“This book comes at a time when world events indicate our need to see from the perspective of the other or others… Authors from different communities and cultures come together in this book to help us all stretch our ways of seeing and practicing. Art therapists are in a unique position to use our life-giving creative energies to create positive change in the world.”
“Social workers tended to focus on responses to referrals and may need help to look beyond that to an overall picture of the child’s development. Other professional groups (such as dentists or nursery nurses or teachers) are well-placed to pick up on signals that a child might be being neglected, but may need more help to recognise this, and to know how to respond. Further, mothers in particular can recognise when they are struggling. Practitioners should not be afraid to ask them how they feel their parenting is going.”
“It is possible that social workers may be somewhat more prone to stress and burnout because their relationship with clients is so central to their work. Their work efforts revolve around empathy and understanding of service users’ situations and this can be draining. They may not have been assisted to know how to handle this inherent stress in their training, and they may not be aware that setting boundaries is critical to self-care.”
“The analogies and metaphors in our book help parents understand eating disorders in a way that allows them to ally themselves with treatment rather than with the eating disorder. Children who believe that others grasp their experience find it easier to open up. They feel understood, respected, appreciated, and supported, thus decreasing their guilt and improving their listening.”
“Non-compliance might be due to not understanding what’s been asked and not knowing how to ask for clarification. What might be seen as a refusal to explain might be due to difficulties constructing coherent narratives. Conflict resolution and negotiation require high-level language skills and if these are lacking, then aggression can result. If adults do not recognise the underlying communication problems, the children and young people who experience them can be misunderstood and even misdiagnosed.”
“I have so many memorable experiences of using Developmental Drama: Someone’s face full of laughter and sheer joy when their name is ‘drummed’ to a climax in the warm-up…The sudden, unexpected and totally right response to a new event in the story…A whole group of children with multi-sensory impairment huddled together, looking upwards in wonder at a new and bright ‘hole in the sky!’ It goes on and on. I am a very lucky person.”
“I believe that something can only be changed when it has been fully embraced first and then it seems to drop away. Trying to change by will does not work and is a kind of violence because it is imposed, even if it is ourselves that is imposing it. So in order to facilitate change, we need to listen and accept first.”
Dr Paul Taylor is an experienced consultant paediatrician working in a regional general hospital in New Zealand. He specializes in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), working…
Geri Chavis is a professor of English at St. Catherine University, Minnesota, USA, a Licensed Psycholgist in private practice, and a Certified Poetry Therapist and poetry…
“[After our] five month program of daily parent-delivered massage…Not only does autism become less severe, but the child has general improvements in health in important areas like sleep, digestion, ability to calm themselves down, and toilet training; there is less aggressive and self-injurious behavior, and parenting stress is considerably lower.”