Summer Safety for Children with Special Needs
By Charlotte E. Thompson, M.D. Most parents and grandparents sigh with relief once summer is over and children are safely back in school. I know…
Tag: disability
What it’s really like to have Epilepsy, and what you can do to help
Kate Lambert is a drama teacher working with young people, many of whom have special needs. Her daughter Lille was diagnosed with epilepsy at the…
Choosing the right teaching interventions for your child with autism
Joyce Show is a Harvard/MIT trained physician and mother of seven children, including a son with severe autism. Here, she explains some of the different teaching…
Developing essential skills for mediating across dispute contexts and cultures – An Interview with Tony Whatling
“Disputes inevitably test mediators’ skills to the limit. They are also a powerful reminder of what I refer to in some detail in the book: namely that they should never be applied outside of a framework of appropriate professional values, attitudes and cultural sensitivity and awareness. Skills, strategies and professionals practice can never be value-free.”
Mediation Matters: Tony Whatling on Training Muslim Mediators in Afghanistan
A personal perspective from Tony Whatling, mediation consultant and trainer, and author of Mediation Skills and Strategies: A Practical Guide. Kabul revisited The flight from…
“Although fatigue may persist, it can go away” – An interview with Lucie Montpetit
“[This] is not a book about disease but about finding solutions according to different ways of gaining back one’s physical, emotional and psychological energy balance. For many, it is also a path towards empowerment and finding a new meaning in daily activities.”
Therapeutic Gardening for Kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Special Educational Needs – An Interview with Natasha Etherington
“Getting a child with ASD into a garden has so many benefits, not least that they are given some autonomy outside. The most immediate benefit will be a sense of relief and welcome break from the classroom environment. Whilst gardening, we’re practicing social interaction and life skills, and working with soil and plants helps to reduce tactile defensiveness. Learning basic horticultural skills educates in context, and along the way you will also see an increase in language and communication skills.”
Orthopedic Care in Children with Special Needs
“One orthopedist operated on a boy without my knowledge on a Friday afternoon. Fortunately, the mother and grandmother knew I had insisted that physical therapy should be started immediately. The child’s school physical therapist was a friend and made house calls over the weekend, so the boy would not stay in bed. He was able walk for several more years because of this. Thus, parents and grandparents must be very aggressive in order to be sure that appropriate orthopedic surgery is being done and physical therapy received, as needed.”
‘Growing spaces’ as a way of understanding and developing genuine partnerships – An Interview with Jackie Martin and Julie Gosling
“I think that service users can give a perspective which can be lost without their inclusion. Service users can help to cut through some of the professional ‘jargon’ which excludes people, even other professionals sometimes. Professionals are often under considerable pressures to meet targets or stay within budgets, and even with the best will in the world they can start to lose sight of why they came into the profession in the first place. Service users can help to keep that perspective and keep values sharp.”
Unlocking a child’s potential through vision therapy – An Interview with Dr. Joel Warshowsky
“Underachieving children typically don’t feel connected. The process of training children to reframe their visual connectedness with the world is not only about vision. It is about utilizing vision to reframe the relationship between children’s inner reality and their external reality. Vision is merely the vehicle, the classroom, the training ground. The true benefits accrue when a child, perhaps your son or daughter, takes what he or she has achieved in the safe and nurturing environment of therapy and applies it to the outside world. It is then that a child’s entire sense of who they are and what they are capable of, has been modified for the better.”