By: Kerry Magro – Self-Advocate, National Speaker, and Author

Growing up on the spectrum, one of the struggles I had to deal with the most revolved around communication. However, one area that I sometimes don’t bring up is some of my challenging behaviors. I was recently reading a tool kit from Autism Speaks called the Challenging Behavior Tool Kit that truly resonated with me. Often when I go out to speak at events, one of the main questions that comes up is, “How can I get my child to speak?” Challenging behavior questions often fall through the cracks.

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By: Carol S. Weinman, Esq., C.A.S., Autism Legal Expert and International Speaker

For parents or guardians of a child with special needs, the thought of how their child is faring at school is never far from their mind. This time of year is always of concern and often very anxiety producing.  Tweaking the IEP is often the focus of those concerns. What needs adding? What needs changing? What needs improving? What isn’t working? And, how do I go about getting the IEP revised? Most parents or guardians feel scattered and scramble for time to be sure it is all in place from day one of the new school term.

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By: Kerry Magro – Self-Advocate, National Speaker, and Author

“When should I tell my child my child about having an autism diagnosis?”

Oh, if I only had a nickel for every single time I’ve heard that question.

My conversation about my autism diagnosis came about when I was 11 and a half years old when I was playing celebrity disability bingo in one of my social skills classes. During the game, I learned about celebrities such as Michael Jordan had Attention Deficit Disorder and Magic Johnson had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity. After the game was over, our teacher said that each one of these individuals was “special” just like us. After the class period, I asked my teacher, “Why am I special?”

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