Registration is the first step towards becoming a member of TheAUTSPOT.com. Once you have registered, you will be able to take advantage of all the features that are available in TheAUTSPOT.com. Registration is quick and easy! Just follow the steps below.

• Click on the “Register Now!” button at the bottom of the home page.
• Type in a name or nickname that you would like to use as your site member identity in the box that says, "User Name" next to it.
• Type in your email address in the text box located just below the “User Name” text box.
• Create a password that you would like to use for log-in purposes in the “Password” box. (Please note: make sure you choose a password that you will not have trouble remembering).
• Re-type your password in the “Confirm Password” box below.
• Click on the “Submit” button at the bottom of the page
• A confirmation message will pop up to welcome you to the website and let you know that your log-in data will be emailed to you.
• Close this confirmation message box by clicking on the small “x” in the upper, right hand corner of the box.
• Click on the button that says, “Go to profile page”.
• Note: If you ever forget your password or User Name:
• click the link on the home page just below the “Login” button that says, “Forgot Password?”
• Type your email address into the narrow text box that is provided, and your log-in information will be emailed to you!

If you ever forget your password or User Name, click the link on the home page just below the “Login” button that says, “Forgot Password?” Type your email address into the narrow text box that is provided, and your log-in information will be emailed to you!

Your personal information allows other people within the community to access your profile and learn more about you. Editing your personal information is a simple process:

• Click on the tab titled “My Profile” at the top left hand side of the screen
• Click the “Edit Profile” button right below the photo box on the left hand side of the profile page
• Click inside the empty white tabs to enter your personal information. [First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, City, State, Country, and Continent]
  • Click inside the larger text box that has the words “About my Children” written next to it. Feel free to tell TheAUTSPOT.com community about your family life and how you are affected by autism.
  • Click on the “Save Profile” button at the bottom of the page.­
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The photo gallery allows you to share numerous family photos with each of your friends on TheAUTSPOT.com community. To begin adding photos, follow the simple steps below:

• Click on the tab titled “My Profile” at the top left hand side of the screen.
• Click on the “Edit Profile” button directly below the photo box on the left hand side of the profile page.
• In the center of the page there are two words that say, “My Photo”. Click on the button right next to it that says “Browse…”
• This will pop open a file menu with all of your computer files, which will then allow you to go to the designated folder in your own computer, which holds your photos.
• For most users, the folder which contains all of their photos is the folder entitled, “My Pictures”. In order to access this folder, click the “Browse…” button right next to “my photo” in the center of your profile page (Note: the photo(s) that you are looking for do not necessarily have to be in the “My Pictures” folder. They may be on your desktop or in another folder in which you saved the photos to).
• Click on the button that says, “My Documents”, which is located on the far left hand side column of the pop up file menu.
• One of the files within the list of files in the “My Documents” tab will say “My Pictures”, and it should be one of the first few files posted within the list.
• Double-click on the “My Pictures” folder.
• Double-click on any one of the photo folders, and then double-click on any one of the pictures that you would like to upload onto the site.
• Click on the “Save Profile” button at the bottom of your profile page to get your photo posted!

In order to add more photos, repeat the above steps each time you would like to add a new photo. Every time you add a new photo, the new photo will be your default photo, meaning it will be your main profile photo that other users on the site see when viewing your profile. You can always change your default picture and manage your photos by following the directions below…

• Click on the “Edit Profile” button below the photo box on the left hand side of the screen
• Click on the link that says, “Go to My Photo Gallery”, which is located in the center of the page, directly below the text that says, “My Photo”.
• The photo gallery is a collection of all the photos that you have uploaded onto your profile.
• Below each picture is an option to “edit”, “delete”, and “set as main picture”. [Click “edit” underneath any of the photos, and write a small caption or description for the photo in the white text box below. Click “Save Profile”]
• Click on the text link that says, “Set as main picture” underneath the photo that you would like to use as your photo.
• Close the confirmation pop up box by clicking on the small “x” in the top right corner of the box
• Click on the dark blue tab at the top of the page that says, “My Profile” and you will see that your profile picture has now changed to the picture you have chosen

The inspirational quote gives you a chance to write down any kind of motivational quote, statement, phrase, or note that raises your spirits. Your inspirational quote will always remain on your profile page, and it could even be looked at as your little personal motto. Here is how you add an inspirational quote or edit the inspirational quote that you have:

• Click on the tab titled “My Profile” at the top left hand side of the screen.
• Click on the “Edit Profile” button directly below the photo box on the left hand side of the profile page.
• Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click on the “Inspirational Quote” textbox.
• Use this blank area to type in whatever message you would like to post as your inspirational quote.
• Click on the “Save Profile” button at the bottom of the page.

Autism Interests are a way of connecting you to other individuals on the website that share the same focus of interests that you do. For example if you were interested in speaking to other members on the site about Applied Behavior Analysis, you would type Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA Therapy as one of your autism interests. After you have done this, click on the Applied Behavior Analysis Interest link that you have created for yourself, and instantly every other member within the network that has put down Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA Therapy as one of their interests will pop up in a generated list. From there, you can begin adding these individuals as your friends and begin communicating with them. Follow the directions below to learn how to add Autism Interests:

• Click on the tab titled “My Profile” at the top left hand side of the screen.
• Click the “Edit Profile” button directly below the photo box on the left hand side of the profile page
• Scroll down the page and click inside the “Autism Interests” textbox. You can add as many autism interests as you like, but be sure to separate each interest with a comma (,).
• Click on the “Save Profile” button at the bottom of the page.
• Click on the “My Profile” button at the top of the page once more to get back to your default profile page.
• Scroll down to the “Autism Interests” section, and you will see that each of your interests is listed separately. Feel free to click on any one of your interests to get in contact with other members on the site that share the same interests as you.

­Having friends and building relationships is the whole idea behind TheAUTSPOT.com. We encourage all of you to add other members on the website as your friend in order to share information with one another and give each other support and advice. Now, before you add friends, you have to search for them. Note: The member search is located at the top of the “My Profile” page, “My Friends” page, “Inbox” page, and “My Kid’s Spot” page. You can click on either one of these five dark blue tabs at the top of the page and see the member search feature near the top of each of these pages. You can view the entire list of all of your friends by simply clicking the “My Friends” tab. There are three different ways to search for friends: Name, Location, or by Interest.

Search by Name:

• If you know the first and last name (or nickname) of an individual who is already a registered member of the site, simply type their name where it says “Name or Nick Name” on the member search at the top of the page.
• Click on the “Search” button on the far right side of the screen.
• Every registered member who has the name or a similar name will show up in the search.
• Click on the profile picture of the individual with the matching name and/or familiar picture.
• Click on the text link that says “Add Friend”, which is located just underneath the photo box of your friend’s profile page.
• A pop-up message will appear mentioning that you must wait for the approval of the other individual before you two are confirmed as friends. You can close this box by clicking on the small “x” in the upper right hand corner of the message box.

Search by Interest:

Searching for friends ­by autism interest is beneficial, because it allows you to meet friends who have the same focus of interests as you do. For example, if you were interested in speaking to a speech pathologist or speaking about speech pathology, you can type in “speech pathologist” or “speech pathology” as your search interest, and anybody amongst the network that has mentioned any of these two interests as one of their “Autism Interests” will pop up in a list for you. (Read the section titled “What are Autism Interests” in this help menu if you want to learn how to add autism interests to your profile). From there, you can go ahead and begin adding people from the generated list of users as your friends and discus the topic more thoroughly.

• Click inside the first white text box in the member search that says “Interests”.
• Type in any “Autism Interest” word that you have or are curious about.
• Click on the “Search” button on the far right side of the screen.
• Click on any one of the profile pictures from the generated list of site members (that’s if the interest matches any of the site members’ interests).
• Click on the text link that says “Add Friend”. This is located just underneath the photo box of your friend’s profile page.
• A pop-up message will appear mentioning that you must wait for the approval of the other individual before you two are confirmed friends. You can close this box by clicking on the small “x” in the upper right hand corner of the message box

Search by Location

The Search by Location feature allows you to search for individuals who live in the same community as you do.

• Within the search bar, there should be two words that say “State” and “Country”, and they should both have scroll down menus next to them
• Click on the little scroll down arrow next to the word “State”
• Scroll down the list of states until you find the state that you are looking for.
• Click on the name of the state that you are looking for.
• Click on the scroll down menu next to the word “Country”, and click on the name of the country that you are looking for.
• Click on the “Search” button on the far right side of the screen.
• Click on any one of the profile pictures from the generated list of site members.
• Click on the text link that says “Add Friend”, which is located just underneath the photo box of your friend’s profile page.
• A pop-up message will appear mentioning that you must wait for the approval of the other individual before you two are confirmed as friends. You can close this box, by clicking on the small “x” in the upper right hand corner of the message box.

­The wall gives you the opportunity to post a message on another members’ profile page. The Wall is the dark blue box located at the bottom of your profile page that has the word “Wall” written on it. When someone posts a wall message on your profile, the message will appear in this dark blue box. The Wall posts on your profile page can be viewed by you as well as all of your friends. Here’s how you make a wall post on another member’s profile:

• Click on the dark blue “My Friends” tab at the top of the page.
• Scroll down your list of friends and click on the profile picture or name of the friend whose wall you would like to post on (names are in alphabetical order, and you may have to go to the next page of names by clicking the page numbers at the bottom of the page).
• Scroll down to the dark blue box at the bottom of your friend’s profile page that says “Wall” on it.
• Click on the text link inside the dark blue box that says “Post on the wall”.
• Click inside the white text box that drops down and post your message.
• Click on the “Submit” button.

Sending messages allows you to privately communicate with other members within TheAUTSPOT.com. Messages that you send to other individuals can only be viewed by that individual, and messages that are sent to you can only be viewed by you. Each time you log into the website, you can actually see how many new messages you have by looking at the small number inside the dark blue and orange “Inbox” tab at the top of the page. If you want to view your entire message history, click on the “Inbox” tab and select any one of the messages from the list.

• Click on the dark blue tab at the top of the page that says “My Friends”.
• Scroll down the list of your friends until you find the name and picture of the friend that you would like to send a message to (names are in alphabetical order, and you may have to go to the next page of names by clicking the page numbers at the bottom of the page).
• Click on the text link to the right of your friend’s picture or name that says “Send a message”.
• Click inside the white text box next to the word “Subject” and give a brief description of the message that you plan on writing.
• Click inside the larger, white text box to the right of the word “Message” and write your message in the box.
• Click on the “Submit” button. ­

­­The calendar feature not only allows you to learn about events taking place within the autism community, but it also allows you to inform people about what’s going on in your life as well.

• Click on the dark blue “Calendar” tab at the top of the page
• You will see a listing of all of the scheduled events that are taking place within the current month.
• Feel free to click on any one of these events to get more information about them.
• All of the events that are posted in white text are PERSONAL EVENTS, and reflect something specific that is going on in an individual’s life (Example: “Erika’s first day with the new speech therapist” or “Michael’s Birthday”).
• The events that are posted in yellow text are NATIONAL EVENTS or GROUP EVENTS, which describe activities that are taking place nationwide or are taking place on a larger scale.
• NATIONAL EVENTS refer to all of the autism or special needs conferences and functions that readily take place across the globe. The calendar feature allows you to make note of any one of these events, so that other individuals within the network can be informed of them.
• From time-to-time, you may see an event posted in orange text. These events were posted by the AUTSPOT team, and they refer to events or information that we want all of you to be aware of.
• Learning how to schedule group events can also be very handy as well. You can learn how to schedule group events in the section titled “What are Groups” in this help menu.
• If you look towards the right side of the page, you will notice that there is a small drawn out calendar of the current month.
• Some of the calendar dates have a dark blue square around them. Click on any of the blue boxes and you will see that these highlighted dates each have scheduled events behind them.
• The drawn out calendar on the right side of the page ­has yellow left and right scroll arrows on both sides of the month. Click on the right side-scroll arrow to view events taking place in the future, and click the left side-scroll arrow to view events that took place in the past.
• At the top of the calendar page is the “Event Search”, which allows you to search for scheduled events within the network. If you are familiar with the name of an event but you are unsure of when it is supposed to take place, type the name (or part of the name if you do not know the full name) of the event in this box.
• Click on the “Search” button. As long as another individual within the network has posted an event with that word within the title, the event will show up in the search results.

How to schedule an event on the calendar:

• Click on the dark blue “Calendar” tab at the top of the page.
• ­Click on the “Add New Event” button.
• If you want to add a national event instead, just click the “Add National Event” link above the title text box.
• Click inside the white text box next to the word “Title”, and type in a title or very brief description for your event.
• Click inside the white text box that has the word “Description” written next to it, and write a full description of the event.
• Click inside the white text box next to the word “Address” and type in the address of where the event is going to be held.
• Schedule the timing of the event, by clicking and selecting from the six drop down arrows to the right of the word “Date”.
• Note: you have the option to click inside the little box just below the date that says “Private” next to it. If you choose to do this, your event will not be seen by any other members on TheAUTSPOT.com. This option basically allows you to give yourself personal reminders of your obligations or personal events.
• Click on the “Save Event” button at the bottom of the page.
• Close the notification pop-up box by clicking the small “x” in the upper right corner of the message box.
• Click on the button at the top of the page that says, “Back to Events List” on it. You should see your scheduled event within the list of events.
• You will see two options located on the right side of the page to “Edit” or “Delete” the event that you created.
• If you scheduled the event in a later month, you can find the event by clicking on the small, yellow right arrow next to the month on the calendar, until you have reached the month that you have scheduled your event in.
• Click on the highlighted calendar date of your event on the calendar to read the information you have written about it. Your event will not show up in the event listing until that particular month becomes the current month.

The inspiration section gives you the opportunity to read and write about motivational stories of achievement and progress on behalf of your children. If your child or children have excelled in anything, or have shown signs of improvement in any particular area of their lives, do not hesitate to share this information with everybody within TheAUTSPOT.com community!

• Click on the tab titled “Inspiration”.
• On the left side of the page, you will see a list of all of the inspirational stories that have been created thus far (the most recent posting at the top).
• To the right side of the page, there is a light blue box that says “Latest Stories” at the top of the box. Just below are the titles of the three most recent “Inspiration” story postings.
• Just below the “Latest Stories” is a list of “Most Popular Stories”, which is a list of the three most viewed or read inspirational stories by the other users on TheAUTSPOT.com network.
• Feel free to click on any of the story titles from any of the three lists, and read what the author (user) has to say.

Creating your own inspirational story is a simple task as well. Just follow the directions below: ­

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• Click on the dark blue tab at the top of the screen that says, ­“Inspiration”.
• Click on the button that says “Create an Inspiration”.
• Click inside the white text box that has the word “Title” written next to it, and give the inspirational story a creative title.
• Click inside the box that has the word “Description” written next to it, and tell TheAUTSPOT.com community the whole story.
• Click the button that says “Submit” at the bottom of the page.
• Close the confirmation box by clicking on the small “x” in the right hand corner of the confirmation pop up box.
• Click the button that says “View all Stories”, and you will see that your new inspirational entry is at the top of the list.

To get a view of all of the inspirational stories you have written in the past, click on the button at the top of the page that says, “View my Stories”. Here you can also choose to “Edit” or “Delete” your inspirational story by pressing on either of the two options just to the right of the story’s title.

­The “My Aut” feature gives you the chance to mention your favorite books and other helpful websites for other parents to learn about and take advantage of. If you are familiar with any helpful autism or ASD focused book titles or websites feel free to list them in this section.

• Click on the dark blue tab at the top of the page that says “My Aut”.
• To the left side of the page, you will see a list of all the books and websites that you have already listed (unless of course you have not mentioned any yet).
• To the right side of the page is a light blue box that says, “Most popular books by users”. Just below are the titles of the three books that have been mentioned the most by other members of the TheAUTSPOT.com network.
• This same box also has a list of the “Most popular websites by users”, which is a list of the three websites that have been mentioned the most by other members of the network.

How to add a favorite book:

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• Click on the button at the top of the page, that says, “Submit Title”­
• Click inside the empty text box next to the word “Title”, and write the title of the book.
• Type in the name of the author of the book by clicking inside the box next to the word “Author”.
• Briefly describe the content of the book by clicking on the big text box next to the word “Description”, and make some points about what the book is about.
• Click “Submit” at the bottom of the page.
• Click on the small “x” at the right hand corner of the confirmation pop up to close the box.
• Click on the link that says, “Back to My Aut” just above the yellow text that says, “Book View”.
• You should see the title of the book you posted at the top of your favorite book list.

­How to post a favorite website:­

• Click on the button that says “Submit Website”.
• Enter the entire Website URL in the empty white text box next to the words, “Website URL” (Example: www.theautspot.com).
• Give a brief description of the website and its services in the “Description” textbox.
• Click on the “Submit” button at the bottom of the page.
• Close the confirmation box by clicking on the small “x” in the right hand corner of the pop up notification.
• You should see the new website that you have posted underneath your favorite websites.
• Click on the dark blue “My Profile” tab at the very top of the page
• Scroll down the page to see all the book titles and websites you have posted and mentioned on your profile page above the “Wall” feature (look under “Favorite Books” and “Favorite Websites”).
• You can even view your friend’s favorite books and websites by looking on their profile pages as well.

My Kid’s Spot is one of the greatest features on the site because it allows you to chart out the progress of your child’s developmental skills. It also enables you to follow the development of other children as well.

• Click on the dark blue tab at the top of the page that says, “My Kid’s Spot”
• Scroll down the page to see a list of brief descriptions on the left side of the page.
• On the right side of the page you will see a few follow-up questions.
• To get started, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page where there are two rows that say “Age” and “Month” next to them.
• Click on the age number and month that corresponds to the current age of your child.
• The first page of the “My Kid’s Spot” section focuses on verbal skills. There are five separate descriptions on the left side of the page that briefly describe verbal qualities (choices A, B, C, D, and E).
• Scroll up and click inside the small, white circle on the left hand side of the screen that most closely mirrors your child’s capabilities.
• Answer the follow-up questions down the right side of the page, by clicking inside the few white text boxes underneath each question and create a response.
• Click on the “Save” button at the bottom of the page.
• You will notice that just below the “Member Search” on the left hand side of the page, there is a small scroll-down arrow to the right of the word “Verbal Skills”.
• Click on the small scroll-down arrow and you will see a list of a few more developmental descriptions: [Body Language, Facial Expression, Peer Interaction, Eye Contact, Bowel Issues, and Sensory Issues].
• We encourage you to select each of these developmental characteristics and fill in the information just as you did with the “Verbal Skills” page.
• Some of the developmental categories allow you to select multiple descriptions from the list of descriptions on the left hand side of the page, so keep an eye out for that as well.
• If you want to de-select one of the descriptions that you selected, just click inside the same circle you have selected again.

We encourage all of you as time progresses, and your child develops, to keep updating this section of the website. As the months and years go by, continue to describe your child’s characteristics by adjusting the age bar at the bottom of the screen, choosing from the developmental descriptions, and answering the questions on the right side of the page. If you go to your profile page or any of your friends’ profile pages, you will see that the same age bar is at the bottom of the page here as well. By clicking on the different months and ages on the age bar, you can track the progress of your friends’ children as well!

The groups feature is also a very helpful tool because it allows you to create focus groups of people who are interested in the same topics as you are, or who are involved in the same activities as you. For example, you can create a group called “Asperger’s Talk” and those who are interested in speaking about Asperger’s Syndrome would join and get involved in the discussion. You can also create a group for your local autism support group and message the people amongst the network who are part of your support group to join the group and have online discussions.

There are many ways to utilize the groups feature!­

• Click on the dark blue tab at the top of the page that says “Groups”.
• On the left hand side of the screen you will ­see a list of all groups that have been created thus far.
• Click on any one of the yellow group titles that interest you and feel free to read the description of what the particular group is about.
• If you feel like you want to be a part of the group, click on the big button next to the group photo that says, “Join Group” (you can always leave the group too, by clicking on the “Leave Group” button, which will appear in the same position once you join the group).
• If you want to search for some of the groups that may already exist and focus on a topic that you like, click inside the “Group Search” text box at the top of the page.
• Type in a topic that interests you in the “Group Search”
• Click on the “Search” button
• All group titles in the network that have the topic or subject word(s) that you search in their title will pop-up in a list. Click on the title of any of the groups that pop up in the list. (If no group titles pop-up, then there have not been any groups created around that topic yet)
• Click on the “Join Group” button
• Once you are a part of the group, you can post messages or questions on the message board by clicking inside that big, white text box at the bottom of the group page
• The message board feature allows you to give and receive advice from others interested or involved in the group.
• Type in your message and click on the “Post” button at the bottom of the page.
• All group members are listed in a light blue box to the right side of the page.
• Feel free to click on any one of the profile pictures and add each of these individuals as your friends.
• Below the group member listing is a schedule of the group events.
• If you are a member of a close-knit group and the group members live within close vicinity to one another, you, as well as the other members in the group, can create social gatherings to get families socializing in public events.

How to create your own group:

• Click on the dark blue button at the top of the page, that says “Groups”.
• Click on the text link in the light blue box to the right side of the page that says, “Create new Group”.
• Think of a group title for your group, and then type the title in the narrow text box that says, “Title” next to it.
• If you want to add a profile photo for your group, click the “Browse…” button to the right of the word “Picture”.
• Select a photo from your files (read the “How to add and manage Photos” section of this help menu if you need some extra help with adding photos).
• Give your group a brief summary by typing inside the narrow text box that says “Short Description” next to it.
• Describe the group in detail in the bigger text box just below, that says, “Full Description” next to it.
• Click on the “Submit” button at the bottom of the page.
• Close the pop-up confirmation box by clicking on the small “x” on the right hand corner of the pop-up box.
• Click the text link, just below the “Group Search” that says, “Back to list of Groups”.
• You will see the new group that you created at the bottom of the list (the groups are organized in descending order by the amount of people in each group).
• Click on the dark blue tab on the top of the page that says, “My Profile”.
• Scroll down to the middle of the page and look on the right side of the page where it says, “Groups:” Any group that you create or become a part of will be listed here (you can view all of the groups that your friends are a part of by looking in the same place on their profile pages as well).

How to create a group event:

• Click on the dark blue “Groups” tab at the top of the page.
• Click on the yellow title of the group you created in the list of groups on the left hand side of the page.
• Click on the “Add Event” button at the bottom of the page.
• Click inside the white text box next to the word “Title”, and type in a short title or a very brief description for your event.
• Click inside the “Description” box and write a full description of the event.
• Click inside the box next to the word “Address” and type in the full address of where the event is going to be held.
• Schedule the time of the event by clicking and selecting from the six drop down arrows to the right of the word “Date”.
• Click on the “Groups” tab at the top of the page.
• Find the group that you created in the list and click on the title.
• Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see your new event posted underneath “Group Events”.
• You can “Edit” the information for the event or you can “Delete” the group event by clicking on either of the two options next to the group event posting.
• Note: If you click on the dark blue “Calendar” tab at the top of the page, you will see the event you created in the calendar listing on the left hand side of the page as well.

The library is TheAUTSPOT center for learning!

• Click on the bright green “Library” tab at the top of the page.
• Scroll down the page to see a number of topics within the library.
• Click on whatever topic you would like to read and learn about.
• Click on any article title within the topic to learn more.
• If you want to search for a specific topic or subject that interests you, you can search for it in the “Library Search” text box.
• The “Library Search” is located directly below the dark blue “My Friends” tab at the top of the page.

Blog postings are a very common way for anybody to share what is on their mind and get feedback on their input.

• Click on the bright green “Blogs” tab at the top of the page
• On the left side of the page you will see a list of all of the blogs that have been already created.
• Feel free to click on any of the blog titles on the page that interest you and read what the author has to say.
• If there is a specific topic that you would like to read about, type that subject word or words in the “Blogs Search” just above the list of all of the blogs at the top of the page.

How to post your own blog:

• Click on the “Create a Thread” link, which is located in the light blue box to the right of the page.
• Give your blog a title by typing inside the narrow text box next to the word “Title”.
• Write your entire blog post in the big empty text box just below the title box.
• Type in some of the tag words for your blog in the text box next to the word “Tags” in order for people to search your blog by its subject or topic in the “Blog Search”.
  [“Tags” are words that describe what your blog is about. For example, if you wrote a blog about how well hyperbaric oxygen therapy has helped your child, your tags would be “hyperbaric oxygen therapy, hbot, alternative medicine”. Separate each tag word with a COMMA. ]
• Click on the “Submit” button at the bottom of the page.
• Read your information over and click on the “Edit” button just above your blog post if you want to change any of the information.
• Click on the bright green “Blogs” tab at the top of the page once more.
• You will see your new blog at the top of the list on the left hand side of the page.
• You can always take a look at all the blogs you created by clicking on the text link that says, “View my blogs”, which is located in the light blue box to the right side of the page.
• Scroll down the page to where it says, “Most Popular Blogs” on the right hand side of the page. This is a list of the few blogs that have been viewed or read the most by the other users within TheAUTSPOT.com network.
• Below the “Most Popular Blogs” section is another box that is titled “Most Popular Tags”. This is a list of all of the tags that have been mentioned the most throughout the website blogs. If you click on any one of the tag words, it will direct you to all of the blogs that incorporate the tag.

The forums feature is another way for you to post your stories or information on the website for others to read and respond to. The forums have similar functions as the blogs, but they each serve different purposes. A new blog post or blog topic is usually created every time you want to express something that is on your mind. On the other hand, each forum topic is comparable to one big journal in which you continually add new journal entries. For example, if you create a forum topic titled, “Floortime Therapy”, every time you want to make a new posting or share more information about Floortime Therapy, you will go back to this same forum topic that you have already created (Floortime Therapy) and make a new journal posting within it.

• Click on the bright green ­“Forums” tab at the top of the page.
• To the left side of the screen you will see a list of all of the forums that have been created already.
• To the right side of each forum post you will see two numbers. The first number is the amount of views that particular forum topic has received, and the second number is the amount of comments that have been left for that forum topic by other members.
• The forum topics are listed in descending order by the amount of views each of them has received. Feel free to scroll down the list of forums and click on a forum title that is of interest to you.
• If you want to search for a specific topic or subject to read about, search the topic word(s) that you are looking for in the “Forum Search” at the top of the page.
• Click on the “Search” button. If another member amongst the website has included the topic word(s) in the title of their forum, the forum will pop up for you to read.
• At the bottom of each forum topic there is a big, white text box. This is the reply box. This is the area where you can type a reply or comment on the other member’s forum topic.
• You can also state your own opinion or comment on the replies that other people have made about the forum topic by clicking on the link that says, “Reply to this message”, which is located directly to the right of each message posting within the forum topic.

How to create your own forum posting:

• Click on the bright green “Forums” tab at the top of the page.
• Click on the button that says, “Create New Topic” located on the right side of the screen.
• Give your forum topic a title by typing inside the narrow text box to the right of the word “Topic Title”.
• Write your entire first forum posting about your topic in the big white text box just below the words, “Write the first post”.
• You can also add animated facial expressions anywhere in your post by simply clicking on the facial expression that you would like on the left hand side of the screen.
• Anytime you feel like you want to expand on a particular topic, go back to the same forum topic that you have already created, and simply add another posting in the big white text box at the bottom of the forum topic page.
• If you want to start getting feedback about an entirely different topic, then start a new forum topic, or simply just create a new blog, underneath the “Blogs” tab.

The Live Chat feature offers the fastest form of communication on the website. It allows you to instantly send messages back and forth to other site members as long as they are online on TheAUTSPOT.com. There is a lot of social freedom in the Live Chat, but we do ask all of you to keep all conversations appropriate and inoffensive! The Live Chat has a help menu of its own, which, describes the entire operation and features of the Live Chat.

• Click on the bright green “Live Chat” tab at the top of the page.
• You can start joining in on the conversation, but if you want to learn more about the Live Chat features and operations, click on the small green question mark “?” on the­ upper, right hand corner of the page. Enjoy!