Parents often report that they notice that their children do not have as nice handwriting as the parents did at their age.  It may be that the school does not focus on teaching this since children are typing more on the computer rather than writiing. In fact, some schools do not even teach cursive writing or "long hand" writing for the kids in school. The reason is often stated by educators that children do not need or use cursive writing any more since they rely on typing emails or printing on forms.  The problem is when a child has to complete a form for college or a job or send a thank-you note he may not be able to write neatly. People that read the form or note often judge the persons' abilitiies based on the handwriting. Parents can overcome this with the following ideas for encouragining good hand writing.
1.  Children might practice handwriting  along with reading on days they do not have homework. 
2.  Hire a tututor if your childs' handwriting is particularly bad and you have not been able to solve this problem. 
3.  Review anything your child writes and have him rewrite it if it is not as neeat as you think it should be.
4.  Using line paper is useful to improve the neatness of the handwriting.
5.  Writing something for your child and have them imitate the hand writing. This is called "Modeling" or demonstrating the behavior. 
6.  Make sure the writing instuments are sharp or use a pen. Erasable pens are usful in training since you can erase one word or letter and have them rewrite it.
7.  Have your child make the weekly grocery list and encourage or prompt him to write neatly so that everyone can read it while shopping. 
8.  Children in lower grades should be encourage to do there writing homework neatly so that later it does not become an issue. 
9.  Have your child assist in filling out forms at docters or other forms in order to practice neat handwriting.
Finally, remember to follow any training with the kind of praise, or activity reward that your child likes! The reinforcement will help him to learn to write more neatly and also result in the child writing more neatl in the future!  

Children today are lacking in social skills many  parents realize.  What do you do?  The literature shows that social skills can be taught! That is the good news. Many children are absorbed with the electronic gadgets and do not pay attention to other people or seem interested in others. The following are some tips on how to encourage your child to be more socially skilled or sociable!
1. Manners are an important thing to teach your child. For example, saying hello when they walk into a room. Saying please and thank-you. Parents should prompt the child to do this. Do not begin the next activity until this one is completed. If you are going somewhere and they do not say hello or good morning then wait until the child says this to go. When they are well mannered use lots of smiles and praise and tell them and reciprocate with an excited hello and smile.
2.  When talking to relatives or visitors children should realize they are expected to show appropriate social skills. Before the people arrive review what is expected with your child before allowing the visitor comes into the house. For example you might say listen I want you to say hello,  shake their hand or wave or hug them, offer them a beverage, ask them how they are, ask them what they did today, tell them one thing you did today, ask about their family, help with any dishes if you eat. Describe what activity or reinforcer they will receive afterwards if they act politely to the visitor as described above. For example, after they leave you can play on your laptop otherwise you will have to wait for tommarrow. While they are speaking to visitors parents can show a lot of interest, smile and even rub their back or hug the child if they like that. Also, parents can say things like "isn't  he smart", "isn't he considerate" or  "he is so much fun'! 
The above are a few examples, but the beneifit of doing this throughout the day is that you will have a child that is a joy to be with, fun to introduce to others and go places! Also, his life will be easier since he will already have the social skills for his future relationships at work and at home!

Parents often do not realize that some grades are more important then other grades during their childs' childhood. It should be noted that few colleges look at grades in nursery school or grade school. The colleges are primarily focused on grades in high school. They rarely request a transcript from grade school. Therefore, the focus during the early years of school should really be more on learning and less only on grades.  The knowledge your child attains during the early years will also assist him life in many areas. Knowledge helps your child in his daily life as an adult as well as in getting into  college.  Also, knowledge can help to perform well on standardized entrance test such as the ACT or SAT. These standardized tests are often required for application to college and there are cut-offs for those eligible to be admitted and scholarships based on these tests. 

Parents that do the homework for their child in these early years are not really helping them.  Parents should be more of a coach to encourage or answer questions on how to find the information to complete the homework.  Even if your child does not have homework on a given night it is important and helpful for the child's future to encouraged him to read or do some academic task. Parents might ask the child  for at least an hour after school or dinner on days there is no homework assigned.  Parents should keep the goals for your child in perspective as he is growing up. If you loose focus of learning during the early years, especially, you may end up with a child that had good grades but sadly cannot read! A reward program is especially helpful for encouraging your child to read or do homework on a daily basis. The short term gratification of your child getting good grades may not mean anything in the long term for his happiness as an adult and his hopes for going to college or other professions. 

Caregivers and parents have in certain cases become frustrated training their child a simple skills such as toothbrushing or tying shoes.  Below are some tips for creative use of other equipment or equipment in general to make your training much more rapid and fun for your child!

1.  Toothbrushing- to make tooth brushing easier parents may try and electric toothbrush. Some of them are quite inexpensive. One can purchase a battery operated toothbrush for under 10 dollars at a drugstore or department store.  Also, parents can purchase a preferred brush for your child. For example if he likes superman  one might purchase the superman electric tooth brush. 
2.  Shoe lace tying- to make teaching shoe tying parent or caregiver might try using other types of shoes such as velcro shoes or slip on tennis shoes.
3.  Eating skills- there are a large variety of adaptive equipment available for eating. For example, a built up spoon for someone who has an unsteady or weak grasp.
4.  Walking- teaching someone to walk one can start with a more restrictive device such as a walker then fade to a three legged cane and then to a cane. Always, make sure to consult with and follow any physical therapy or medical recommendations when working with adaptive equipment. 
5.  Drinking- there are special cups such as cups with a straw, cups similar to a child's "sippy cup" and large or smaller sized cups.  Start out with one and then slowly fade to a more normal cup. 
6. Hair brushing- is your child upset when you comb her hair? Try using a wide tooth comb or brush and then gradually fading to smaller teeth. In some cases a wide tooth comb might be continued indefinitely to prevent pulling the hair as you comb. 
Always remember to use reinforcement, shaping in combination with the adaptive equipment and you will have more rapid results from your training with your client and child! 

There are several factors to consider in choosing what programs to buy for your child. This is an important decision since the type of things your child spends his time using on the computer may determine what he learns and ultimately how he progress in school and with his social skills with others. The following is a list of factors you should think about before making a purchase.
1.  First you should decide whether you want a game or an educational program.
2. If you choose a game then consider the content of the game. Violent games may encourage violent behavior. Games with moral content may encourage moral behavior. Keep in mind that the type of game may effect your child' behavior.
3.  Consider the level of the game whether it is designed for your child's age group. Remember to consider if your child is smarter then most children you may want a game designed for an older age group so he does not get bored with the game. If your child is not learning quickly and his skills are generally lower then his age group you may consider programs designed for kids of a lower age group.
4.  Consider whether the game contains characters or topics of interest to your particular child. For example if your child likes the character Dora you may want to buy games that have Dora included!
5.  Visibility of the game may be important. If your child is color blind a game which uses a lot of colors may not be helpful to him. If the game has a lot of writing and subtitles and your child cannot yet read it may not be good for him. Generally, children that cannot yet read may respond with more elaborate and colorful games then a child that can read. Similarly, if the child cannot hear well then more visual pictures in the program may be more effective for him. 
6.  If you choose an educational game or other games it is important to check whether the authors describe research that confirms that the child will learn for the game. For example, there is a game called "Head Sprout"(recently purchased by another company)  that does have research that confirms that the children do learn to read from using the program. Games that have been scientifically validated to use psychological principles that are effective are the games to choose for your child! 
7.  Always consider the child's preferences before making a final decision discuss the options or even show him the games to get his input and assure that he will like the game. 
8.  Try to select games that include some reinforcer after correct performance if possible within the game! 
Generally, the most important factor is to choose games that are validated to be effective. Secondly, to choose games that match your child's individual needs. 

Reinforcers can change or loose their strength over time. The following are some tips to keep your training strong over time.
1.  Caregivers or program writers should continue to assess the reinforcers for the client periodically to assure they do not change. 
2.  When the performance drops off for a few days make sure to observe and assess whether or not the reinforcers have changed.
3.  Giving the child or client a choice of reinforcers is one way of avoiding the pitfall of a reinforcer loosing its strength on a specific day.  For example, if a child is not hungry during the training he may not want the lemon cookies he usually likes to work for. Giving him a choice of an activity or other reinforcers identified is good practice daily. 
4.  As always try to give the reinforcers consistently so that the contingency or rule is clear to the child
5.  Reminding the child what the reward and what is expected of him should be done periodically so that over time he does not forget. 
6.  Presenting the reinforcers visually can help to maintain the strength of the reinforcer over time. 
In general, maintaining the strength of the reinforcer over time may determine the success you have with training over time. 

Feedback is a useful therapeutic technique to use when working with people with autism or developmental delays as well as normal children or adults.  Feedback has effectively  improved behavior according to research articles in a wide variety of targeted behavior problems. This technique can be applied with the following types of problems and in many other creative ways. 
  A child or adult with weigh control issues might use a diary for food intake, weight, water intake too. This can be useful to review with them to assure they are eating the right things, drinking enough water and reducing their weight. The feedback provides useful information to the person and changes in habits can be made with the therapist based on the information recorded. A journal or calendar is useful for this. 
  Recording sleep times each night can provide useful information for treating sleep problems. The therapist can provide a data sheet, diary or calendar to record the sleep patterns. The information gathered in written form can be discussed and changes can be made based on this important feedback regarding sleep patterns. For example, if week-ends are particularly low in number of hours slept then the therapist might suggest going to sleep earlier, listening to a sound machine or music to relax before bedtime. 
   Recording general mood with a happiness scale or in a journal can provide useful information for behavior change.  For example, if the person is upset frequently then adding some more reinforcing activities may change the behavior. 
Generally, any data collection can be used as feedback to the individual or parent in designing and changing procedures in the program and informal procedures. 

Children with disabilities, autism and a variety of behavior problems often do not display social skills such as sharing, greeting others, offering to help others, praising others and making small talk. The following are some tips on how to encourage these skills during your child's daily schedule.

1.The first step is to identify the skill you want teach.  Social skills can be taught, which is often not acknowledged by caregivers. 
2. Once the social skills are identified then prioritize which ones you will focus on first. Always work informally on all types of skills so that the training is even faster. Intensive focus on the highest priority skill does ensure that you will make faster progress with the more important skills for the child.
3. There is research that  Sharing and getting along can be reinforced and developed in a child. Some children are friendly and share on their own. The children that do not do this on their own can be taught to do so. Also, if caring and sharing are not encourage a child that is predisposed to be friendly might become less friendly.
4.  During the daily schedule be sure to include time for socializing. If your child's schedule includes only solitary activities such as his ipad or books and chores he may not have any opportunity to socialize and become friendly with others. For example, you can have time to talk at dinner, time for interactive games, talk in the car or at night before they go to sleep.  
5.  Include reinforcers for socializing such as a preferred item or activity if your children play a board game nicely. 
6.  If inappropriate behaviors do occur during the interactive activity be sure to stop the activity. Also,  do not give any preferred activity or item to anyone involved in the interactive activity. 
7.  Modeling and prompting appropriate conversations during interactive games can also be helpful for children. Often the children may not have the skill or forget to perform the skills. Social skills, sharing and friendliness are  important skills since getting along with others affects every area of the child's future including job, how they treat their family members,  friendships and general happiness of your child.

Telephone usage is an important social skill for your child with disabilities to learn. It is also good practice to use the phone for social skills training. The following are some tips to improve the effectiveness of your training for the use of the phone. 
1.  First break down the steps of the use of the phone to smaller steps. For example, picking up the phone, dialing the phone number, saying hello.
2.  Develop a list of people to call and let them know that your child may be calling to say "hi" sometimes and in in some cases you can let them know you are practicing the use of the phone. 
3. You can also use a phone in the home to practice phone calls . 
4.  Review a list of topics your child can talk about with the person. For example "how are you feeling today?" or "what did you do yesterday?"
5.  After learning to make small talk on the phone practice how to say goodbye. For example, " I had fun talking with you I will call you next week... good-bye!"
6.  Also, one of the steps in teaching your child can be to answer the phone. For example, "Hello, this is __ can I help you?"  
7. A great functional skill to teach your child is to take a message. You can set-up a book with message format blanks.  There are message books with blanks for who called and their  telephone number.  This can be helpful to the whole family! Family members should encourage this with specific and immediate social praise for messages. 
8.  Practicing the above skills will assure  that the skills are performed correctly. Try to practice at least once a week or daily if possible. 
9.  Finally, the most crucial step is to identify the reinforcers for your child that will result in learning this skill.
For example some children might like the following items, a special treat, social praise, watching television, going for ice-cream, cellphone service for one month, time on the computer, hugs and any other item that will result in the performance of appropriate phone calls. The reinforcer can be delivered daily, after the phone training or weekly. The frequency should be determined based on your child and which schedule of delivery will result in the performance of the social skill.
In general, phone usage is a key skill in todays' society. The social skills used on the phone can also be used when interacting and making small talk with others in meetings, social events and almost any activity during the day!:)

Homework is important not only to assure that your child learns the material from school but also to assure hi future through admission to schools and jobs in the future. The following are some tips on how to motivate your child to do his homework without more than one or two reminders at the most!
1.  Have a regular scheduled time for home in your daily routine. 
2.  Discuss why it is improtant to do homework. For example, if your child wants to be a doctor someday he will need good grades so that he can get into a college and medical school. Also, you can point out to your child if he wants nice things likes cars and a house he will need to earn money and most jobs require an education. 
3.  Parents should discuss with the child what reinforcer he wants for doing his homework all week. For example, if he does his homework he may be given a choice of a desert after dinner or an outing on the week-end or specified amount of time on a computer game he likes.
4.  Parents should periodically check to see if homework is done accurately and discuss the homework with the child to assure that it is actually done adequately.
5.  Have a desk or quiet area where your child can do his homework without distractions that is well lit. 
6.  Make sure your child records any homework in a binder or calender so that he has the homework assignments and does not forget what was assigned. 
7.  Encourage the teacher to send home a weekly or daily report regarding whether all assignments are completed or generally that he is compliant with teachers' instructions. 
8. Encourage your child to talk to other children about homework if they have questions or seek out other resources such as the internet or a library if needed. 
Generally, the effort it takes to encourage your child to do homework may result in big benefits to parents in the long run since the  child will be more likely to succeed and be able to support himself or earn money in the future!