By Paint Her in Color Founder, Laura Spiegel

For this week’s blog, I have the honor of introducing a new partner to the Paint Her in Color community of emotional support resources. HANDS in Autism® is a training and resource center that is making a significant impact in the lives of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other special needs, as well as their families and caregivers.

HANDS in Autism offers a variety of individual and group educational, behavioral, and vocational programming services for Indiana families. It also offers free tools and activity templates that are customized to everyday life situations and can be downloaded by families everywhere. Examples include:

• Starting conversations

• Going to the doctor

• Getting a haircut

• Going to the library

• Flying on an airplane

• Starting school

• Riding the bus

• Telling time

• Learning a locker combination

• Making smoothies and grilled cheese sandwiches

• Ordering pizza using a script

• Setting up an alarm clock

• Collaborating with schools

• Organizing a wallet

• Calculating a tip, change, or sales tax

• Writing a resume

• Preparing for an interview

• Managing the holidays

• And many more

HANDS in Autism also offers tips to help us manage stress and take care of ourselves as parents and caregivers. This is one of my favorite parts of the site!

To learn more about HANDS in Autism or to download the above tools and activity templates, visit https://www.paintherincolor.com/emotional-support-resources.

If you have ideas for other ASD-related tips or tools that could benefit families, please reach out at laura@paintherincolor.com or https://www.facebook.com/paintherincolor.