For the past two years, Cyndi, a disability rights advocate from New Jersey, has been struggling to protect her 8-year-old son from a bully. The situation has been tough to resolve because both boys are classmates and both have autism, a disorder that significantly affects socialization.

Coaching your own kiddo can be tricky business. Whether you are your child’s primary coach, or you are the coach at meets, I hope these ideas will be helpful. Here are five tips that have helped us, but we are still figuring this out and would love to hear what has been helpful for others.