Organizing My Autistic Daughter’s Toys
ADD/Autism, Home Emily Bylund ADD/Autism, Home Emily Bylund

Organizing My Autistic Daughter’s Toys

I'm currently building wall to wall built-ins in my daughter’s room. She is autistic and one of her special interest is toys. She has SO many little figurines she collects and knows and plays with each of them. I'm building this so she has a place to keep all of them and we can still stay organized. I want to go over how exactly I'm organizing all the stuff to best fit her needs, so today we are going to sort, label and dejunk her room.

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DIY Custom Desk Chair
DIY, Home Emily Bylund DIY, Home Emily Bylund

DIY Custom Desk Chair

I recently started on a big project in my daughter's room: adding more cubbies. If you've been around for a little bit, you might remember that I added shelves and a play area to her bedroom a few years ago and painted them pink to match her bathroom. It's been great thus far, but over the years she's acquired a lot more stuff. She's autistic and collects things, particularly toys. So we needed more space to put her stuff. Since her room has almost zero storage I needed to come up with a solution. My mom suggested wall to wall cubbies with a desk in the middle. I'm in the process of working on that, but in the meantime I built a custom desk and chair to go with it.

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Navigating the Special Education System Part 3: How to Start Advocating
ADD/Autism Emily Bylund ADD/Autism Emily Bylund

Navigating the Special Education System Part 3: How to Start Advocating

Lets get back into navigating the special education system. I've talked about my personal experience as a kid, then my experience as a parent. Now I want to start getting into the nitty gritty and give information about HOW exactly to advocate. First I want to give a couple of caveats. 1) I am not an educator or a professional, I'm a parent. There are so many other creators out there that are IEP advocates, teachers, and professionals in these fields that you should seek out, as well and do your own research. 2) I live in the United States. I have zero experience with any other country other than the United States. Along with that many things vary from sate to state and I only have experience with states that I have lived in. With that, I've done a lot of research myself so lets get started.

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Autism Fidget Toys & Bags
ADD/Autism Emily Bylund ADD/Autism Emily Bylund

Autism Fidget Toys & Bags

Shortly after Jackie was diagnosed as autistic when we were going to a lot of different therapies, I started carrying around these little fidget bags wherever we went. I realized that they were a great tool to keep her entertained and I now have them in almost every bag we own! I have one in my purse, diaper bag, our church bag, her backpack and we even have one in her bed box. They have become such a staple for us that I decided I would show you what I put in each of ours!

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How We Use Countdown Chains
ADD/Autism Emily Bylund ADD/Autism Emily Bylund

How We Use Countdown Chains

One of the many accommodations we use for our autistic daughter is countdown chains. Usually when we use these, I actually have our daughter help me make them. She loves doing crafts anyway, but I use this time to talk about what we are counting down and how many pieces we need for the chain. She personally seems to enjoy the entire process more when she's participated in creating it.

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