MN Company Helps Families Pay Medical Expenses

Check out this article on a MN company that is helping to cover medical expenses......

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/04/11/mn-company-helps-families-pay-for-medical-expenses/

Speech and Language Development

Language is the foundation of nearly all aspects of children’s learning and it is key to children’s social relationships with both adults and peers. Yet, especially in the early years, children vary greatly in how much they understand and how well they make themselves understood.
Have you wondered if your child’s language is what it should be for his or her age? How can you tell and where can you get help if you think there is a problem? A speech and language pathologist offers practical guidelines and suggestions - just clink on the link to this Podcast to learn more!

http://www.goodenoughmoms.com/node/238

Another Blog for Parents!

http://www.sizzlebop.com/

Who is this site for?
This is the place to come to if you are the parent of a highly distractible child or the spouse of a highly distractible mate. This is also the place to come if YOU are the highly distractible person.  This site celebrates the energy and the non-linear path of the distractible mind.   We don't believe these folks are defective. We believe they are blessed and even fortunate to have a gift of such energy and creativity. And we love them dearly. But we also know that there are unique challenges.
Check it out and let us know what you think and if you have any interesting stories or ideas to share! 

Bubble Volcanos

A large jug + water + liquid dish detergent + 3/4" clear tubing = a great activity for "calming" our child's engine.

This is one of many resistive blowing activities that is like "heavy work" for our bodies, but for our mouths. This controlled breathing in and pushing out to displace water with our air is "work" and the outcome is more organized children who can focus better on functional tasks following such an activity. Take advantage of this organization and focus by doing a more challenging task afterwards.

Other ideas like this are:
sucking thickened foods through a straw (smoothies, yogurt, applesauce)
blow toys
blow air through a straw pushing cotton balls and racing them with a friend
blowing bubbles in the tub
blowing bubbles with a bubble wand

Facebook!

Check out our Facebook page for Children's Therapy Center!
We have posted a couple of articles about Autism-friendly/kid-friendly movie screenings and a story about a child living with ADHD.
Please share any other articles, information, activities that you know about!

Screenings make films autism-friendly

By KRISTIN TILLOTSON, Star Tribune

Last update: March 25, 2011 - 11:15 PM

Once-a-month "sensory friendly" movie screenings for kids on the autism spectrum give families a welcome alternative.

SENSORY-FRIENDLY FILMS

What: Special monthly screenings of new-release kids' films, featuring lower sound and more light in order to accommodate the needs of children with autism.
When: 10 a.m. Saturdays, monthly. The next screening is "Hop" on April 2.
Where: AMC Theatres in Roseville (850 Rosedale Center) and Eden Prairie (8521 Flying Cloud Drive).
More info: www.autism-society.org/sensoryfilms

Imagine sneaking up on your 8-year-old sleeping child, scissors in hand, because it's the only way you can cut his hair without him howling and squirming away. Or cringing every time you hear a loud, sudden noise when he's in tow at a store or park, knowing it could spark a total meltdown.
These are realities that parents of autistic kids face every day. Whether they are high or low functioning, children with autism may see, hear and feel very differently from the rest of us, often at unbearably intensified levels.
That can make something like going to a big-screen movie in a public theater -- especially in 3-D -- a real challenge, unless it's one of AMC Theatres' "sensory friendly" (SF) screenings. One Saturday morning a month, the chain's multiplexes in Eden Prairie and Roseville keep overhead lights on and lower the sound of a new Hollywood family-film release.
Families are also allowed to bring their own snacks due to special diets. And because it's not always possible to get autistic children to rein in their reactions, they aren't discouraged from getting up to dance, shout, sing or just move around to release tension.
A recent SF showing of a non-3-D version of "Mars Needs Moms" at Rosedale Center was sparsely attended, but Will Daily didn't mind. Sitting in the back row, he made sporadic joyful sounds in between popcorn munches, and no one shushed him or shot disapproving glares at the mother and aunt flanking him.
Daily, 19, of Roseville, has cognitive impairment and a seizure disorder as well as autism.
"Sometimes he's not even paying attention to the movie," said his mom, Theresa Daily, who has attended nearly every SF screening with Will since they began two years ago. "But he just loves the experience of being here so much. He gets excited and makes noise, and that's OK."
Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) not only have different sensations during a movie, but could have great difficulty processing what they feel, said Pat Pulice, director of Fraser Autism Services, the largest and oldest provider in the state. While some might find the onscreen action overwhelming, others can't get enough.
"On one end you have the sensation avoider, who is fearful of the loud noise, and on the other a craver who loves it and gets so excited, he screeches," she said.
Daily knows all about that.
"Once last year, one little boy was just running all over and somebody got a little mad," she said. "His mom was devastated and started crying in the theater."
The sensory-friendly screenings are not always completely smooth sailing, because children on different parts of the autism spectrum have different reactions and behaviors. But a happy experience is more likely, say parents.
"These films are such a boon," said Luann Quayle, also of Roseville, whose daughter, 10, and son, 7, both have autism. "It's just a much quieter, less overwhelming atmosphere. With a screen that big, and children's films being digitally animated, it can get too intense, which is why a lot of people sit farther back. And having the lights up takes away that fear factor of not being able to see what's going on around you."
AMC started the sensory-friendly program with the Autism Society in August 2008, after a family belonging to a society chapter in Maryland requested a special screening for their autistic child. Now more than 130 theaters in 62 U.S. cities participate, and the program recently expanded to Canada.
One drawback to the screenings at Roseville is that there is no obvious indication to other moviegoers that the screening is special, so other families come in without realizing the lights will be up, the sound down, and children may be running around and making noise.
But these screenings can still appeal to some families who don't have an autistic child, as long as they're fine with potential distractions. At least one father with young children at the "Mars Needs Moms" showing was there simply because they didn't want to deal with the intensity of 3-D.
"We don't do well with it," he said.
Sherrie Kenny, executive director of the Autism Society of Minnesota (AuSM), thinks more families would attend the SF screenings if they were broadly advertised, beyond on autism websites.
"Also, for families like these, the trend is to get the DVD and set your own home up with low lights and the right foods," she said. "We agree with this approach, but really like the idea of having the child experience an event in the community. It not only builds on their awareness of surroundings, but helps society in general see ASD with a child attached to it."
Not to mention, kids with autism, like all kids, want to see that just-out movie they saw in a TV promo right now, and won't stop bugging Mom and Dad until they do.

The next scheduled sensory-friendly film at AMC's Rosedale and Eden Prairie theaters is "Hop" on April 2, which also happens to be World Autism Awareness Day.

Something to think about...

Welcome to Holland
By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip- to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy." But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed you in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around...and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills...and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy...and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your, you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very loving things...about Holland.