078: Supporting Siblings of Children with Special Needs
Release Date: 03/30/2023
088: Helping Your Child Stay Organized
Helping Kids Thrive
Welcome to another episode of Helping Kids Thrive. Today’s strategy for ensuring our kids flourish centers around the idea of helping them stay organized. We’re joined today by a special guest, Emily Waples who is a pediatric occupational therapist. Join the conversation as we talk about why organization is important for our kids, how we can help our kids build the skills required to be successful in staying organized, the importance of including them in the process of establishing schedules and checklists, and Emily gives insight into ages and their corresponding organizational skills....
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087: Not All Children Learn Language The Same Way
Helping Kids Thrive
Not all children learn language in the same way. Neurotypical children usually learn through analytic language processing (also known as bottom-up processing), while children with autism who are verbal, are more likely to use gestalt language processing (often referred to as top-down processing). With gestalt language processing, children learn language in chunks or phrases, with single words only appearing at later stages as they learn to break down and recombine these gestalts (or language chunks) to create new, spontaneous utterances. Joining us today to break down the ins and outs of...
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086: How Do I Deal With My Child Being Excluded?
Helping Kids Thrive
Being rejected is never easy, and it can be especially soul-crushing for children. How do you, as a parent, ensure that you are there for kids in their time of need, without adding fuel to the fire? To help us get to the bottom of this question, we are joined by an esteemed school psychologist, Dr. Bianca Vasquez. After sharing her deep love for being involved in the education sphere, our guest explains why being excluded hits kids the hardest, how parents can be more empathetic, how to manage your own feelings and emotions, and why your child’s age and temperament...
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085: Easing After School Transitions
Helping Kids Thrive
For many kids, getting home after school can be a stressful period. There is so much to process from the school day and if the after-school transition isn’t properly managed, a child may feel too overwhelmed for anything other than a meltdown. So today, we’re taking a look at some helpful tips for easing after-school transitions. We are joined by Occupational Therapist, Evangeline Abraham, who explains how she got involved in this work and why today’s topic sits particularly close to her heart. Then, Van goes deeper into why after-school transitions are a prominent problem, the...
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084: Rethinking Behavior Management
Helping Kids Thrive
Guest: Kelly McGuinness, LCSW, CEIS Most of us parent using behavior management techniques that we learned during childhood or have read about in a parenting book (okay, instagram, let's be real ;)) but have you ever stopped to think about if those strategies are actually working or not? Returning to the podcast is licensed clinical social worker, Kelly McGuinness, to challenge our ways of managing childhood behavior. During this episode, she discusses with Nicole about how "traditional" behavior management might not be the best options and ways that we can look at behavior differently...
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083: Empowering Your Child's Sense of Self
Helping Kids Thrive
Guest: Melanie Almada, LMFT In this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, Nicole, along with licensed marriage and family therapist Melanie Almada, discusses how parents can support their child's sense of identity and self-discovery. The conversation emphasizes the importance of open communication, modeling positive behavior, and being supportive of a child's interests and choices. They also tackle challenging topics like addressing differing viewpoints on matters such as religion, culture, and gender identity, suggesting family therapy as a constructive approach. The episode is a comprehensive...
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082: Auditory Processing & External Microphone Technology
Helping Kids Thrive
Guest: Dr. Dawn Aerts, AuD Approximately 5% of children struggle with processing auditory input but are never given a formal diagnosis or intervention options that can help. This is because when hearing concerns are expressed, a child is sent to an audiologist for a hearing test. If that test indicates normal hearing, they are sent back to the pediatrician - even though that child still struggles to understand or process auditory input, despite their normal hearing. In this episode, Nicole is joined by pediatric audiologist, Dr. Dawn Aerts. Dr. Aerts noticed the pattern of children with...
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081: Benefits of Nature for Mental Health
Helping Kids Thrive
Guest: Stephanie Fisher, MHC, LPC In this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, presented by Huddle Up (formerly Dot Com Therapy), host Nicole, a speech language pathologist and mother of four, speaks with Stephanie Fisher, a licensed professional counselor, EMT, volunteer firefighter, and therapeutic ranch owner. They dive into the profound mental health benefits of nature and animal-assisted therapy. Stephanie shares insights from her therapeutic ranch experience, emphasizing how spending time outdoors can improve focus, reduce stress, and enhance mood. They discuss practical ways for families...
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080: Setting Up Your Environment for Mental Wellness
Helping Kids Thrive
Guest: Morgan Johnson, MS, LCSW Ever notice a connection between your physical space and your mood? You're definitely on to something. In fact, research indicates that our physical enviroment can have an impact on our anxiety, stress, mood, and overall mental wellbeing. Even more, this connection affects our kids too! In this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, host, Nicole Pounds, chats with licensed clinical social worker, Morgan Johnson, MS, LCSW about the connection between our mental health and our physical environments. She shares insight into what the research indicates about...
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079: Supporting Children with Nonverbal Autism
Helping Kids Thrive
Guest: Samantha Russell, OTR/L, Pediatric Occupational Therapist Autism affects 1 in 36 children, and about 25-30% of those children are nonspeaking. In this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, host and speech language pathologist, Nicole Pounds, M.S. CCC-SLP, is joined by pediatric occupational therapist, Samantha Russell, OTR/L, to discuss ways that parents and schools can support children who have nonverbal autism. Together they share insights from their professional therapy work with children who have nonverbal autism on various considerations with sensory processing, language development,...
info_outlineGuest: Gena Mann, special needs parent of 4
During this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, Nicole is joined by Gena Mann, one of the original co-founders of Wolf+Friends and special needs parent of 4. Together they discuss the nuances of parenting multiple children including children with autism or medical and sensory needs. They discuss practical solutions to balancing all of the varying needs in their home and ways that they work intentionally to support the sibling experience of their neurotypical children.
Episode Highlights:
- How being a sibling to a disabled child looks different than a typical sibling experience
- Tips for helping your child understand the needs of their siblings
- Ways to support and connect with neurotypical siblings
- The need for outside support for neurotypical siblingss
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