By Onna Solomon, LMSW, Certified PLAY Project Consultant & Lead Trainer Janice Fialka is a social worker, advocate, and mother of an adult son with intellectual disability. She has been a mentor to quite a few PLAY Project Consultants over the years (myself included). Her new book, What Matters: Reflections on Disability, Community and Love,...
Written by Richard Solomon, MD Part 2: Last week I explained why holidays can be so hard for children on the autism spectrum and I discussed the importance of “Planning for the Worst” (see last week’s post here). #2. Keep the micro environment familiar and rewarding. Create a familiar “micro-environment,” a protective bubble, around your...
Meghan Griesemer – Columbus, Ohio (Finn’s Mom!) PLAY Project Parent since March 2015 I got my miracle, my happy ever after, and I am eternally grateful. I HAVE MY SON BACK! And he is the most wonderful little boy—he’s more wonderful that any little boy I could have imagined. And I appreciate every moment because all...
Written by Richard Solomon, MD Part 1: Children with autism are neurologically wired to “keep the world the same,” so the holiday season with all of its changes and transitions can be a challenge for the children and their families. When you realize what a child with autism must deal with during the holidays—change of...
The PLAY Project’s Online Certification Course, in partnership with HT2 Labs, won the ‘Best Blended Learning Solution – Non-Vendor’ award on November 10th at DevLearn 2016’s DemoFest in Las Vegas, Nevada. The ‘Best Blended Learning Solution – Non-Vendor’ recognized the the best blend of both technology and classroom learning out of roughly 100 submissions. In...
By Richard Solomon, MD & Onna Solomon, LMSW Why is pretend play so important and how does it lead to social skills in children with autism? Here is the logic: 1) Pretend play engages the child’s imagination. 2) Imagination is the key to empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person....
Richard Solomon, MD 9/13/16 I just watched a little girl, I’ll call her Addy (not her real name), on a home visit video as her family was starting the PLAY Project Autism Intervention program. She was so adorable! Blond, 3 years old and very hard to engage. As a supervisor of PLAY Consultants in training,...
Richard Solomon, MD How would you feel if you knew that your child with autism needed intensive intervention as soon as possible and then you were told that you had to wait for months or even years before you could get services? I want to talk about the tens of thousands of desperate parents whose...
Exciting article about the success of Teaching PLAY pilot program in Preble County, Ohio! “I found myself excited to implement the new techniques and try my best to read her to get into her world and to want to be better for her. The things I was learning through PLAY were not only applicable to...
Dr. Rick’s Blog No. 1 Play, Autism, and The PLAY Project Recently, there was a New York Times opinion piece by Paul Tough entitled To Help Children, Coach Their Parents about research on young children who were at high risk for developmental and behavioral problems in Jamaica. What did they coach the parents to do?...
