moves the foot to say: "Do it again",...

Self-regulation arises from co-regulation The ability to self-regulate is fundamental for healthy development and the basis for all further learning and cooperative behaviour. This is a matter of identifying and adapting to challenging behaviour and...

Solving problems together: Every interaction - a good interaction! When we want to help a child up the developmental ladder, problems are our best friends and helpers! After putting Bruno's beloved letters in a screw-top jar earlier....

Water is this unique medium that envelops you and seems to offer no resistance, can carry you but cannot be held. In order to hold it, you need a container that gives the water a shape and a boundary, and then a second container...

The Waldon Method stems from the work of child neurologist Dr Geoffrey Waldon on early cognitive development in the 1970-80s. His unique insights led to a new understanding of how cognition develops and the challenges children face....