“Say lolly or I won’t give you lolly”. How many times do you find yourself saying this sentence? As parents with a child with a severe language and speech impairment we often try to elicit our child’s speech by asking them to say the word before giving them their favourite food or toy. How many of us have stopped to reflect and wonder “Does this strategy really work?”
Let us have a look at what the research says.
Emotional regulation refers to a person’s ability to understand and manage their emotional responses to situations. Toddlers are often witnessed throwing, what is loosely described as tantrums, in shops when they do not get the toy they want. They are incredibly sad and do not yet understand their own body’s response or know how to express their unhappiness. Imagine for a moment: You are watching a clip exploring a mountain range. Suddenly your body starts feeling hot, your palms become sweaty and your heart beats faster. You do not understand what is going on and do not have the words to describe it someone. This is what it might be like for a child experiencing big emotions.
Each year that begins, we are challenged to face endless personal and family tasks and obligations. The school break generates changes in our routine, and for most of us, we have to quickly adjust back to established schedules, tasks and activities. Every change generates the need to assimilate, accommodate and finally adapt to the new reality. This is a psychological process that we all go through. During the process, different emotions are aroused: neutral – positive and / or negative. It is important to keep in mind that there are no good or bad emotions but that each emotion is produced to give us information about how we are feeling in a certain situation. That is why it is important to be able to welcome all our emotions and break old beliefs.
As human beings we all are motivated by different kinds of things. For example, waking up in the
morning is much better when accompanied by the smell of freshly brewed coffee. Going to work
everyday is fuelled by the anticipation of the weekend just lurking around the corner. We look
forward to things that reward us with joy and are more likely to do them.
We are wired to repeat behaviours that fuel the reward centres in our brain. It could be a
smile from a co-worker, a favourite lunch or a positive comment from a client that has the potential
for us to want to repeat the same behaviour again.
Internet overuse could not only potentially cause addiction, extend existing pathologies, and even worse, damage social functioning.
If you don’t use your leg muscles to walk for a week, you will notice the efforts to walk again. If we do not use what evolved over millions of years as biological social interaction, like reading a person’s face, observing someone’s postures and gestures, listening to the tones of speech, and processing further non-verbal information, then our social capacity is likely to weaken.
Living in a group and sharing tasks in a group has its evolutionary value, compared to a lonely isolated life. As a consequence of a social life style, a number of emotion-related capacities, such as reading expressions in someone’s face and listening to varying affective speech melody while being actively engaged in direct communication, has been imperative to social functioning.
As therapists we often get the question: “How can I teach my child with ASD at home?”
Fortunately, it is much less complicated than you might think. You don’t need fancy and expensive toys. All you need is patience and creative ideas. Ideas to create ample opportunities for teaching. There are so many activities we do in our day to day lives that can create a great learning environment.
Have you recently asked yourself, how am I feeling or what do I need? Did I have any time for myself last week? Last month? Last year?
With all the extra demands at the moment, children at home, well, maybe your answers would be :
“I am alright.”
“I don’t have time!”
“I’m fine!”
“It’s not important, and my child comes first!”
Recharge your batteries
We might be fine if we took some time for ourselves. All of us need to recharge our “batteries”. Usually, with children at home, shopping, cleaning, a busy life, some parents say that the bathroom seems to be the only place they can be alone for a few moments. Sometimes not even that, until someone knocks at the door and asks something (if you are lucky enough be able to close the door!).
Ignoring our needs and lack of self-care can cause a “snowball effect” and contribute to the stress we might be feeling. Self-care is not selfish, it is a human need. (more…)
The Coronavirus crisis has resulted in a lot of societal changes, all of which have occurred very quickly. If your children are still attending school, their day is looking very different. They might now be attending without their friends, their classroom and playground arrangements may be different and it’s likely they have more teachers than they normally would as schools readjust to dwindling numbers. If your child is now at home, their daily experiences too, are very different.
The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the lives of families, including the lives of our children. You may notice that your child is more needy than usual, more argumentative than normal or for older children, quieter and preferring to be in their own space. This is to be expected as they adjust to a completely different routine… You will be seeing changes in your child’s behaviour over the next few months.
Here are some suggestions for how to minimise the impact on your family: (more…)
Childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is a motor planning and programming disorder that affects speech coordination. A child knows what to say but they find it hard to speak as they might not be able to move their lips, tongue and oral muscles appropriately in order to say the specific word. There is no muscle weakness, as it is the brain that finds difficulty in sending the messages to the muscles in order to speak.
Access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) for young children with disability is not equal across Australia. Where you live can hinder access to information about disability support, assistance to apply for it, and timely access to services.
Sadly, long-standing problems getting children into disability support were part of the reason the NDIS was introduced in the first place.
Your location can exacerbate inequity at three points: noticing your child needs support, proving they need support, and finding suitable support near you.
We interviewed families with a child who went through the NDIS process and the organisations that support them. Based on our research, we’ve collated some tips to ensure your child can access the NDIS if they need it.