Liz Kahn is a Behavioral Specialist who, prior to going out on her own, worked for several state and private agencies across the country. She has worked with families whose children have a range of challenges. Diagnoses like Autism Spectrum Disorder, Down Syndrome, ADHD, Global Delays, Rhett's Syndrome, Communication Disorders, and other behavior-based challenges not otherwise specified.
In this episode, we talk about the challenges faced by everyone, but most especially parents whose children have disabilities. Liz isn't "just" an expert who has worked with other people's kids. Her own son received an Autism diagnosis at 3. She and her family are on their own journey.
Liz explains the three most common causes of frustration come from being tired, hungry, or uncomfortable (or some combination of these). It becomes a pebble in your shoe. At first, it may not be severe enough to make you do something about it. But the irritation builds over time until you can't take it anymore.
The key, Liz explains, is interrupting it before it gets out of hand. Make time for addressing it; because it's almost certainly not going to just go away. She outlines her process as "interrupt - take a breath - ask a question. Sounds "simple", right? That's because it is, but it's anything but "easy".
We have to choose to react slightly differently to get real change. We also have to be ok with not being perfect. Give ourselves grace when we fall back into old habits. Liz gave us three questions to ask:
1) What can I do better?
2) What can I learn from this?
3) How can I use what I've learned next time?
We touch on how it's important to be realistic. It's okay to have friction in your household. There are going to be times when not everything is "perfect". It's okay to apologize to your kids. In fact, it's a great opportunity to model appropriate behavior. Own your mistake. Share what you've learned from it.
If any of this video resonates with you, and you're ready to make some changes, I encourage you to reach out to Liz. All of her processes are science-based, she can (and will) show it to you. There will be at least one future episode where Liz and I have a discussion about being a Special Needs Parent. She and I have also discussed hosting Facebook and/or YouTube Lives to allow you to ask your questions.
The book I mentioned is "Autism Uncensored" by Whitney Ellenby. Link to purchase at Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Autism-Uncensored-Pulling-Back-Curtain/dp/1633934136
It's not for everyone, Whitney explains how she felt as a parent in the early years. It's connected to this video because in my opinion, it shows how important it is for us, as parents, to focus on our healing as well.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn commissions from qualifying purchases.
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