Thriving in the Midst of Chaos: Parenting With Special Needs Kids

Episode 114: Parenting Special Needs Kids While Being Chronically Ill

In this episode, Jessica discusses having a chronic illness/disability while raising special needs children who are constantly in crisis. Spoiler alert: It isn't easy!

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Show Music:

Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2021 Jessica Temple

Episode 113: Lindsay Passodelis' Experience Growing Up With CLOVES Syndrome

In this episode, guest Lindsay shares her experience growing up with CLOVES syndrome. CLOVES is a rare overgrowth syndrome with vascular anomalies. Congential lipomatous overgrowth vascular malformation epidermal nevus spinal skeletal anomalies (CLOVES). Everyone has different symptoms, of which there are many. It is caused by a genetic mutation in PIK3CA gene. It is not hereditary. Medical exams would pick up the syndrome. You can also undergo genetic testing to confirm the syndrome. Treatment includes surgery, sclerotherapy, and various medications. Lindsay showed signs of CLOVES at birth. However, they misdiagnosed her as having Proteus Syndrome. Once she was finally correctly diagnosed, she was really relieved. Lindsay talks about her experience with CLOVES growing up. She discussed complications, difficulty in daily life with CLOVES, coping, and medication trials.

Links:

Meet The PROS Comic Book

Understanding PROS

Instagram

Blog

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Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5-star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music:

Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2021 Jessica Temple

Episode 112: Lia McCabe's Experience Raising Two Daughters With Autism

In this episode, guest Lia McCabe discusses her experience raising two children with autism, as well as giving back to the autism community. She noticed signs right away in her first daughter that something was amiss. However, the signs in her other daughter were totally different. She noted that it was hard to get the diagnosis of autism with her first daughter, because she didn't know much about autism at the time. They had had all sorts of expectation for their children's futures, all of which now had to change. The diagnosis didn't hit as hard when they got the diagnosis for the second child, as the systems for helping were already in place. Both children have done speech therapy and occupational therapy and her oldest daughter did physical therapy as well, due to hypotonia. They are currently both in a preschool speech and language/social skills program.

Links:

Embracing Neurodivergency with Jessica Eccles, MD

AutismWish

Embracing Autism Podcast

Parents Place of Maryland

Floor Time Therapy

LISS Funds

Facebook Page

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Check out updates on our website.

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Check us out on Facebook!

We are also on Pinterest!

Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5-star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music:

Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2021 Jessica Temple

Episode 111: Journaling For Mindfulness With Guest Josephine Atluri

In this episode, Josephine Atluri discusses using journaling to help with mindfulness and parenting. She discussed ways to engage in mindfulness along with your child, as well as ways to communicate in a mindful way with your child. She provides examples for when mindfulness worked in parenting for her. Discussed the importance of examining expectations as a parent and to set intentions in your interactions with your children. Otherwise, you might be placing too much your child and placing extra demands on them. Use intentions to let things flow, rather than fighting obstacles to make things happen. It allows you to let unhelpful thoughts go. You can engage in emotional awareness by spending time being mindful just being aware of what you are doing and feeling. You can always set an alarm to check in with your body and your emotions. Then, give yourself whatever you need in the moment to care for yourself. Affirmations are really helpful to improve mood and self-esteem. It is a way of giving yourself extra love and caring. Document triggers throughout the week. This recognition of the patterns helps you to put strategies in place to avoid the situation or better cope with them in order to minimize anger or stress. You can better use stress management techniques and using what works for you. With practice, you can recognize other triggers more easily. Letting go and letting go of control is useful to allow the child to be who they are and to be able to enjoy therm. They will be heard and supported and that they were given what they needed in the moment. Take in the joy of others. Try to allow yourself to experience joy each day, without participating in it. Watch the happiness of your children. Help others. Enjoy a self-care moment.

Links:

The Mindfulness Journal For Parents

Book Website

Main Website

Instagram

Responding To Life Podcast

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Check out updates on our website.

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Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5-star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music:

Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2021 Jessica Temple

Episode 110: Updates, Crises, and Overwhelm

In this episode, Jessica gives updates on her life and the life of her family. She discusses updates on her health conditions and recent surgery, crazy stressors, and mental health difficulties that accompany autism. She discusses how hard it is to get good medical care and how impossible it is to get adequate care for children with special needs. Jessica lays out how she obtained help for Benji's mental health crisis in Virginia. Spoiler alert, it was haaaaaaard!

Links:

Chronicles of Zazzles: Connective Tissue Issues

The Bendy Twisty Zebra

Bendy Wendy and The Almost Invisible Genetic Syndrome

Email us if you have any questions or ideas!

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Check out updates on our website.

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Check us out on Facebook!

We are also on Pinterest!

Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5-star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music:

Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2021 Jessica Temple

Episode 109: Executive Functioning Tips From ADHD Coaching With Dr. Norrine Russell

In this episode, Dr. Norrine Russell discusses the benefits to ADHD coaching and provides tips to help with executive dysfunction. Her son and daughter both have autism, ADHD, and anxiety. She noted that one of the hardest parts of parenthood is feeling alone. Although her children have the same diagnoses, they have very different presentations.

ADHD coaching is about teaching skills that kids with ADHD are delayed in developing, such as executive functioning. They provide support, collaboration, skill building, and scaffolding. They figure out what are their strengths and where are areas for development. Then they build executive functioning or social-emotional skills. They start by building the relationship. They then set goals, and teach and manage executive functioning skills. They use a project manager, including planning with reflection, practice, skill development, and goal setting. They work to break down barriers to get the kids where the kids want to go.

Coaching is helpful when their mental health is stable but they are still struggling due to a lack of skills. To use planners, they take the planner out, wait while they write down assignments, and sometimes have people text or email the child assignments, so they have them in writing.

Have a dedicated in and out box dedicated for school things. The child puts things in the box that the parent needs to see. The parent completes whatever it is, and then places the completed item in the out box. The child then needs to check the out box before leaving for school every day.

Make sure your child has a red folder. Every piece of paper they get in school goes in the red folder. When they get home, they open up the red folder, they figure out what goes in the parent in tray and what is homework. When the homework is done, it goes in the return side of the folder.

Have refreshers of every school supply item and remind your kid to go and replenish each thing once per month.

Coaching Website Blog Email Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

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Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5-star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music:

Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2021 Jessica Temple

Episode 108: Learning An Instrument When One Has Special Needs With Guest Delwyn McKenzie

In this episode, Delwyn McKenzie discusses the usefulness of learning an instrument for children with special needs. She grew up playing instruments, and made sure her children learned instruments, too. Early on in her childhood, her daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia. She noticed that her daughter had more difficulty learning an instrument than her other children did. This led Delwyn re-evaluate her teaching strategies to be inclusive for all children.

To get your child involved in music, seek out group experiences. She recommends getting involved in singing and starting with a single stave rather than both treble and bass. When getting your child into learning an instrument, think about the style of teaching of the teacher and the style of learning of your child. Beware that playing by ear is helpful, but can make it harder to learn to read music later. Teach the child decoding skills before they learn to play an instrument.

Kids can start learning to play an instrument as young as 4, although they may have difficulty learning to read music later on if they learn this way. Difficulties children might have include difficulty with finger dexterity, eye distractions, not looking at the music notes, and distractions in the room. Make sure not to push the child farther than they can manage.

Playing music also improves confidence. Any type of performance, even in front of family or friends, can improve confidence.

Accent Music School Suzuki Method

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Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5-star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music:

Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2021 Jessica Temple

Episode 107: Promoting Reading In Children With Learning Disabilities With Guest Dr. Maria Cleary

In this episode, Dr. Maria Cleary discusses reading literacy and and the importance of continuing to read throughout childhood. Her daughter was showing learning delays when she was young and was found to have left-brain hemiatrophy. Her daughter did well in special education classes in public school until middle school, when things started to change. She started to notice that things were different for her socially. She then went to a special education school, which her daughter loved. As she got older, there weren't any books that were at her reading level, and she stopped reading. Dr. Cleary searched for something, but couldn't find anything for her daughter.

Reading is so important because a huge percentage of kids with learning disabilities drop out of school and many are unemployed. Reading affects their success as adults. There has been no improvement in any grade level in reading since 2017 in the USA. By the time you reach middle school, if you stop reading, the neurons that support reading start dying and you start losing your ability to read. Reading is the single factor that leads to life success.

Readeezy Email 1 Email 2 Facebook Twitter Instagram Is The Bottom Falling Out For Readers Who Struggle The Most The Brain That Changes Itself The Brain's Way of Healing

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Email us if you have any questions or ideas!

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Check out updates on our website.

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We are also on Pinterest!

Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5-star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music:

Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2021 Jessica Temple

Episode 106: Using Summer To Create An Amazing School Year With Guest Dr. Laura Reber

In this episode, guest Dr. Laura Reber discusses maximizing your summer to help your child with the school year. She discussed the importance of learning executive functioning skills. To help transition from school to summer, keep schedules similar (meals, sleep, activities), set expectations that the children are aware of, consider ESY, and ask the school what you can do at home to maintain skills over the summer. Keep working on literacy over the summer, in whatever way works for your child. She recommends doing reading and writing every day, continue working on IEP goals, read classic books, make a reading club with your child, starting book clubs with friends and neighbors, write with fun stimuli like stickers and shaving cream, pass notes with your child, and teach math by playing games outside with sidewalk chalk. To prepare to return for the fall, check in with the teacher about what the school year will look like and what that will bring, help your student prepare for the schedule or any changes, use social stories, and have your child reconnect with school friends. To help bolster executive functioning, have your child plan fieldtrips and plant a garden.

Progress Parade Awesome Resources ABC Mouse

Links:

Email us if you have any questions or ideas!

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Check out updates on our website.

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Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5-star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music:

Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2021 Jessica Temple

Episode 105: Bassie Shemtov's Experience Creating Inclusive Communities and Employment Opportunities

In this episode, guest Bassie Shemtov discusses how to create friendship and inclusion in the community. She and her husband began their career by working in the addictions community. However, Bassie didn't feel as if they were offering everything they could. She reached out to the community, and the community recommended they offer support for teens. They started pairing teens with children with special needs, and the bonds started to become really strong between all involved. To continue to grow, they listened to what the families needed and started building for the needs of the families. As the kids and teens grew, they began to grow their adult services as well. They began to offer amazing vocational programs where the young adulys could gain skills and earn money. She recommends that all communities create spaces for inclusion and allow each child to uncover their true potential. Make sure each child has the opportunity to give and make a difference. Consider starting clubs or organizations that promote inclusion and create new inclusive opportunities.

Friendship Circle Facebook Instagram

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Email us if you have any questions or ideas!

We are now on instagram!

Check out updates on our website.

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Check us out on Facebook!

We are also on Pinterest!

Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5-star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music:

Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2021 Jessica Temple