For most autistic children, achieving self-discipline is a difficult skill to acquire, including controlling inappropriate outbursts. In addition, potentially dangerous habits, such as being too aggressive towards others or causing harm to themselves, such as banging their heads against walls can be difficult as well.

One type of preventive action parents and educators often use to control autistic tendencies is self-management. Giving the child power over him or herself can be the key to keeping control over potentially violent situations and may be a positive step towards learning other behaviors as well.

Self-management has the potential to work because a child isn’t fully controlled by others. Teaching the child self-management at specific times of the day, such as when the child is at school or therapy, the child is more likely to continue practicing self-control during all times throughout the day.

An important key is to implement a program in which he/she monitors their own behavior and activities. You can start with a few minutes and then continue to monitor the child from a more passive standpoint. Every 10 - 15 minutes you can remind the child he/she is in control and needs to monitor and be aware of good and bad behavior.

Monitoring is a form of self-evaluation. When the child is in control, he/she may think more carefully about behavior in the past and present. Set specific goals with the child — for example, an afternoon with no aggression towards others or a day at school with no self-injury.

Every 15 minutes or so, ask your child how he/she is doing. Is their self-control goal being met? If the answer is no, it’s possible your child isn’t ready for self-management, or perhaps the goals are just too unattainable. Make sure their goals are easy enough to reach at first, and then move the child in the direction of more difficult goals for the future. When a child is successful at self-monitoring, he/she is likely to gain a more positive attitude towards the experience.

An important part of the child’s learning self-management is a setting up a rewards system. Have your child come up with his/her own reward, depending on their interests. Reinforcement makes good behavior goals clearer in the child’s mind. By choosing and rewarding him/herself, your child will feel they’re in control of the self-management program.

Choose simple rewards to start, such as smiley faces for every goal they meet and sad faces for every goal not met, and work up to larger goals, such as special activities or a new toy when a specific number of smiley faces have been attained.

Self-management programs won’t develop overnight, so it’s important you and your child devote enough time to achieving a self-management experience. Continuous reinforcment of good behavior with rewards, as determined by the child instead of an adult, will lead to the child being more likely to carry on with the program, even when not participating in the program. If your autistic child is mature enough, developing a self-managed self-control program is worth trying.

To read more articles on Autism, go to Family Health/Autism.

It’s your son’s birthday today, and you’ve just realized he’s now thirteen. Gone are the days of childhood years for him, as he welcomes a new phase in his life — “I’m a teenager!” For your child, reaching the ‘teen’ years is a chance for him or her to finally have a “say” with their life. Often their natural thought process becomes “I’m a teen now”, “I can make my own decisions”, “I’m not going to seek my parents advice because I know what’s best for me”.

While your child thinks this way you, on the other hand, cross the sea of turbulent worries. You try to protect them as much as you can; even to the point of holding them back with what they consider their “personal freedom”. It’s natural for parents to be concerned and worry about their children all the time. But when the “worrying” and the “personal freedom” clash, it results in a bad parent-teen relationship that significantly affects family life.

Parent-Teen Relationship

First of all, as a parent it’s important for you to accept there will be changes when your child reaches their teenage years. Not only will the changes be on the way they dress, their interests, and the kids they hang out with, but they’ll also seek their right to be independent in many ways. It’s in this stage that parents and teens may experience losing the once beautiful relationship they had.

Nevertheless, there are ways to prevent teens from becoming “separated” from their parents in the process of their quest for independence. Parents can battle ‘losing’ their child to peers and vices, and even to drugs by doing certain helpful approaches in parenting teens.

We’ll cover some of these approaches in future posts.

To download a free report on coping with your teens, Click Here.

Hiring a nanny or caregiver is an area in which parents should never compromise. A quality nanny should be hired for your child’s benefit. It would be too costly to for you to settle for someone who isn’t properly qualified and ideal for your child.

Competent nannies may be more expensive, but it’s well worth the cost when dealing with the care of your child. The high quality of care and attention given to your children, along with your peace of mind when you must leave your child justifies paying any amount for a nanny who
has the credentials to handle every possible situation.

A Healthy Environment

Your children should be exposed to a warm and loving environment at home. He should be in contact with those who are able to positively influence his life — and those who can be his role models as he grows up.

This is another reason why it’s critical to hire a nanny who can fit in well with your standards. Your nanny at home will interact with your children most of the time so she must effectively provide a healthy environment to maximize their development.

Tapping a Child’s Mental Capability & Teaching Good Behavior

You should also consider involving your children with games and activities that stimulates their mind. This is important in the child’s early years since this will affect the development of his mind.

Misbehavior should be addressed immediately so that a lesson is learned right away by the child. A nanny should be able to help mold your children to grow up as responsible and respectable adults.

Feeding your baby is one of the most important responsibilities every mother needs to perform. If your baby could only talk, perhaps he/she could tell you when he/she is hungry or full. Of course, this isn’t the case as babies at an early age can’t talk. They will start to babble words and make their wishes known verbally during their first year. In this stage, you’ll need to figure out what your child is trying to ask you. Mothers can usually sense when her child cries for food.

A baby only needs milk during the first few months of their first year. Breast milk is highly recommended for every newborn, so try to breastfeed your baby, and alternate with a special milk formula to satisfy his or her hunger. Most breastfed babies want to be fed frequently, sometime every hour, so make yourself available in the early weeks of the baby’s life.

Prepare nutritious foods for your child as early in his/ her life as possible. You can buy or make baby food, but be careful what you prepare. Many mothers use tree-ripened peaches, while others use wild blueberries for their natural sweetness. No matter what the available food choices are, make sure you prepare baby food that’s both delicious and nutritious.

In addition, as you introduce new foods to your baby in the coming months, watch out particularly for the reaction of your baby to the newly introduced food. There are some cases when a baby reacts negatively to a new food, but ends up accepting the food with time and experience.

Therefore, try to introduce new food to your baby’s diet, but be patient. According to some experienced mothers, it can take 10 - 20 introductions of a new food before the baby will eat and accept it. So, this being the case, don’t give up after a few trys, and don’t try forcing your baby to eat food he/she isn’t accustomed to yet. Every responsible mother should demonstrate understanding and patience when her baby refuse to eat.

Click here for more information on Baby Care

1) If, at some point, your child can’t cope up with the pace of a public or private school curriculum, home schooling conveniently allows your child to adapt to whatever grade level he or she needs to adjust with, at his or her own pace.

2) Home-schooled children are still sociable, keeping in touch with their old friends regularly. There will always be weekends and after school opportunities to catch up with social matters, meeting old and new friends and sharing time together.

3) Enrolling children into customary schools takes almost the same amount of time, and with home schooling, your children are assured of getting enough attention.

4) If your child isnt the “workbook and sit-down” type of home school student, then he or she has the world for a classroom. Very real and existing elements and institutions, such as museums, private lessons, zoos, community classes, field trips and a lot more, are remarkable learning tools for him or her to learn in the most natural way.

5) Home schooled children are sociable and they do socialize with people of all ages. This is manifested by those children who talk to adults as if they belong within the same age group, while at the same time easily relating to those younger, as well as peers of the same age.

6. Home schooling can be advantageous for both parents and children alike. Home school parents or mentors have much more control over their children’s education, being the ones who decide what to teach their kids, thus, morals, curriculum, quality work etc. are based on what parents feel is best for their children.

7. Home school parents can also meet and make more new friends, and lead a healthy social life just like any other parents.

8. Resources and guidelines are available on the Internet. Many sites, support groups and stores are there to help anyone with home schooling questions and dilemmas.

9. Generally, home schooled children tend to be more intelligent, smarter, thoughtful and exceptionally close to parents or have an open relationship with their parents, even teenagers. These children have more significant views on life and they tend to be less judgmental, and more accepting regardless of age, race, status and materials possessions.

10. Special needs can be easily attended to when home schooling, such as children being allergic to particular allergens. Keeping your children at home is one of the best ways to help maintain their good health.

Click here for more information on Home Schooling.

Tags: Family Education, home schooling