Affordable autism intervention Archives

Helping Sonny Learn to Love those Loud Squawking Flamingos!

February 3, 2018January 26, 2023 Martha Gabler

Child Highly Sensitive to Noise

Many children with special needs have a hard time coping with loud unpredictable sounds. The family featured here taught their child to cope with certain sounds that bothered him. This story comes to us courtesy of Sarah M., a dedicated mom, special needs advocate, and talented glass artist in the UK. Sarah and her husband have two sons, the younger of whom has developmental challenges.

Sarah describes how they helped their younger boy, Sonny, overcome his painful reactions to noise, especially the random and sharp sounds made by animals. She helped him get used to these noises, made sure he had nice experiences while hearing the noises, and used TAGteach. The family’s goal was to be able to enjoy trips to the zoo.

Want your child with autism to see the world? Travels with Autism: Part 4 – Learning something unexpected

December 5, 2016April 20, 2024 Martha Gabler

Taking a nonverbal young adult with severe autism on a trip to Wyoming turned out to be a wonderful experience, and a learning opportunity for me. One thing I learned about (unexpectedly) was the benefit of doing “pro-active tagging.”

The Problem — Don’t Spook the Horses!

During the horseback rides I wanted to be sure my son could maintain Quiet Mouth behavior for two reasons: so that the other riders would have an enjoyable outing and so that he would not spook the horses by a sudden loud outburst. I could not tag and reinforce this behavior since I riding behind him and he was out of reach.

The Accidental Solution — Pro-active Tagging

What to do? I mulled this over the first morning as I took my son for a long walk before breakfast. During this walk I decided to tag intensively for what I call the “calming tag points”: Quiet Mouth, Appropriate Vocalization, Hands Down, Smiles, and Cute Glances. Intensive tagging and reinforcing had worked well on our airplane trip to keep him calm and happy, so it seemed reasonable to do this again.

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Want your child with autism to see the world? A world champion told us, “Be strong and stay encouraged.” Travels with Autism: Part 2: A Life Lesson

November 22, 2016September 21, 2017 Martha Gabler

A dream abandoned

When my children were little, I dreamed of taking them out West to see the Rocky Mountains and national parks. My younger son’s autism diagnosis and challenging behaviors put that dream out of mind for years.

This summer an opportunity popped up to go to Wyoming, and off we went, just the two of us. So …

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Want your child with autism to see the world? We used TAGteach for a smooth flight! Travels With Autism: Part 1: The Airplane

November 7, 2016November 22, 2016 Martha Gabler

Travels With Autism: Part 1 — The Airplane

Over the summer I took my 20 year old nonverbal son with severe autism on a trip to Wyoming. This involved a 3 ½ hour flight from the East Coast to Denver and a 1 ½ hour flight from Denver to Wyoming; it was about six hours of plane travel, not counting time waiting in the airports.

Since my son has lots of experience with 7-hour car trips, I wasn’t overly worried, but an airplane is a different environment, and you can’t just pull over and take a break. I took pains to be prepared and had a plan of positive behavioral supports in place for the flights.

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