tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22185841843623381282019-01-04T12:16:01.598-08:00At Special Successes, we train, coach, and assist people with autism to be successful as independent professionals or entrepreneurs, or employees with the full career potential achieved. We also teach children with autism money concepts, entrepreneurship, and independence via various programs.Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-26819304774242235482015-07-13T16:30:00.001-07:002015-07-13T16:30:54.613-07:00

Autistic children often exhibit obsessive, repetitive behaviors, even though those behaviors seem to change over time.  I thought those behaviors give us a hint on what kind of interests they have.  The other day, I was very surprised to find out that my son enjoys running.  I remember that we sometimes played running and chasing when he was young.  Since he did not like going outside once he

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-58452877281633440112015-06-29T22:19:00.000-07:002015-06-29T22:19:34.214-07:00

No, I mean those of the parents, not of the autistic child.  As a parent, it is natural to gravitate towards the child’s deficits and become frustrated.  This frustration often has no way of ending it because those deficits can remain with the person with autism forever. There is an abundance of resource out there on how to handle your child’s (and your) tantrums of meltdowns. https://

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-8174805157482632122015-03-10T12:44:00.004-07:002015-03-10T12:44:55.089-07:00

Favorite objects and activities: Music Cleaning Carpets Smelling and touching objects (sensory input) Sizzler Car wash Exceptional skills: Recognizing directions or locations of geometrical landmarks Barriers inhibiting progresses: Anger and defiance towards his parents Low tolerances and patience Poor language development Programs: Reading and memorizing

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-76694484421501931392013-01-20T20:31:00.001-08:002013-01-20T20:31:14.722-08:00

Wild curve balls is actually quite a common theme in my life.  I was a hard-working employee for the past 10 years, until I started to seek ways to start a business that would help people with autism about two and a half years ago. I was going through a number of business ideas, ranging from selling educational materials for special kids to starting a company hiring autistic people to opening a

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-10027429298894130642012-12-24T07:58:00.001-08:002012-12-24T07:58:13.770-08:00

If one says that children should focus more on academic education than on teaching entrepreneurship, I will not argue.  In typical educational settings, kid entrepreneurship is not implemented, and even if it is implemented, a good balance between academic teaching and business teaching must be achieved. In case of educating children with autism, I argue that we should introduce the

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-36301752817895039222012-12-09T21:58:00.001-08:002012-12-09T21:58:27.870-08:00

Dear my readers, we would like to make an exciting new announcement!  We just added two new pages on our blog site: Products and Services About Us Please check these pages out! Go to Homepage

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-16263829832296902142012-11-24T17:23:00.001-08:002012-11-24T17:23:02.740-08:00

One, two, three, four, five…  I keep emptying beer cans, but I don’t get drunk.  I keep listening to music, but my heart keeps falling down like there is no bottom. Once in a while, everyone feels like there is no hope left in him or her.  Last night was one of those days for me.  I hadn’t had such a feeling for well over a year, but several bad things happened in a short period of time, and I

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-80426451052759583122012-10-27T17:36:00.001-07:002012-10-27T17:36:13.252-07:00

The cost of treating autism is astronomical.  With the rapid increase of new diagnosis on young children every year, the overall cost collectively that the government and the families with autistic children has skyrocketed. The Alarmingly High Price of Raising Kids With Autism The Annual Cost Of Autism Has More Than Tripled To $126 Billion In The U.S. And Reached £34 Billion In The U.K. One of

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-75899887504456885072012-10-15T23:27:00.001-07:002012-10-15T23:27:21.564-07:00

Did you ever think about the career path for your autistic children?  If your child is not an adult yet, you must have been wondered and worried about what it is like after your child becomes an adult.  More specifically, what’s going to happen to him or her after the child is no longer eligible for the special education services from the government. 22, The Maximum Age for Special Education

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-40563519725043386872012-09-29T15:38:00.001-07:002012-09-29T15:38:24.336-07:00

Last Friday was my first visit to my son’s school after the school and I agreed to start the pilot program.  The teacher sent me an e-mail a week before with a few suggestions about visual aids and pictures, and discussion topics.  However, since I never dealt with any other special needs children other than my own son, I frankly had no idea what to do.  I barely knew the children that I was

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-27756003319125940172012-09-22T21:41:00.001-07:002012-09-22T21:41:20.160-07:00

Someone posted a link to this YouTube video of a young autistic adult, who has his own delivery service.  To give a credit to the person, let me give you the link to the LinkedIn discussion. AWESOME! Meet Anthony: a 24 year old autistic guy starting his own for-profit delivery business - YouTube http://ow.ly/df7ch And below is the link to the YouTube video. Meet Anthony Apparently he is living in

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-39349911899276425252012-09-15T18:59:00.001-07:002012-09-15T18:59:57.811-07:00

Often times, the unpredictability of life gives you a jolt in your course of plan, and all of a sudden you must do something different or accelerate your progresses.  I did have a rather unlikely plan of starting my company while I still work at my current position and then getting laid off with severance money right when I need to focus on my new venture 100 %.  Last year, my company acquired

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-27952724370490582532012-09-08T16:01:00.001-07:002012-09-08T16:01:34.929-07:00

Now that we decided to run a pilot program, I needed to detail the plan out. A Pilot Autism Training Program As I never taught a class or a training program for school age children, I started from scratch by putting everything I could think of.  So, this program will become the first prototype of the product or service I will eventually sell to any people in the autism spectrum. When and where:

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-72680480010460691302012-09-03T21:34:00.001-07:002012-09-03T21:34:26.619-07:00

Before things were getting too busy with the new school year, I called my son’s school teacher and discussed about what I had in mind, regarding developing a training program. Before starting to sell products or services, first I wanted to have a pilot program, so that I can run experiments to optimize my first offering. Not surprisingly, she told me that all the other parents had the exactly

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-34089903947715678842012-07-22T20:17:00.001-07:002012-07-22T20:26:39.416-07:00

From my son’s everyday behavior, I can easily tell that he has now more or less officially begun puberty.  Without prior experience of raising a child, as he is our first one, we thought that he was experiencing puberty last year.  Now that I see what’s going on with him now, what we saw last year probably is not (strongly) related to puberty itself. Is Our Autistic Son in Puberty Already? My

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-1127080858257609662012-07-14T09:36:00.001-07:002012-07-14T09:40:07.441-07:00

According to the books like “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell and “Talent is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin, exceptionally highly achieving individuals are not born but actually made. What makes an expert is training after training. The Matthew Effect and the Outliers Talent is Overrated – Developing Skills for Autistic Child People with autism have two key characteristics that

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-74124891604439920982012-06-20T21:54:00.001-07:002012-10-27T17:38:47.309-07:00

I came across this article about employment for people with autism today, while searching for anything new regarding this topic. Employment on the Autism Spectrum The article brought up a few painful reality checks regarding the current status of hiring people with autism.  I haven’t read any article stating that grim 97 % of unemployment statistics, but it is an undeniable fact that not a very

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-46369000172097720912012-05-27T19:00:00.001-07:002012-05-27T19:00:05.709-07:00

This book from Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, published in 2010, was already available as an audio book in my local public library.  He always has been a great inspire whenever I was thinking about my future goal of creating social businesses focusing on people with autism spectrum disorder.  I already had posts regarding him before.  (see Autism Social Business Concepts

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-5858919058925401272012-05-19T22:14:00.001-07:002012-05-19T22:14:39.036-07:00

I came across an article that we all need to share, as individuals involved in autism.  I don’t have an intention to be a detective or a judge.  I don’t have any motivation (at this moment I’m writing my blog post) to further check the truth about this company called Square One.  However, the article lays out an important aspect on the social business.  There are people who start a for profit

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-51572736887304154002012-04-22T21:02:00.001-07:002012-04-22T21:02:49.910-07:00

Parents and specialists working with autistic people, should be familiar with the token system.  For those who are new to the autism circle, the article below provides basic information about the “token economy”. Token Economy As my son is getting older, I have been attempting to slowly introduce more real life components and generalized concepts.  The last change I made was to make the token in

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-32235932692797434632012-04-16T21:05:00.001-07:002012-04-16T21:05:26.454-07:00

The human brain is mysterious.  It is beautiful.  It is miraculous.  I read an article about scientists imaging the scaffold fiber of the human brain.  If you really think about it, even though the article reports something new, it really is not something completely unexpected.  If the brain nerve cells are connected like tangled spaghetti, one would not expect the brain to work in such amazingly

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-52875114110410629842012-04-08T18:09:00.001-07:002012-12-24T10:23:54.422-08:00

Until I finished this book, “Outliers: The Story of Success“, I thought the author Malcolm Gladwell is also the one who wrote "Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else.” (See my previous post, Talent is Overrated – Developing Skills for Autistic Children).  The author of the latter is Geoff Colvin.  The theme of both the books are surprisingly similar.

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-65676731720913697772012-04-02T22:51:00.001-07:002012-04-02T22:51:41.158-07:00

We’ve known very well that a good companion pet can greatly impact on positive psychological development for children.  Since late last year, we’ve been studying and searching for the perfect pet for our kids.  Originally, we thought of adopting one as a Christmas present.  Then time passed and we thought about it for our older son’s birthday.  Then time passed again, and it was almost our

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-48822214049452403042012-03-24T21:32:00.001-07:002012-03-24T21:32:50.609-07:00

Here is a great blog post from one of the autism parents.  The guilty feeling of not being able to more for our beloved children with autism is a universally shared feeling by every single parent.  It is a great post. The guilt of special needs parenting Go to Homepage

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2218584184362338128.post-91769749697007095052012-03-11T17:21:00.001-07:002012-04-16T21:08:06.659-07:00

I am deeply saddened to hear another murder-suicide case from a family struggling with autism.  The murdered autistic George Hodgins was 22 years old.  I specifically mentioned the implication of this special education eligibility age limit only last month. (See 22, The Maximum Age for Special Education Eligibility in California) Sunnyvale police: Mother killed 22-year-old autistic son, then

Special Successeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10120222618415428848noreply@blogger.com0