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Special Needs

Social Stories for Kids with Autism | Looking for resources to help you teach life skills like behavior management, potty training, respecting personal space, and how to form friendships to kids with ASD, anxiety, and ADHD? We’ve got 21 social story templates and apps (and free printables!) as well as tips to teach you how to write a social story.

Social Stories for Kids with Autism: 21 Social Story Templates & Apps

33 sensory diet activities for kids with autism and/or sensory processing disorder | With occupational therapy tools and ideas, this collection of fun activities is perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, and school-aged kids, and can be practiced both in the home and in the classroom at school. Perfect for parents and teachers alike, we’ve included proprioceptive, vestibular, tactile, auditory, visual, olfactory, and oral motor activities to address all your child's needs!

Sensory diet activities: 33 fun ideas for kids who need sensory input

Self Esteem Activities for Kids: 11 Fun Ways to Develop Self-Respect | If you’re on the hunt for games, crafts, teaching tools, and therapy ideas for girls and boys to help develop self-esteem and self-confidence, you’ve come to the right place! Perfect for parents, teachers, and even elementary school counsellors, this collection of self-esteem activities for kids is perfect for children in preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, and beyond.

Self Esteem Activities for Kids: 11 Fun Ways to Develop Self-Respect

Anxiety in Children: 12 meaningful ways to calm an anxious child | Raising an anxious child? Looking for anxiety relief for kids? Perfect for parenting and school, these anxiety truths will give you ideas to help understand your child’s feelings and come up with effective stress management tips to help her cope with life. We’ve also included 13 relaxing activities for kids!

Anxiety in Children: 12 meaningful ways to help your anxious child

Looking for the best GAPS recipes for kids? Look no further! From simple breakfast and lunch ideas to fruit snacks, desserts, and creative ways to get kids to consume bone broth, we’ve rounded up 50+ GAPS recipes that are perfect for children and families alike. Using ingredients like coconut oil, almond flour, honey, and maple syrup, these recipes might be dairy free, sugar free, and low carb, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t delicious!

GAPS Recipes for Kids: 50+ Delicious Ideas the Whole Family Will Love

Therapeutic Listening for Autism & Sensory Processing Disorder | If you’re looking for autism and sensory processing therapy ideas, the Therapeutic Listening Program might be for you. Used in occupational therapy, this is an at-home treatment parents can perform to help improve a child’s attention, self-regulation, communication and social skills, posture, and fine and gross motor skills. Click for our personal experience - the pros, cons, and gains we've enjoyed!

Therapeutic Listening for Autism & Sensory Processing: Does it Work?

Learn how to teach children self-control with this collection of self-regulation strategies and activities for kids! Whether your child struggles with impulse control as a result of ADHD, autism, or another developmental challenge or delay, or just needs some coping skills and tools to help calm down in the classroom, we have 7+ ideas to help teach your kids about self-regulation, as well as 30 self-control activities to develop and encourage appropriate self-regulatory behavior.

How to Teach Children Self-Control: 7+ Self-Discipline Strategies for Kids

Whether you’re looking for sensory activities for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, or school-aged kids, we’ve got you covered. Perfect for at home or in the classroom, we’ve collected 101 sensory activities for kids with autism and special needs to help them calm down, stimulate their senses, develop their social skills, language skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and self-control skills, as well as increase their attention span and help them learn!

Sensory Play! 101 Sensory Activities for Kids With Autism

Looking for fun empathy activities for kids to teach children about kindness and compassion, and help them understand the feelings of others? We’ve rounded up 19 empathy activities for children to help teachers with their lessons plans in the classroom and parents and caregivers at home. We’ve even included 100 random acts of kindness, which includes some pretty fun and impressive ideas!

Empathy Activities For Kids: 19 Fun Ways To Teach Kids About Kindness

How to Prevent Bullying of Kids | Looking for ways to stop bullying? Whether you’re the parent or teacher of special needs kids, elementary school kids, teens in middle school, or high school students, we’re sharing 9 tips to teach you how to prevent bullying of kids with autism and other developmental disorders as well as 15 inclusive, team building anti-bullying activities to help educate, protect, and empower our youth!

How to Prevent Bullying of Kids with Autism: 9 Ways to Stop Bullying

20 Super Fun Core Exercises for Kids | Whether you’re looking for classroom activities for students who struggle to sit still and focus, or need occupational therapy activities for kids to help strengthen weak core muscles and develop fine and gross motor skills, we’ve got 20 ideas that will make learning feel like fun! Ideal for kindergarteners, first graders, and beyond, these activities are perfect for kids with autism, ADHD, and SPD!

Strength and Balance: 20 Super Fun Core Exercises for Kids

How to help a speech delayed child | Whether you’re the parent of a child with nonverbal autism, a teacher looking for speech therapy ideas to help with letter sounds & articulation, in need of PECS communication resources, or need help developing your little one’s WH questions, we’ve rounded up 32 tips & activities to get you started. From speech therapy activities to free PECS communication boards for kids with autism to other fun activities for nonverbal children, this is a great resource!

Will my autistic child ever talk? How to help a speech delayed child

Autism and Behavioral Problems: 6 Anger Managements Tips for Kids | Autism and anger can be all-consuming. From explosive meltdowns to self-injurious behavior, it’s essential for parents to equip their children with the coping skills they need in the classroom and beyond. We’re sharing our best self-discipline and self-control activities as well as other tips and tools you can use to calm an angry child.

Autism and Behavioral Problems: 8 Tips to Cope with Aggression in Kids

Vestibular System Exercises for Kids | If you’re looking for fun and easy sensory integration activities for autism, we’ve got you covered. We have 16 occupational therapy approved ideas to help improve your little one’s motor skills both at home and in the classroom. Perfect for kids of any age, these core strengthening activities offer a fun way to help develop your child’s vestibular system!

Sensory Integration Activities For Autism: Vestibular System Exercises

How to Potty Train a Child with Special Needs | Potty training a child with autism and other special needs like sensory processing disorder and speech delay can be extremely challenging. From visual schedules and sticker charts to sensory safe products and ideas, we’ve got 11 tips to help parents and special needs kids overcome the challenge of toilet training.

How To Potty Train a Child with Special Needs: 11 Tips That Help

Autism and parenting: 8 Tips to Cope with Caregiver Fatigue | If you’re the parent of a special needs child and you want to find ways to cope with mom burnout, we’re sharing 8 simple tips you can start implementing today to teach you how to be happier and how to be a good mom to your child with ASD. Whether you’re a stay-at-home or working mom, these ideas will help you deal with parental fatigue so you can find the joy in motherhood, even on your toughest days.

Autism and Parenting: 8 Tips to Cope with Caregiver Fatigue

16 Visual Schedules for Kids with Autism! If you have a visual learner and you’re looking for the perfect visual routine chart for kids with autism, we’ve found 16 ideas you’ll love. From free printable morning routines for home to more complex daily schedules with pictures to use at school in the classroom, these portable visual schedules are perfect for preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, and beyond.

Visual Routine Chart For Kids With Autism: 16 Ideas for Visual Learners

Need tips to get a picky eater with autism, sensory issues and/or other special needs to try new foods? Autism and eating can be extremely challenging and frustrating for parents, and we’ve got 8 helpful ideas for mom (and dad!) to try to help their kids overcome their rigid autism eating habits and embrace a healthier diet. Whether your child has gastrointestinal discomfort, food texture issues, or other eating challenges as a result of autism and sensory processing disorder, these tips are for you!

Autism and Eating: 8 Tips to Help a Picky Eater with Autism

How to Get a Child with Autism to Sleep | Autism and sleep is a hot topic in the special needs community. From abnormalities in melatonin levels, anxiety, ADHD, and sensory issues, finding ways to get a child with ASD to sleep through the night can feel impossible, but these sleep tips will help. From essential oils to weighted blankets to other ideas and products, check out 9 sleep strategies to make falling asleep – and staying asleep – easier for kids with autism.

9 Tips About Autism and Sleep: How to Get a Child with Autism to Sleep

Fidget toys – more specifically, fidget spinners – are all the rage these days, inspiring kids and adults everywhere to figure out how to make a fidget toy themselves. Whether you’re looking for DIY ideas for kids or for teens, big hands or small hands, to help with stress, ADHD, anxiety, autism, or sensory processing disorder, or just to get creative juices flowing with students in the classroom, this collection of DIY fidget toys will NOT disappoint!

How to make a fidget toy: 17 DIY fidget toys for kids

Best Apps For Autism: 9 Apps For Special Needs Kids to Download Today

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‘STOP TRYING TO CALM THE STORM. CALM YOURSELF, T ‘STOP TRYING TO CALM THE STORM. CALM YOURSELF, THE STORM WILL PASS.’ —Unknown . My daughter went back to school virtually today, and while the Type A in me is excited we’re back in some kind of routine, I had forgotten just how chaotic and impractical distance learning is. A province-wide internet outage took down her teacher within 2 hours, shattering any hopes I had of grabbing a little time to myself to get caught up on all of the work stuff I’ve been putting off for the last 3 weeks. I’ve dried tears, prepared snacks, provided new Zoom logins, helped with grade 4 math, and I even made paper plates out of construction paper for a last minute craft. . Wash, rinse, repeat. . All is good in our world again, and soon we’ll dive back into those math problems and whatever else is on tap for homework before I retreat to my office to print off tomorrow’s agenda and worksheets. We’ll all play Roblox before dinner to help us unwind after a crazy day, and I’ll stay up later than I want to tonight trying to get caught up because I know tomorrow will bring more unforeseen challenges, and I hate starting my day feeling behind schedule. . Parenting in a pandemic is extra messy, and if this sh*t storm has taught me anything, it’s that we need to give ourselves a hell of a lot of grace right now. There will be days where we’re super productive and get through everything on our never-ending ‘to do’ lists, but there will be many more days where we feel like we’ve accomplished absolute nothing. . It’s on these difficult days that we need to remind ourselves that our most important job right now is making sure our kids are healthy and happy, and that they feel safe and loved. When they look back on this time, they won’t remember if the house was clean and the laundry was folded, how often we ordered takeout, or if we gained weight. All they will remember is how we showed up for them - even on the days we were struggling to show up for ourselves. . If the return to reality has you feeling overwhelmed today, stop trying to calm the storm. Take a deep breath, get present in this moment, remind yourself what’s important, and focus on that instead. . We’ve got this. 💙
BACK TO REALITY… . Are you ready to get back at BACK TO REALITY… . Are you ready to get back at it? . While we’ve certainly been busy organizing, packing, and getting our new home ready and didn’t really relax as much as we’d hoped to over the holidays, I’ve enjoyed operating at a slower pace the last couple of weeks. We’ve stayed up late, slept in a little bit each morning, had too much to eat and drink, and enjoyed a break from routines and schedules. . Toronto is currently under lockdown, so my daughter is going back to school virtually tomorrow while my husband and I continue to work from home. It’s not ideal, but we’ll make it work and I’m excited to get back into a routine. The time away from my computer helped me reset and recharge, and I feel like I’m starting 2021 with more realistic expectations of myself. And that feels good. . 2020 was definitely not my favorite year, but when I look back at the last 12 months, a lot of really great things came from it. It gave me more time with my husband and daughter and brought us much closer than our busy, pre-2020 lives would’ve ever allowed. It helped me reconnect with friends I had lost contact with due to the craziness that is being a working mom. And it helped me form amazing new friendships that I will cherish forever. . I know 2021 is likely going to be just as challenging - if not more so - as 2020 was, but for the first time since becoming a mom, I finally feel like I have a tribe of people around me. I feel less lonely than I’ve ever felt in my life, which is hilarious since we have been holed up in our house for ~10 months, but it feels pretty amazing. . I’m not sure where I was going with this post, but suffice it to say I’m ready to caffeine and conquer! ☕️
‘ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR LIFE. KNOW THAT ‘ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR LIFE. KNOW THAT IT IS YOU WHO WILL GET YOU WHERE YOU WANT TO GO, NO ONE ELSE.’ —Les Brown . I think we can all agree that 2020 was the absolute shits, and I know we’re all looking forward to a chance to start fresh in hopes that the universe will be a little kinder to us in 2021. . Of course, our lives aren’t going to magically go back to the way they were at 12:01 am. It’s not easy to be positive right now, but instead of getting stuck in the suck, remember that the only thing you have control over is your attitude. You can continue to feel sorry for yourself and mourn all the ways your life has changed, or you can straighten your crown and focus on all of the good things happening in your life. . If you dig deep enough, you’ll see that there is so much to be grateful right now. . And if you can’t think of anything that you feel proud of or that brings you joy, then it’s up to you to create it. Accept responsibility for your life. Stop making excuses and be the change you want to see. . Instead of thinking of 2021 as another year of lockdowns and restrictions while we wait for vaccinations to take place and herd immunity to take hold, look at it as an open book. . 12 new chapters. 365 new chances. 🥂
‘BE PRESENT WHERE YOUR FEET ARE.’ —Unknown . ‘BE PRESENT WHERE YOUR FEET ARE.’ —Unknown . What do you do when you have downtime? . I haven’t had time off since last Christmas. We hit the ground running in January as we were planning a 2-week family vacay in March and wanted to do ALL THE THINGS beforehand so we could unplug and enjoy the trip. Our vacation obviously got cancelled, and we’ve been on autopilot ever since. I feel like the pandemic has either made people really busy, or extremely bored. There’s no in-between! . My team and I have been busy working ahead over the past couple of months as I really wanted to unplug and unwind for a few weeks over the holidays and now that the craziness of Christmas is over, I don’t know what to do with myself! . I’m caught up on This Is Us, we finally watched The Undoing, I’m almost done Open Book, I’ve done a lot of drawing on my iPad, I’ve had a lot of wine, I’ve eaten a ton of chocolate, we’ve played games, I’ve done my nails…and I’m bored, lol. But unless I find something else to do, I have to face packing up this house (we’re moving, ya’ll!) and I can’t face that just yet. . 👇🏻how do you unwind?
‘WHAT IS CHRISTMAS? IT IS TENDERNESS FOR THE PAS ‘WHAT IS CHRISTMAS? IT IS TENDERNESS FOR THE PAST, COURAGE FOR THE PRESENT, HOPE FOR THE FUTURE.’ —Agnes M. Pahro . The holidays are going to be extra hard for many this year. Whether you’re living under a lockdown with travel restrictions, voluntarily cancelling plans to keep yourself and the ones you loved safe, or dealing with heart-breaking loss, please know that you are not alone. . While we are all navigating the same storm right now, remember that we’re not all in the same boat. If you are lucky enough to be surrounded by excitement and chaos, enjoy the insanity of it all. Embrace the mess and be grateful for all your blessings, and don’t forget to check in with those who are less fortunate than you are. . And if there’s an empty chair at your table due to distance, sickness, or loss, remember that it’s okay to not be okay right now. The holidays can be hard at the best of times, and this year is unlike any we’ve ever experienced. Feel the feels, reach out to others, and be kind to yourself. . Merry Christmas my beautiful friends! 🥂
‘WORRYING IS LIKE PRAYING FOR THE OUTCOME YOU DO ‘WORRYING IS LIKE PRAYING FOR THE OUTCOME YOU DON’T WANT.’ —Denis Morton . This is your Monday morning reminder that no amount of anxiety can change the future, and no amount of regret can change the past. Worrying about something you have no control over does nothing but interfere with your ability to be fully present in this moment. So, inhale the good shit, exhale the bullshit (also a Denis Morton quote), and have faith in your ability to handle whatever life throws at you. ☺️
Is this thing on? . It’s been a MINUTE since I p Is this thing on? . It’s been a MINUTE since I posted here, and I’m not even sure I’m the same person anymore, lol, so I figured I’d re-introduce myself. . My name is Gwen and I’m the founder and managing editor of Meraki Lane - a website dedicated to sharing all of the latest tips and trends to help you be the best version of yourself in the least amount of time. . I’m 43, married to the man of my dreams, and the proud mama of a feisty 9-year-old who has an infectious personality and love for life. I grew up in Singapore, live in Toronto, and have an unhealthy obsession for clothes, shoes, peanut butter, makeup, and my Peloton bike. . I’m also anxious AF. I’ve struggled with high functioning anxiety since I was 9, but you probably wouldn’t even know if you met in IRL. I grew up at a time when mental health challenges were something to be deeply ashamed of and it took a global pandemic for me to finally realize that it’s okay not to be okay. . I’ve been thinking a lot about this little account of mine and how I want it to evolve. I’m never going to be a beauty influencer, I suck at taking photos of my food, and no one on the internet wants to see videos of me working out. While I love seeing other people do these things, they fall way outside of my skill set and comfort zone. . What I can offer is a candid look at my life with anxiety - the things that help me cope, the quotes that make me think, the mantras that keep me grounded, the products I love, and the memes that make me laugh and remind me not to take life too seriously. . My experience with anxiety probably won’t look like yours, but even though I may not be able to relate to your struggles, my hope is that I make you feel a little less alone. 💙
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