The siblings of children with special needs face unique challenges. It's important to address any questions or concerns that they may have to help promote an honest, beneficial relationship for all your children.

It can seem as though your child's development is highly erratic. One day she may be optimistic, focused and right on track. The next thing you know, it seems that she has lost weeks or months of progress. This variability can be quite concerning, but, rest assured, each child has unique developmental patterns. Even siblings can vary dramatically within the developmental spectrum, with one child learning to walk at nine months and the other not hitting his stride until 18 months.

Medical personnel from the Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital stress the importance of good sleep hygiene for children. In fact, according to Johns Hopkins, infants should sleep 12-16 hours per night while older children should sleep at least nine.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), defines SLDs as disorders that affect language skills, mathematical skills and other discreet skills due to a disorder in one or more of the child's psychological processes. This definition distinguishes these disorders from ones caused by intellectual, emotional or physical challenges.

With over 2.5 billion video gamers throughout the world, the video game industry is poised to be worth more than $90 billion in 2020. Why are video games so popular? It's turning out that they're for more than just fun. Video games could potentially benefit one's mental health.

Playing video games can be fun and educational. When gaming adversely affects other important life areas, is used as a crutch to avoid other concerns or has other negative life effects, parents and children may need to address the issue of gaming addiction.

Pragmatic language is the use of appropriate verbal or nonverbal communication in social situations: knowing what to say, how to say it and when to say it. Children with a pragmatic language disorder may not understand the subtle cues of discourse and attempt to dominate a conversation, say nothing, speak out of turn or say something that is not related to the topic. For these children, it is actually difficult for them to learn the rules of social interaction.

We've all seen it: children who stare at their phones at the dinner table instead of making conversation, or who prefer texting over talking. Frustrated parents can't turn the clock back to the pre-electronic age, but they can model the behavior they expect for their children's use of technology.

Holidays can be stressful for anyone, but for children on the autism spectrum, they can be extremely challenging. Visitors and changes in décor may distress them. Lights and holiday sounds can cause sensory overload, and children may reject holiday menus featuring unfamiliar foods. You can plan how to address the issues your child may face with these tips.

Children of parents who are divorcing face unique challenges. They may feel the divorce threatens their sense of security, which can leave them feeling scared, angry or worried.

While here are various approaches to treating ADHD, the use of medication is most commonly prescribed. However, medication can cause unwanted side effects for many people, perhaps as high as 48%.

What is an Individualized Education Plan? This crucial document, sometimes referred to as an IEP, is an in-depth outline of special needs and educational goals for a child with development delays or other disabilities.

Research and health care professionals have focused on the brains of autism patients for a long time. New research reveals that a gut-brain link to autism could be the key to understanding what produces social and behavioral symptoms.

It is very common for kids who are transitioning from elementary to middle school to feel anxious and apprehensive about this big change. Everything will be different.

Children with ADHD typically exhibit behaviors that make it difficult for them to interact with others. They may speak too loudly, dominate conversations or ignore personal boundaries - all of which can make socialization an ongoing challenge. Social skills training for children with ADHD can help them better understand the rules and limitations of appropriate social interaction.

Social Thinking is a structured program that helps people figure out how to think and behave in any situation where they are sharing space with other people. Michelle Garcia Winner, M.A., C.C.C.-SLP, is the founder and CEO of the Social Thinking® program, having created it in the mid 1990s in the context of her work with smart students who had poor social skills. Some highlights of this methodology include social problem solving, flexible thinking, self- regulation and increased understanding of the thoughts and feelings of other people.

Here at Therapeutic Options, at this time of the year we optimize social learning and communication opportunities through our tradition of “Secret Snowman” gift exchange. Several weeks before the holiday break, each group member randomly selects the name of a fellow group member for whom she/he must get a gift. The name that was selected is a secret.

Over the past year, one of the exciting developments in our neurofeedback practice has been the introduction of 4-channel training, which allows us to improve the functioning of the neural networks. This type of training involves the placement of electrodes on four different sites of the scalp in order to improve the connectivity of those sites.

At Therapeutic Options, our social skills groups devote a couple of weeks in early October to our Pumpkin Productions. The first week, group members are placed in working groups of 2-3 and are tasked with jointly creating and planning out a pumpkin design idea, and the following week they implement the design.