Special-ism

Understanding your Own Sensorimotor Preferences will make you a better Parent

Bonnie Hacker, MHS, OTR/L — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:27:22 +0000

We often work with families where there is a significant mismatch between one or both parents and their child. Understanding not only how their child experiences the world, but also how they do is the first step towards creating a more harmonious home life for everyone. Are You Sensitive and/or a Significant Introvert? Do loud [...]

How Are You Feeling? On Expressing Emotion, Being Present, and Getting to Grace

Caroline McGraw — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:01:52 +0000

Like daring to be happy, expressing emotion takes courage. Helping someone express what they’re truly feeling requires trust; it necessitates being both present and patient. This truth came clear to me after sharing a meal at L’Arche (a faith-based organization that creates homes where people with and without intellectual disabilities share life together). At L’Arche, [...]

Helping Autistic Children Learn to Speak and Communicate

Floortime Lite Mama — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:01:04 +0000

We waited for words for the first five years of R’s life. My husband and I had invested a lot in speech. We had great therapists. We did all the techniques: Floortime, Hanen, Verbal Behavior… But it would be 2 ½ years before any words would come. Here are all the hurdles we faced and [...]

Show Presidents’ Fun Sides To Inspire Kids With ADHD

Kelly Quinones Miller — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:01:26 +0000

People who celebrated President’s Day this week with mattress sales and marathons missed out on a great opportunity to inspire a love of history in ADHD children. How? By showing them that past presidents were once just like them. Ask your ADHD kiddo to describe a president and you might hear words like “old” and [...]

Creativity as the Nucleus for Learning

Robin Schwoyer — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:06:43 +0000

“Hey, Mom! I need to go to the store. I have a school project!” Ah yes. Those wonderful moments, often inconvenient to other scheduled matters, when the need arises to assist on a school project. We probably remember being the child doing them; or the child watching our parent do them. Now, we are the [...]

To All the S-O-S and OJTA Angels

Danette Schott, M.A. — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:05:14 +0000

This is a very difficult message to write, but it should have been written many, many weeks ago. As Tiffani Lawton informed all of you right after Thanksgiving, my family was thrown into complete chaos and I was met with an emotional journey that I had never envisioned in my life. It made planning for [...]

How Can Scouting Help Children with Special Needs?

Gavin Bollard — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:01:27 +0000

If you’re like I was and have never been involved with scouting, you probably have the impression that scouting is all about camping and testosterone and that there is absolutely no place for children with special needs. I’m here to tell you that this view is completely wrong, that scouting lays much of the crucial [...]

Defining the 6 Subtypes of SPD

Britt Collins, M.S., OTR/L — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:02:08 +0000

Dr. Lucy J Miller poses there are 6 subtypes of SPD which help us better understand the children that we are working with. We all know about the 8 sensory systems with the newest system being interoception (sense of internal organs) but how can we determine what areas a child is having difficulty with and [...]

The Importance of a Creative Outlet

Haley Moss — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:12:48 +0000

Amazing talents and gifts are present in kids with differences. We need to not focus so much on the negatives, but to stress the positive aspects of the challenges for those with exceptionalities. Most people on the autism spectrum have so many talents. We need to explore them and encourage them to continue onward. “Art [...]

Solutions for the Chronically Stressed Caregiver

Adrienne Ehlert Bashista — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:01:28 +0000

Two years ago I was in bad shape. My then 7-year-old son, who has FASD (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder), and whose related alphabet-soup of diagnoses include ADHD, SPD, ODD, learning disabilities, developmental delays, and PBD, was struggling in school: notes were sent home every day about his behavior, he was behind in all his benchmarks, [...]