Everybody Stims

Over two years ago I went out with a dear friend and got another tattoo. It was a little green unicorn, sketched on my wrist over a tiny "Ohm" symbol. A unicorn, designed together with a wonderful ink artist and yogi friend, inspired by a bucket-list  meeting with my favorite young adult fantasy author. He has been my heart's mentor as a writer since I first discovered his novels and short stories in middle school. Meeting him met all my wildest pre-adolescent writer's dreams;  he embodied his writer's soul in person just as I hoped and always knew he would. So I got a sweet, little unicorn with a green mane on the new, basic-girl trendy spot:the inside of my left wrist. The first client that I saw after it had healed was one of my favorite long term clients who is a young lady with autism.  In my practice I work with kids in different environments and build skills in their real worlds. Sometimes that looks like therapy in a child's home, in a school, ...

Dan has a D in his Health and Fitness class! YES. This makes me happy. Let me explain why. I got a notice today through our school district's automated parent access system which notifies us about grades and missing assignments. Most of the time our weekly emails include a scattering of missing assignments and the occasional alert that our older son needs to work a little harder.  Dan's grades are usually straight A's. There are never any missing assignments or test scores.  In the few subjects that he actually is truly graded on, he tends to meet the criteria, because his special education teacher is good at targeting and meeting his academic levels, and we do the minuscule amount of homework that comes home (spelling words and adapted projects).  Dan participates in three "General Education" classes in middle school with a 1:1 assistant. Science, History and "Health and Fitness". For  English, Math and Reading he is in the special educat...

Just a few ideas to follow up on my summertime post from a few weeks ago.  Here are some ideas to fill those days where your kiddos are bouncing off the walls and it's really hot out and September seems eons away... •    You don’t need a therapy room devoted to mats, balls and swings, there are all sorts of activities to get the same input. Try games such as Twister, sack races, whiffle-ball in the yard, or even a trampoline –the mini or large kind. •   Hiding under cushions, making forts, obstacles or crash pads in the living room is always fun.  Rolling up in a big blanket together to make “body bagel dogs” or under a bunch of pillows to make “human fruit salad” on the couch or floor is always fun. “Toss” the salad by having the child pile up with pillows and stuffed animals on a big blanket, then you gather up the corners of the blanket and shake and pull them around. Then change places. Be brave! Wrestle, roughhouse, break a sweat toge...

I've never made cards like this or handed them out before. Thinking about it as we leave our sweet, safe little Vancouver community nest to travel a bit this summer, I'd like to be uber-prepared, just in case. Starer-ers, snickerers, and pointers are not my favorite people but I usually ignore them or try to give them a straight on for reals, Namaste-yourself-I-see-you-and-I-still-love-you smile saying we are just fine thank you. Happy, even. However, as we venture far out into areas unknown in challenging new ways, I want to make sure Dan has backup, and if I don't have the emotional (or sleep) resources to bring forth my namaste-self, then I might need to just hand out a card --really it would be to make myself feel better. But families, just so you know, I have mixed feelings about these things... Part of me is like; "It's no one else's business and effing back off if you are disturbed by my obviously struggling child or I will shank you." We...

Every year, after the initial excitement and novelty of mornings with cartoons and pajamas wears off, usually just after the 4 th of July, I often get the question:   “Help! What can we do to fill up our summer days?” Good question. So many of our kids enjoy highly structured lives. School, therapies, doctor appointments, and activities typically fill our days. Often we feel we have to fill the empty spaces during summer months to keep our kids from stimming the day away and getting very bored or behavioral. However, we can only go to the zoo or Children’s Museum so many times before we want to poke our own eyes out, so what to do? These days, spontaneous individual play is a challenge for many kids, but it can be doubly challenging for us, especially when  nostalgically  thinking about the “typical” summers of our own childhoods. Those long, unscheduled hours of grimy, sepia-tinged adventures we  remember, glorified in movies like “The Sandlot” with...

"Let Go or Be Dragged." (Attributed to a Zen proverb) As the youngest child in our family gets ready to attend middle school in the fall, I want to post and re-post this video until everyone sees it and internalizes it:  Ethan and I put this together one day, years ago when he was home sick in the third grade. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6Zs8DS2wBE) Despite this big, looming transition in September, this summer has been one of our best ever. But it has also been one of the hardest. I find myself internally clinging to the last weeks of carefree, total abandon that comes with having to answer to no one about my children's participation in school. No homework due, no missing art fees, no IEP meetings, no phone calls about missed meds, no emails about what to do when a new behavior crops up, not even a measly picture day reminder slip. Freedom.  The break is welcome and happy, the kids are tan from playing outside and snuggly with sle...