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

Episode 124:Maximizing Communication With Your Child With Guest Rosemarie Griffin In this episode, guest Rosemarie Griffin discusses ways to maximize your communication with your child and ways to help them grow their communication skills.    Links: Website Podcast     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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    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 2022 Jessica Temple

Episode 123: Demystifying the IEP With Guest Beth Liesenfeld  In this episode, we discuss OT in the schools and understanding all the parts of the IEP, to make everything work for each child.    Links: Website     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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    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 2022 Jessica Temple

Episode 122: Partnering With Care Professionals With Guest Craig Parks In this episode, guest Craig Parks discusses the best ways to partner with care professionals.  Links: Website Email         Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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   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 121: Divorce and Special Needs Parenting In this episode, Jessica speaks candidly about going through and coping with divorce during the pandemic, while raising children with special needs.    Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 120: Betsy Stover's Experience With Medical Trauma In this episode, Betsy Stover, the lovely podcast host of Why Mommy Drinks, discusses her experience with helping her child cope with medical trauma. Her youngest son, Odie, went through two open heart surgeries, one at 2 and one at 5. He coped really well at age 2. However, the doctors didn't listen to him or show him respect after this second surgery and did not explain any medical procedures to him or provide any form of pain management. Betsy discusses how she, her husband, and her son coped with living through and observing medical trauma in the day and age of COVID-19.  Links: Why Mommy Drinks Podcast Instagram Betsy's Instagram Illuminati Improv     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 119: I Hate Potty Training In this episode, Jessica discusses the trials and tribulations of potty training children. Spoiler alert: She hates it!   Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 118: All Out of Money In this episode, Jessica discusses the financial toll being chronically ill and raising children with special needs can take, as well as ways to find funding for needed expenses.      Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 117: Thriving Through The Holidays In this episode, Dr. Koonce discusses the best ways to thrive through the holidays with children who have special needs. She also discusses helpful at-home ABA strategies. It is important to prepare for the holidays with your special needs kids for many reasons, including loss of routine, change in structure, trying to set a new routine for a short time, having other people living in or visiting in our space, more planning for things that are new, eating schedules, bathing schedules, navigating face masks, and fatigue. She recommends that you as a parent see what emotional resources you have available before trying a lot of new things during the holidays. Keep your children in contact with some daily routines during the holiday season. Figure out where your strengths are, and play up those. Think about what is actually doable for you and your family during the holiday break. Use a tag-team approach. Preplan all troubleshooting, when possible. Try to set up a village or community with other parents, in order to have a partnership or extra assistance. For family who cannot make it in person to celebrate the holidays, find creative ways to “include” them. Schedule things based on activities rather than time. Make sure to keep your needs in mind and offer yourself self-care. Don't try to make things perfect. Instead, focus on the things that mean the most to you. Involve your children in the activities as much as possible, in ways they can participate. Share experiences with them. Plan fun activities to look forward to in the future.   The best at-home ABA strategy is to create antecedent interventions. Figure out what you and your child need in the moment. Model behaviors that you want them to do. It is ok for us to make mistakes. Think about what is actually doable. Ask providers what you can do in the meantime while you are on the waiting list. Do other therapies in the meantime. Consider a one-time consult to help in the interim. ABA can also provide recommendations to your school providers for ways that the school could help support or help that child. Sometimes, you can start in clinic ABA prior to starting at-home ABA.   Dr. Koonce recommends several ways to find trainings for parents in ABA. Reach out to local universities, as practicum students may be able to offer trainings for credit. There are lots of online ABA trainings as well. There can be live online collaborations or courses. You can go through the registered behavior technician trainings.   Behavior and Educational Solutions Blog Facebook LinkedIn Twitter DHHS     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 116: The Impossibility of Finding Therapies In this episode, Jessica discusses how hard it can be to slog through therapies, therapists, insurance, funded programs, and the like to try, and fail, to find the proper therapies for your kids.    Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 115: Navigating Insurance - Again! In this episode, Jessica discusses the trials and tribulations of finding therapies that will take your insurance, as well as finding funding to finance different therapies.    Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 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!   Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 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 Protea 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     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 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       Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 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! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 Links: Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 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 Links: Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 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   Links: Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 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! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 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       Links: Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 104: Alexa Bigwarfe's Experience of Twin-To-Twin Transfusion, Infant Loss, and Transformation Through Writing In this episode, Alexa Bigwarfe discusses her experience with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome and child loss. During her third pregnancy, she should have been followed as a high risk pregnancy with a maternal fetal medicine doctors, although the OB who was following her did not do her due diligence and missed the twin-to-twin transfusion. At the 12 week scan, her doctor nonchalantly mentioned twin-to-twin, but didn't seem concerned. The doctor skipped the 16 week ultrasound altogether. At the 20 week ultrasound, they found the transfusion and immediately transferred her to labor and delivery. At the hospital, she saw an MFM, who provided her options for management of the transfusion. She was hospitalized three times during her pregnancy to do an amniocentesis. During her last hospitalization, she was bedridden in the hospital to be monitored for a month. Her twins were born 9.5 weeks early, as she naturally went into labor. Katherine passed away after two days. Her surviving twin was growth restricted in the womb and spent 3 months in the NICU. After the fact, Alexa found that there could have been other treatments provided for her children, but her doctors either didn't know or didn't offer those treatments. The NICU stay was very hard for Alexa because she had to pass the spot where he other daughter passed away. Her other daughter had some touch-and-go moments, but was otherwise lucky in her health that she didn't have lung, eye, or bowel issues. Meanwhile, Alexa was also caring for a 2 and 4 year old. Milk flow was low due to stress and trauma and Alexa had to pump every 2 hours around the clock to maintain her milk flow. Her daughter had issues with reflux, had trouble with suck-breathe-swallow, and needed a few minor surgeries. She was still a low weight due to feeding difficulties, so she had a g-tube placed. She had a hole in her heart when she was born, and it closed on its own by 18 months.   Alexa initially coped by compartmentalizing, and put her grief aside to take care of her other children. Afterward, she coped by using writing, support groups, blogging, Facebook groups, and connecting with other moms. To write a book, start with an outline. Interview other people who have gone through the process to get other perspectives as well. Spend some time figuring out how you want to publish. Hire someone to do the things you aren't good at. Get educated on all the different steps. Write Publish Sell Chrysalis Press Purple Butterfly Press Kat Biggie Press PublishHer Podcast Sunshine After The Storm Women In Publishing Write Publish Sell Blog Ditch The Fear And Just Write It .Workshops Facebook Group The Birth Hour Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Return To Zero Movie Dr. Kiley Hanish     Links: Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 103: Raising a Child with STXBP1 With Guest Chloe Weber  In this we discuss rare genetic disorder called STXBP1. Guest Chloe Weber's son Remy has a rare genetic disorder called STXBP1. This condition affects syntax and binding protein. For these individuals, their bodies don't make enough of the protein,the protein  is misfolded, and the proteins can affect the brain. The condition can cause delays, cognitive impairments, ataxia, apraxia, parkinsonian tremors, and epilepsy.   Remy was referred to early intervention at 9 months, as he was not developing as expected, although Chloe first started seeing signs at 4 months. He was then referred to genetics and neurology. He was diagnosed with a genetic disorder at 2.5 years old.   Although her son has a lot of impairments, Remy remains happy and in the moment, even during this therapies. His seizures started when he was 2 years old, around the time he was diagnosed. For treatments, they manage seizures, stress, insomnia, and any symptoms that arise. There is no cure. They have tried intense therapy programs, CBD, oxygen therapy, supplements, movement therapy, ozone therapy, hyperbaric therapy, neurofeedback, and floor time. Remy needs constant supervision, even at night, due to having nocturnal seizures.   Chloe discusses all of the advocacy work she has had to do to help Remy, including advocating for him to be allowed to attend school. Remy was kicked out of school twice, causing them to have to move, and uproot her company and leave behind family and friends. When Remy was 3, there was an inclusion program that he was able to attend through the school system, with a lot of supports. As Remy got older, Chloe started getting phone calls to come pick up Remy because the school didn't want to deal with his behaviors. He is now in a great program in Colorado, although the paraprofessionals are mostly in charge of the children, rather than the special educator. For Chloe, she copes by being easier on herself, using positive self-talk, uses Fight Camp, being in nature, and using meditation.     Remy's Revenge Radical Roots Herbs Email Brain Balance Program Family Hope Center Fight Camp NAPA intensive therapy     Links: Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 102: Spinal Muscular Atrophy And ADHD With Guest Trudy Citovic  In this episode, guest Trudy Citovic discusses raising a child with spinal muscular atrophy. Her daughter, Alina, was diagnosed with SMA when she was 5 years old. She never lost any skills but started experiencing weakness and less stamina. She was about to lose skills when she was formally diagnosed. Her nanny initially picked up on the symptoms, as Alina was not developing at the same rate as another child of the same age. Alina couldn't go up the stairs well and couldn't run, and this spurred Trudy to take Alina to the doctor. They spent two years searching for a diagnosis, and a lot was ruled out, but they weren't sure what was going on. Due to well-timed genetic testing at age 5, Alina was quickly diagnosed with SMA and was provided with treatment just as it was coming out. She initially completed the SMA treatment that used a spinal tap, where the medical was injected intrathecally, although it caused her PTSD due to a horrible spinal fluid leak from the first treatment. The doctor who injected it was on vacation, the ER doctors on call were not familiar with her condition, and misdiagnosed her as fine and sent Alina home. The next morning, the head of radiology called them and said Alina needed to immediately come to the hospital for MRIs, and found that she had a horrible spinal fluid leak. The only treatment at the time was for her to lay flat for 3 days. After this treatment for the leak, Alina still had to go back for 4 more spinal tap treatments. To help with the PTSD, Alina underwent psychotherapy, which was helpful. Once Evrydsi came out, they immediately switched to that, which has been very helpful to Alina. Alina no longer has to undergo invasive treatments and can simply take a pill every day. Alina no longer has to be exposed to trauma or anesthesia, no longer misses school, and no longer has a several hour drive to get treatment.   Teachers at school didn't understand Alina's condition, which led to Trudy pulling her out of that school. Getting a 504 plan and switching schools was really helpful in minimizing difficulties for Alina. They taught Alina how to advocate for herself, which has been great for Alina. Nowadays, other than living on a house that is all on one floor, there are minimal impacts of SMA on their lives.   Initially, coping was really hard for Trudy and her family, especially due to the medical trauma. She and her husband separated for a short-while, and they engaged in a lot of self-reflection. They sought help from a doctor, who diagnosed them with ADHD and anxiety/depression and prescribed supplements and medications that helped with they mental health. Trudy also began to engage in more yoga, teach yoga, and do daily meditation.   Website Facebook Instagram Evrysdi Headspace App Himalayan Institute How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen: A Survival Guide to Life with Children Ages 2-7 The Whole-Brain Child Workbook Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults     Links: Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 101: Raising A Micropreemie Who Uses A Feeding Tube With Guest Gaby Grinberg In this episode, guest Gaby Grinberg discusses prematurity, NICU stays, and feeding journeys.  Her daughter Lana Rose was born at 24 weeks gestation, weight 11 ounces. There was no initial sign that she would go into labor early, as her pregnancy was pretty normal. At the 20 week ultrasound, it was found that she had intrauterine growth restriction and reduced amniotic fluid. They completed numerous tests and exams to figure out what to do next. Starting at week 22, she started to feel unusual, with stomach pain, headaches, swelling, nausea, and shoulder pain, and was told that everything was ok. She was twice not diagnosed with preeclampsia and HELLP, even though that was what was occurring. She had been counseled to take Tylenol if she experienced pain, which she did. However, the Tylenol caused problems for HELLP, since she had been misdiagnosed. She began to get very bad chest tightness, and went right to the hospital, where she was immediately admitted. She remained in the hospital for a week before she was rushed for an emergency C-section. Lana Rose was immediately taken to the NICU and intubated. Complications included breathing difficulties, difficulty keeping her weight up, and a very small brain bleed. Lana Rose stayed in the NICU for 6 months before being discharged to home. She was discharged with a G-tube and on continuous oxygen. They were medically quarantined for several months afterward. After the C-section, Gaby was let go from her job. Therefore, they lost their health insurance and had to switch plans, and her husband had to work really long hours. They had to just keep pushing through. Coping was hard. Gaby ran out of breast milk, was not able to breast feed, and was not allowed to bottle feed Lana Rose. Lana Rose had horrible reflux, with food being pushed out of her tubing at every feeding, made worse by undiagnosed lactose intolerance. This led Gaby to finding breast milk for her daughter, as Lana Rose was losing weight and was being labeled as failure to thrive. She was also having horrible rashes and diarrhea from the formula. Due to oral trauma through intubation, Lana Rose refused to eat foods orally. They tried OT and PT and feeding therapy, but Lana Rose still refused. They changed the formula, but Lana Rose was still not gaining weight, since she was not getting food or nutrition in. After age 1, Lana Rose started using a blended diet in her g-tube, which helped her get better nutrition. Gaby experienced horrible postpartum depressed, PTSD, suicidality, and significant overeating. Talking with her husband helped reduced her suicidality. Gaby had to mourn the loss of her pregnancy, having a child with special needs, losing her job. Lana Rose currently has compromised lungs and gut issues, but is otherwise doing well.   ProofPoint Marketing LinkedIn Ronald McDonald House March of Dimes Minnesota Neonatal Foundation Preeclampsia Foundation PreFeeding Skills Book     Links: Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 100: Raising a Child With Spinal Muscular Atrophy With Guest Megan Fabrizi In this episode, guest Megan Fabrizi discusses raising children with spinal muscular atrophy. When Liam was born, he was having difficulty regulating his temperature. He wasn't moving his body. At his 4 month visit, he was diagnosed with hypotonia. The pediatrician was concerned and got him in immediately to a neurologist. When he was 5 months old, he got genetic testing and was diagnosed with SMA Type 1. Megan first noticed symptoms when he would cry and then gasp for breath. Through his treatments, they were able to halt the progression of his SMA and slowly make progress. He has been in PT and OT for most of his life. Liam as had trouble making friends due to other children being nervous about his medical conditions. However, he has a lot of online friends with SMA. Current treatments include a feeding tube, medication, and respiratory  treatments. As he has grown up, he is a happy kid and has remained happy through all of life's difficulties. Megan has found it challenging to make sure to give each child her all, due to their complex and intensive but differing needs, but goes out of her way to try. They do a lot of video chats, sensory time, and therapies during their day. Through this, she has dealt with anxiety, depression, and PTSD, for which psychotherapy has been very helpful. She also does meditation, playing the ukulele, and singing. She copes by using social support.   Facebook Love for little Liam's Fight Cure SMA Zac's Play Day             Links: Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 99: Raising a Child With Multiple Complex Medical Conditions With Guest Tammy Flynn In this episode, guest Tammy Flynn discusses raising children with complex medical conditions. Her son Marcus has numerous complex medical conditions, including Ehlers Danlos syndrome, Sherman's kyphosis, EOE (eosinophilia of the esophagus), a bleeding disorder, encephalopathy upon birth, low tone, poor fine motor skills, differently shaped ear canals, slow motility, reflux( as a child), and cancerous moles on his back.   Other than heavy morning sickness that spanned her pregnancy, her pregnancy was relatively normal. Toward the end, she thought her water broke, but it turned out that she was hemorrhaging. The labor and delivery ended up being pretty normal. Marcus was initially jaundiced and had difficulty with feeding from the beginning. Once he started feeding, he started throwing up a lot. He got an infection early on in life and kept getting infections. Marcus bounced from doctor to doctor, with them trying to figure out what was going on. He kept having ear infections, was failure to thrive, was throwing up all of his feeds, and was very developmentally delayed. Doctors didn't know what was going on. At his 9 month visit, Tammy brought up her concerns with the pediatrician, and it was recommended that Marcus start PT and OT. At that time, he was functioning at the level of a one month old. Tammy felt like she was in a whirlwind, as her other 2 children had lots of activities going on, and Tammy was running a business as well. When he was 3, Marcus had a nerve and muscle biopsy done, which revealed brain encephalopathy. This started her down the road of obtaining additional services, including feeding therapy and speech therapy. They started seeing a lot of specialists, but still were not getting answers. 10 years later, a doctor re-looked at the nerve and muscle biopsy that had been done when Marcus was 3, and found that it was done wrong, and wasn't a good enough sample to give them enough answers. Marcus  was involved in therapies on a daily basis. Around age 12, Marcus started to look hunched over. He underwent imaging and results showed Sherman's kyphosis and he was fitted for a back brace. Once he got to 97 degrees hunched over, they started doing genetic testing to see what they should do next. The doctors started looking at possible syndromes to try to figure out what condition Marcus had. When he was 19 years old, Marcus' spine started collapsing. They needed to decide quickly whether they would operate or not. Therefore, they went on a strict diet, did therapies and exercises every day, and tried to get in him the best shape possible for the best possible outcome for surgery. He underwent the 10 hour surgery and remained in the hospital for weeks afterward. He then did in-home therapies for months.   Tammy found that social support and connection with other medical parents key to helping her son. She found that reaching out to the organization related to the diagnosis was really helpful to get recommendations for treatments and doctors. She also found creating an incredible medical team and firing anyone who isn't a good fit very helpful for Marcus. Give yourself a moment to allow yourself to feel your emotions. However, try not to bring those feelings to the medical appointments. When Tammy gets a new overwhelming diagnosis, she schedules a follow up appointment to come back and ask all the questions, so she can give herself time to cope emotionally.   For hospital stays and ER visits, have a GO bag packed, with activities, things to do, things that bring you joy, work to do, a toiletries bag, things to help your child feel more comfortable, and things that will make you feel more comfortable. For children who have multiple conditions, keep a packet with diagnoses, medications, adverse reactions, where they find spot to drop blood off at, lists of specialists and doctors, hospital numbers, and scheduling numbers. Start making your chart early, and add to it. List out how the conditions affect your child, what the treatments are currently, and everything that changes. Update the chart every 6 months to a year. Work on building your case for services, when they are needed. Keep the medications organized. Listen to podcasts, Find low costs tools. Talk to others who have been through the same things. Use your state organizations when you need information.   On Air Advocate Podcast Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube Mission Marcus Family voices     Links: Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 98: Dafne Wiswell's Story of Raising Children With Type 1 Diabetes and Ankylosing Spondylitis In this episode, Dafne Wiswell discusses her son's experience with Diabetes Type 1 and her daughter's experience with juvenile arthritis and Ankylosing Spondylitis. Her son was diagnosed with Diabetes when he was 2. He started having accidents, drinking a lot of water, had reduced appetite, and experienced intermittent vomiting. Once a friend wasn't able to recognize her child, she called the pediatrician ASAP. The pediatrician ran a bunch of tests and sent them immediately to the hospital where he was found to be in diabetic ketoacidosis. Treatment has included insulin, initially being injections and later using the pump. He also has a service dog that will sense when his blood sugar is low.   Her daughter started to experience pain starting at age 6. She took her daughter to a pediatric rheumatologist, where she was diagnosed with psoriatic juvenile arthritis. She was later diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis. She has tried numerous medications for her conditions, but thus far, nothing has really worked. She is currently doing infusions once a month.   Challenges have included learning how to help a child who has a potentially life-threatening condition, learning to recognize and treat patterns, helping her child have a normal childhood and learn to manage his diabetes, finding ways to make it safe for her son to go out with friends, maintaining a romantic relationship, and having  limitations on travel. She has advocated for her children by teaching them their rights, helping  him learn how to advocate for himself at school, and finding less expensive ways to get medications for her children. She copes by prayer, allows herself to feel her emotions, knowing that her children can still live a good life, using social support, and removing toxic people from her life.   She recommends starting earlier with helping your children learn to advocate for themselves, helping them be informed about their healthcare, telling them to shop around for prices for supplies and insurance, and knowing  your child's rights. Instagram Facebook Website T1D Mod Squad Facebook Group Kids Get Arthritis Too     Links: Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 97: Raising a Child With Marfan Syndrome With Guest Allison Pullins Episode 29: Raising a Child With Marfan Syndrome With Guest Allison Pullins In this episode, Allison Pullins discusses her experience raising a child with Marfan Syndrome. James was diagnosed with this connective tissue disorder when he was 2 years old. He experiences an aortic aneurysm, is very nearsighted, has dislocated lenses in his eyes, and low muscle tone. The first signs of something different was asymmetry in James' eyes. Things were fine at the first eye doctor appointment, but 6 months later, his vision prescription was drastically different. He needed glasses by age 1. Around age  2, he was found to have lens dislocation in his eyes. He then  underwent an echocardiogram, which found an aortic aneurysm. It was recommended that he undergo genetic testing, which quickly found Marfan syndrome. When Allison got the diagnosis, she went through a year-long grief process, where she had difficulty coping. She still functioned, but emotionally, she was having difficulty. To cope now, she engages in a lot of self-care. She exercises, meditates, eats healthfully, and makes sure to stay in the  present. She also moved closer to Buddhism, found a community, found her higher purpose,and  strengthened her relationships. She has found that being in the moment has made her a better person and parent. She discusses her fears and concerns for her son and discusses her son's understanding of the condition. She discusses the lack of advancement of treatment for the condition. His condition is relatively stable currently. Treatments are limited for Marfan Syndrome  but James has used losartan and a beta blocker. The family is choosing to move to be closer to family in order to advocate for James and to use their social support. She found a lot of social support and relies heavily on the Marfan Foundation. Going to conferences really helped her meet people. When raising a child with special needs, consider your child's needs, get to know your child, listen to your child, and make the best decisions you can. Allison  discussed the sibling challenges of special needs.     Strengths Finder Test Marfan Foundation Children's Program     Links: Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 96: Alternative Childcare Solutions With Guest Shannon Parola In this episode, guest Shannon Parola discusses alternative child care options for families with special needs children. During COVID-times, child care has been very tough to find, and often not safe. Shannon discusses that there are numerous options for care for children, including Nannies, au pairs, nanny pods, nanny shares, family, friends, in-home daycare, daycare, and family babysitting shares. Some people moved closer to family to have extra help. If you can't afford full-time care, hire someone to help give you respite for an hour or two. Write down a list of possible options for your family. Ask family and friends for suggestions. Take your time to find the right fit; don't just hire anyone who comes through the door. Listen to your gut. Find a nanny that will do what you ask of them. If you use an agency, read through the fine print to know what the terms are. Go to colleges and inquire about students who are studying to be therapist. Post a listing for care there. Post on LinkedIn to see if someone is interested in the job. Look in your local Facebook mom's groups for daycare center recommendations. Consider splitting care with another family who has a child with the same needs. Get a letter of recommendations from your recent nanny that you can offer to future nannies. Look into medical caregiving through your insurance. Look for inexpensive memberships for childcare through your job. Build your village. Once you have found your person, use a communication notebook on a daily basis to help.   Instagram Website     Links: Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 95: Dawn Veselka's Story of Raising a Child With Mixed Connective Tissue Disease In this episode, guest Dawn Veselka discusses her experience raising a daughter with a mixed connective tissue disorder. Her mix is juvenile arthritis, scleroderma, Raynaud's and dermatomyositis. Sadie's triggers are exposure to viruses, sunlight, and certain foods. They determined her triggers through trial and error. Her daughter, Sadie, started showing signs of her condition at 18 months. She started showing trunk rashes, stopped being able to walk, not eating much due to jaw pain, wouldn't hold a spoon or pencil, and  ate with her fingers. Dawn tried to find a diagnosis for her, but the doctors didn't think she needed to get testing for Sadie. Eventually, she couldn't move or get off the floor. She was told that she was just a worried first time mom, was told that she was putting her child through horrible tests for herself and not her child. She had to research things on the internet to find a proper doctor, and then Sadie was properly tested to find her actual diagnoses. Dawn recommends listening to your parenting instincts.   To help Sadie, they tried a lot of different treatments, including medications, shots, IVIG, infusions, anti-inflammatory diets, chiropractic, and acupuncture. It took a lot of time and treatments for Sadie to be able to be more independent with activities, physically. Due to discrimination from others, Dawn and Sadie decided to do homeschooling, which has worked very well for Sadie. Dawn heard so many stories of teacher's discrimination against children with chronic illnesses. Sadie did a lot of co-ops to help with school. Although Dawn  didn't want Sadie to have to use a wheelchair, Sadie greatly increased her independence and abilities when using a wheelchair, so she started using one.   Dawn recommends making family a priority. Sadie prioritizes her energy and plans in down time or recovery time for afterward. Dawn has advocated for Sadie by standing up for her, getting involved in foundations, teaching Sadie to follow her internal voice, and giving  up expectations others put on her. Sadie has found kind and empathetic friends who are really compassionate. Dawn  taught Sadie how to stand up for herself. They use video chats to help Sadie be social when she doesn't feel well enough to get together in person. Sadie is finally in a place where her condition is very stable.   Dawn uses social supports by talking with other medical moms and  running a charity. To advocate for yourself, never give up, and don't search for advice from people who haven't been through it because they won't understand.   Chronic Warriors Collective 1 Chronic Warriors Collective 2 Body Check Journal LinkedIn Instagram Dawn Instagram Chronic Warriors Collective   Links:   Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 94: Building Independence in Your Children With Special Needs With Dr. Sarah Allen In this episode, we discuss developing and promoting independent skill building in children with special needs. Guest Dr. Sarah Levin Allen, AKA The Brain Gal, discusses ways to minimize anxiety in children with autism. She also provides tips for how to help kids cope with changes within the family. For independence, remember to teach the skill. Don't just rely on sticker charts. Things don't always come as naturally to children with special needs. Break down the parts to the skills and help the kids to understand what they are doing. Use reflective questioning. She discusses areas to work on the most and ways to get around challenges. She discusses ways to build self-advocacy in young children. We converse about aiding children in coping with divorce and explaining dating and blending families to children with special needs.   Raising Brains : Mindful Meddling to Raise Successful, Happy, Connected Kids  LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Private Mom group Website     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 93: Raising a Micropreemie With Autism With Guest Melissa Harris In this episode, we discuss a mother's experience raising a micropreemie. Melissa Harris has two children, one of whom was born at 24 weeks gestation. She found that she had a bincorniate uterus, and had to undergo several surgeries to fix the problem. While trying to become pregnant with her second, she experienced several miscarriages. She underwent several IUI's to become pregnant. She had frequent hormone shots to keep the pregnancy going. If there was any hint of a problem, she was placed on strict bed rest for 3 days. She was diagnosed with an “incompetent cervix” which was thought to be the cause of her son being born early. When she went into early labor, she was taken to the hospital, where she had to lay completely still until her son was born. She had to be tipped back 30 degrees as well. They found that the sac had already started to come out and she was contracting frequently. She was given magnesium to stop the contractions. She held on for 6 days before her son was finally born. She had little to do during that time, and passed the time by having visitors and watching shows. She felt very sick with migraines and from the magnesium. Due to her son being a micropreemie, she had to undergo a c-section to have her son. After her son was born, he was taken right to the NICU, where he stayed for 95 days. He required oxygen, two surgeries, had a lot of apneas and bradycardia, his kidneys stopped working, and was found to have retinopathy. Otherwise, he had a relatively calm NICU stay. He had respiratory therapy and occupational therapy for head shape and head positioning. She had numerous complications herself during the first month, including a bad uterine infection. During the NICU stay, she hyperfocused on making sure that everything was ok and she didn't give herself time to process and cope. She struggled to balance care for her daughter and her son. The surgeries were overwhelming for Melissa to deal with. Once her son arrived home, the family was not allowed to leave their house for 6 months. She had to quit her job because they wanted her to come back to work and she was not allowed to leave the house. When her son was 2 years old, he was diagnosed with autism. He was diagnosed quickly and tried lots of different types of therapy. She copes with the busyness of life by writing. One Pound Twelve Ounces   Website Facebook Instagram Twitter Preemie primer book Autism Self Advocacy Network Twitter Link     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 92: Sensory Processing Disorder With Guest Candice Curtis In this episode, we discuss sensory processing disorder, meltdowns, and making it all work. Guest Candice Curtis’s, OT, oldest son is autistic. Throughout her training, she began to gravitate toward occupational therapy and sensory processing disorder. There are 8 different sensory systems. Our brains have to organize all of the sensory inputs, decide if it is important or not important, and make all of it available for us to use when we are trying to do different activities and tasks. A disorder happens when our brain can’t do that effectively or easily and it impacts one’s ability to be able to participate in activities. Try to see things through the mind of your child. This will help you figure out what to do to help your child. Her biggest recommendation for sensory strategies is to get your children outside in nature more often. Nature has a huge regulating quality, as it is slower and calmer. Set up a playroom or play areas in your house. Ideas for it include a beanbag chair, swing, trampoline, rocking chair, weighted blankets, and/or lycra blankets. Take your child’s lead to play. Slow down and take your time. Play with them and interact with them. Join in with whatever they are doing. Use rhythmic vestibular activities. During COVID, Candice decided to homeschool her children. She needed to get better at self-care, step back, give herself grace, meal plan, delegate where she could, omit tasks when she could, give herself more credit for all the tasks that she did, think about progress over perfection, write down her routines and do what she was also ready doing but in a different way to make things more efficient, use music and headphones for her son, start her son’s day with sensory strategies, listen to meditations at night, use sensory strategies right before bed, schedule some time buffers into her time, and schedule time in just to sit and exist with her children. For self-care, she recommends shifting your perspective, examining your self-talk, creating a joy list, making an effort to make joy moments part of your every day, paying attention to self-talk, joining book clubs, planning out your week ahead and blocking everything out, and figuring out what to prioritize or simplify. A meltdown occurs when the child is way too overwhelmed. Practice strategies with the child when they are calm, so they have the skills when they need them. Be proactive and use sensory strategies with the child throughout the day. Keep in mind that they are reacting to stress and they can’t help it. It is your job is to keep them calm, find out what could have caused the meltdown, and figure out how to help them through it. Instagram Website Facebook The Autism and Sensory Parenting Podcast Sensory Integration and The Child Balanced and Barefoot     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 91: The Science Of Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, The Joy of Living, and Positive Psychology, With Guest Dr. Rabia Subhani Today, we discuss mindfulness, self-compassion, the joy of living, and positive psychology. Guest Dr. Rabia Subhani trained and worked as a pediatric neuropsychologist. However, after she had a child with autism, she found a different path and started working in the area of mindfulness. She found that when she changed her reactions and used mindfulness practices herself, her son’s behaviors changed. Mindfulness is bringing your attention to the present moment with a loving, nonjudgmental awareness. Mindfulness is helpful for neurodiverse children, as it can help with sensory overload, overwhelm, emotional overwhelm, improving focus, calming down, emotional regulation, reducing stress, coming back to the present moment, and managing anxiety. If you help the child practice regularly, then it becomes routine for the child to use these strategies when stressed. Mindfulness can make changes in the brain to help depression, chronic pain, anxiety, memory, monkey mind, and attention/concentration. Mindfulness can help children and parents. Mindfulness can be used at school when the child is stressed, without anyone else seeing or knowing what the child is doing. Strategies include mindful eating or drinking, breathing exercises (including using an expanding and collapsing sphere to demonstrate the breath), 5-5-5 breathing, using cues to remind the child to take deep breaths, sitting meditation, bring attention back to their breath, the raisin exercise, brush teeth or shower mindfully, mindful movements (such as yoga), and modeling mindfulness behaviors for your children. Try to build these practices into a routine. Start off small. Self-compassion is giving yourself the same level of caring and compassion that you would give to someone else, with the intention and motivation to alleviate your suffering. Think about how you would treat someone else in your situation. Treat yourself like you would treat your best friend. If you don’t replenish, it leads to overwhelm and stress. Without self-compassion, it leads to shame, depression, anxiety, overwhelmed, and poor self-image. With more self-compassion, people engage in more exercise, eating well, going to the doctor, and have more optimism, life satisfaction, happiness, and better physical health. Parents can gain self-compassion by soothing touch (giving yourself a hug), doing things that make you feel better (warm bath, massage, drinking a cup of tea, going out in nature), self-compassion meditation, and a self-compassion break (have mindfulness that this is a moment of suffering, shared humanity vs isolation, and self-kindness). The joy of living is about choosing to live each moment with love, joy and gratitude and finding that joy. You are constantly finding new ways to get excited and everything makes you happy. You are consciously living to be optimistic. D what feels aligned with your heart, soul, and mind. Do what feels good to you. Positive psychology can increase joy of living, including savoring and gratitude. Savoring is noticing and appreciating the positive things in life, and letting them linger, the mindful experience of pleasure. Gratitude is recognizing, acknowledging, and being grateful for the good things in life.   Website Giveaway Quiz Facebook Instagram Linkedin Via Institute on Character The Mindful Self-Compassion Program Self-Compassion Resources Self-Compassion Meditations 1 Self-Compassion Meditations 2 Guided Meditations The Spoonie Struggle Website       Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 90: Successfully Navigating College With Autism, Part 3 To help with the transition to college, work on independence at home, bit by bit, select the goal with the student and start with the easiest one, rather than the hardest or most importance, then build up from there. Incorporate a reward system into the mix. It is helpful to help the child gain independence in communication with the teacher and have the student ask for the help and supports, especially starting in high school. Same thing with doctor appointments. Have the student schedule their own well visit. If they aren’t comfortable with it or can’t do it, work on self-awareness, anxiety, and social skills that are preventing this from happening. Know that in college, writing and written expression are huge. If a student struggles with written expression, college will be difficult. It is helpful to figure out in high school why they might have trouble and to see what can be done to help, if possible. If there is a subject that the student hates, see if there is a way that they can engage as minimally as possible, but in a way that they will get by in the college courses they need to take. Another big issue is the ability to include oneself. Students need to find ways to make themselves part of communities in college. Without socialization, depression can occur. Create or find ways to do this in high school. Practice having conversations and introducing yourself. Keep in mind that once your child is 18, the college does not have to speak with parents unless the student signs a release. Agree as a family beforehand about the level of involvement of the parent in the college education and have the student sign a release right off the bat. Then develop plans to fade out parent involvement and support and empower students to be their own supports over time. This should start in the high school years. Let the student know ahead of time that parents will start to fade out.   When it comes to employment planning, parents often have great ideas to create or carve out jobs for their children. It is helpful to identify career interests and skills that need to be built, in order to help the student be extra prepared for employment after college. Employment doesn’t always go well because the traditional interviewing and hiring process is a poor fit. The interview process is heavy on social engagement, social nuances, fast rapport building and social communication, navigating small talk and chit chat, and navigating questions about strength and weaknesses. Experience-based/task-based interviews are a better fit. Other things to help with job-finding include finding a career mentor, making sure the students accrue some sort of vocational experience in high school and college, finding jobs that give students an opportunity to practice basic work skills to start off, have them use their school career center to identify opportunities, and connect to vocational rehabilitation services.     Links: Emory Autism Center Education and Transition Services The College Autism Network NASPA  College Autism Summit College Autism Spectrum Frist Center For Autism and Innovation at Vanderbilt     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 89: Successfully Navigating College With Autism, Part 2 In this episode, we continue our discussion of  everything college for teens and young adults with autism. Guest Dr. Matt Segall discusses how to decide on the type of college that is right for the teen with autism. When deciding on the type of college to choose, pay the most attention to social maturity of the teen, executive functioning challenges and independence in using strategies to support academics, self-advocacy ability, and the reason for going to college. If a teen has difficult with these, a 4 year college, at least to start, may not be the best choice, or taking a slow approach to school may be beneficial. For these individuals, Dr. Segall recommends a 2 year Associate’s degree option, perhaps transitioning into a 4 year college afterward. For those who are a hands-on or an experiential learner, technical school might be a great option. It can be helpful to start specializing in that area in the high school years as well. The likelihood of those who go to a technical school getting a job after college is much much higher than those who go the traditional college route. Online learning is best for someone who is overwhelmed by learning in person, but has a strong skillset of independent learning and self-management and executive functioning. Make sure to match the educational setting to the person’s life goals.   The four pillars of important support in college include care coordination, skill building, within campus inclusion and capacity building, and vocational development. When looking to see if the school is a good fit for your child, consider the living situation, and examine the distance from home, the requirements to live on campus, classroom size, student support systems, academic coaching, mental health support, care coordination/case management, assistance with skill building, mentors, assistance with executive functioning, independent living skills, and the community of students. When looking for a college, reach out to the autism support networks there and meet with them, get a sense of how the student will register with the office of disabilities, inquire about autism supports on campus, look at academic rigor of the school, think about if the student has nailed down their academic career path, examine the community of students. Don’t start looking into college and doing the aforementioned in the spring right before graduation. Start thinking of these things in the 10th grade year. Think about the level of independence of the student academically, build up independence skills and task management skills, build executive functioning  skills, and engage in person-centered planning to help them identify what they want in a community.   Links: Emory Autism Center Education and Transition Services The Parent’s Guide to College for Students on the Autism Spectrum The College Autism Network NASPA College Autism Summit Eric W. Carter     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 88: Successfully Navigating College With Autism, Part 1 In this episode, we discuss everything college for teens and young adults with autism. Guest Dr. Matt Segall discusses that nowadays, many teens with autism are going to college. However, a low number of them graduates. Those who do graduate tend to have a higher academic ability, good executive functioning skills in the areas of self-management and completing and turning in work, resilience, and the creation of a support team around the individual. In those who do not graduate, often college was not a good choice of postsecondary education or it was the wrong college for them. Choosing to go to college must be an active choice. Passively going to college without reason or supports can lead to anxiety, depression, and shutting down.   Some challenges to success in college include reduced executive functioning, difficulty with social engagement, anxiety, and developmental delays. In college, you need an active and engaged initiation where you use self-advocacy to obtain a support system and accommodations you might need. Creating a strong social network with supports is crucial to success in college. Dr. Segall recommends ways to be more successful in college including accommodations, strong self-advocacy, strong social support network, possibly staying in high school longer, taking the “slow approach” to higher education, and/or dual enrollment in high school and college during the 5th year of high school. It can be helpful for the teen to practice going to their professor/teacher and disclosing their diagnosis and requesting accommodations. They should also practice using office hours, checking in with the professor occasionally, using peer mentors, and using visual schedules and visual supports. It is helpful to pull on self-advocacy and teach the teen helpful strategies, so supports will eventually be successfully faded out. Self-advocacy is key. Self-advocacy is about autonomy of choice and reaching out to get the things you need. In college, the teen can go to the career center to find information about resources, careers or internships, ask for accommodations at the college, speak up for themselves in small groups academic projects, and reach out to the counseling center and request an appointment. Meet with the office of disability services at the school about accommodations. Disclosure and advocacy can be two different things. Disclosure can be a powerful tool that one can use at your disposal. The ideal college situation is an inclusive college campus where they understand the universal design for learning, educate faculty staff and students about autism, and the faculty reaches out to the students if they notice someone has features of autism. There are 100 colleges nation-wide who have college autism support programs. The provide academic accommodation supports, academic coaching, skill building and teaching skills, care coordination, tutoring, mentoring, life skills building, and preparation for employment. However, these come at a higher monetary cost.   Start planning for college in 8th or 9th grade. Think about what accommodations that are benefitting the student at that point that will be helpful in a college environment, and make sure the student is aware of what those things are. Include the student in the IEP process. Fade out what you can when you can. As they approach graduation, get a new psychoeducational evaluation and include the relevant tools, resources, accommodations, modifications. Use this as documentation of needs for the office of disabilities at the college.           Links: Emory Autism Center Education and Transition Services The College Autism Network     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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 87: All Things Physical Therapy With Guest Lucia Montuonto In this episode, guest Lucia Matuonto discusses physiotherapy! Physical therapists (PTs) work in rehabilitation and accident prevention. Their goal is to improve the patient’s quality of life. A child needs a PT when there are developmental delays, the child is not meeting milestones, or when there are birth defects, cerebral palsy, accidents, spinal cord problems, spina bifida, hypotonia, down syndrome, ataxias, dystonia, and peripheral nerve issues, as well as many others. If there is a difference with your child, PT might be useful. Parents should bring their child to a PT as soon as they see that the child is having a developmental delay or struggling to reach a physical milestone. The sooner they begin, the better the chance that the child can recover completely. They use joint mobilization, strengthening, stretching, gait and vestibular training, ultrasound, and using other devices to help the children. They educate patients to prevent falls, fit them for wheelchairs, and provide orthotics training. PTs use tools and methods to help with balance, coordination, fine and gross motor, and wheelchair trainings. They can use methods like the Swiss ball, weight training, Pediasuit, and “monkey cage.”   To help engage the children, Lucia started telling the children stories. This led to her writing and publishing her stories. Reading stories about children or animals with special needs can help teach children, lead to compassion, and help with inclusion. Links: Website Book Website Instagram The Relatable Voice Podcast Uncut Zoe The Crab LA Tribune Article Interview 1 Interview 2 Interview 3 Interview 4 Interview 5 Interview 6 Interview 7 NLP YouTube Page Author Page     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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  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 86: Fostering and Adoption Journeys With Children With Special Needs With Guest Daniel Hall In this episode, Daniel Hall discusses adoption and special needs. He and his wife have 5 children with special needs of varying degrees. Conditions ranged from Autism, drug exposure, Fetal Alcohol Symptoms, slowed processing speed, Reactive Attachment Disorder, developmental delays, PTSD, and possible Dissociative Identity Disorder. Daniel himself was in foster care as a young child, and was later adopted by the Hall family. His foster car experiences were abusive and traumatic prior to being adopted by the Hall family. After adopting children (5 at a time), he was asked to be a trainer for parents who would like to foster or adopt children. He learned a lot by adopting his children. At first, it was hard to reach some of them. Over time, he learned about their traumas, how to reach them, and the best ways to interact with them and reach them. Before you decide to foster or adopt, know your limits and get a good sense of what you will be like as a parent. Realize that you will have to learn about their trauma, learn about trauma in general, and help the children self-regulate. Be prepared for friendships to change. Surround yourself with people who understand. Listen to your children. Show interest in what your children are doing. Advocate for them. Look into foster parent associations to gain additional useful social support.   Links: Website LinkedIn   Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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  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 85: Infant Feeding Challenges With Guest Mallory Millet  In this episode, Mallory Millet discusses feeding difficulties in infants and young children. Her three children experienced their own feeding difficulties, including difficulty nursing and reflux. She shared their stories. She noted that both speech therapists and occupational therapists (and occasionally physical therapists) can be feeding therapists, with the right training. They can assist with bottle feeding, breastfeeding, or both. If the parent feels like anything is wrong during feeding, it is beneficial to seek a specialist. If there is clicking, reflux, gas, loss of milk out of the mouth, popping on and off of the breast, coughing, or choking on liquids, it would be useful to seek an assessment. Some conditions are more likely to require feeding therapy, including cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, congenital heart disease, low tone babies, cleft palate, and cleft lip. The most common feeding issues are reflux, dysphasia, aspiration of food, and tongue tie. The earlier things are addressed, the better. A big sign to look for is open mouth posture. To evaluate the children, a therapist will take a good history, learn about the feeding journey up to that point, will evaluate the mouth, and watch the baby feed. Feeding therapy is baby dependent, but should be pushing baby to do more, releasing tension in the baby’s mouths, education for parents of what to do at home, teaching the baby oral play, and teaching the parent how to interact during feeding time. To help their babies, parents should get in the baby’s mouth, encourage oral play, and let baby stretch and open their neck. To help make mealtime more pleasant for mom and baby, relax during feeding time. With toddlers, don’t be afraid to push for them to try different foods, allow them to work through gagging (as long as they aren’t choking), don’t fight with them if they say no, offer preferred foods at each meal, offer one nonpreferred food at each meal, limit the amount of food on their plate, don’t make food a battle, and set up expectations early. To find a good feeding therapist, find someone who specializes in feeding therapy, ask why they do each activity and ask what the goals will be for feeding therapists.   Links: Website Instagram The Infant Oral Play Guide     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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  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 84: Divorce and Special Needs Children With Guest Jackie Harounian In this episode, we discuss divorce while having children with special needs. Guest Jacqueline Harounian, Esq, has found that her field has become very busy during COVID, with an increase in fighting, domestic violence, mental health issues, and substance abuse leading to divorce. A lot depends on the couple, how well they communicate, and whether they are willing to see eye to eye on a lot of issues affecting special needs children. To avoid divorce, keep the lines of communication. More divorced families are using joint custody. The better the attitude of the family, the easier the divorce will be on the children. When one is divorcing and has children, it is important that parents agree on where the children live and how they will be supported. The goal for divorce should be to avoid court, for the two parents to reach an agreement without a judge. It is best if parents work out their own schedule based on the needs of the child, replicate the schedule that was going on before the divorce, and see which parent is available when and what they are able to do or help with. If parents cannot do it themselves, it would be beneficial to sit down together with a coach, mediatory, or lawyer. Cases that go to trial are very costly. For a divorce where children have special needs, sometimes one parent disagrees with the diagnosis or treatment, doesn’t think that a medication or treatment is necessary, parents disagree on vaccines, or there is a major issue and the parties don’t agree and one parent doesn’t agree with the doctor or medical advice. Joint custody occurs when the parents equally split the time and resources with the children. It requires that the parents communicate well, get along well, and live in the same school district. Because everything is equal, no one pays child support.   Everyone reacts to divorce differently, impacted by the interactions and relationships of the parents, unresolved anger, and the desire to blame and shame one another. Counseling is beneficial for couples. For those with children with special needs, there is the added concern of finances, so compromising and budgeting in important. To manage financial hardship, get bank statements and tax returns in order, get your finances in order, get paystubs, create a budget, start to have conversations with your co-parent about the timeline, and discuss what you are going to do with your assets. To make the divorce process easier on the parents, ask for help, reach out to family and friends, ask for breaks, try new things in your life, try to have a team approach with your team, try to be united in how your raise your child, practice forgiveness, maintain a positive attitude, maintain consistency, and improve communication with your co-parent. To best explain divorce to children with special needs, do the announcement with your partner, in a non-emotional way, and at a time where the children have time to ask questions and have a chance to react, don’t make the announcement too early, and don’t tell them more than they need to know. Consider making the announcement on the weekend so the child has time to adjust to the information. The impact of divorce on the child is dependent on the child and the age of the child. Consider conferring with your child’s therapist before making the announcement. Be mindful of their schedules and routines and minimize disruptions and changes in routines. Account for the child’s own stressors and preferences. With children with special needs, it is even more important to keep everything consistent. Consider psychotherapy for the children. Keep in mind, it is not about winning, it is about moving forward. Parents can help their children cope by not fighting in front of them, not discussing financials in front of the child, not letting others talk negatively about the situation, not disagreeing in front of them, trying to reach an agreement on custody as soon as possible, and not focusing on the financials first. Easier and less expensive ways to divorce include using a mediator or doing collaborative law.   Links: Website Linkedin Facebook Divorce Reality Check Book     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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    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 83: Momming With Autism With Guest Alicia Trautwein In this episode, we discuss raising children with special needs and different diagnoses. Alicia Trautwein has 4 children, 3 of whom are autistic. Alicia was diagnosed with autism at age 33, after her children were formally diagnosed. She knew that something was different about herself but doctors provided her with numerous incorrect diagnoses. However, for 3 years prior to her official diagnosis, she started to suspect that she had autism, due to similarities between her and her children. She found it very challenging to find someone to assess and evaluate her for autism. Her brother was also diagnosed with autism, but Alicia was an adult by the time he was diagnosed. Regarding parent, she learned from her brother to take things with a grain of salt. Benefits of having autism and raising children who have autism is understanding where they are coming from and understanding what they don’t quite understand, seeing and comprehending the bigger picture of what is happening with her children, figuring out her children’s triggers, knowing how to balance everyone’ sensory needs, figuring out how to navigate everyone’s general needs, seeing things from a different perspective, celebrating the small things, and slowing down. To parent children with special needs, she recommends developing and establishing routines, having predictable routines, reducing unnecessary surprises, using visual schedules, blaming the schedule rather than yourself, and giving transition warnings. For resources, she recommends using tiktok for educational information about diagnoses and support, using fidget toys, and using social stories.   She knew her son had a special need upon his birth as he did not make eye contact and lost all language at age 19 months, and then she got him involved with early intervention. He had his autism evaluation and received his diagnosis at 2 years old. He immediately started speech therapy. Her daughter was always advanced in her milestones, but Alicia still knew that something was going on. Her daughter was misdiagnosed for a long time. Her other daughter had speech delays and went through speech therapy as a young child. After her son was diagnosed, her daughters were both diagnosed. It was at the appointment when her oldest daughter with autism was diagnosed that the doctor brought up to Alicia that she might be autistic. Her older children got involved with Horse therapy and psychotherapy.   To bolster relationships, communication is key. Ask for breaks, rely on your social support, take advantage of help, and use respite care. To manage everything, only book what needs to be scheduled, space things out, don’t overschedule, focus on what works best, use a family/shared calendar, put everything in the calendar, have older kids help out if they can, consider also keeping a paper calendar, and put things on the calendar as soon as they are scheduled. Links: Website Instagram Facebook Twitter Tiktok   Pop it Teachers pay teachers     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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    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

Bonus Episode: Special Needs Superheros with Guest John Besold In this episode, we discuss special needs superheros. Guest John Besold always believed in helping others, but when he experienced polymyosistis in 1999, his eyes were opened to the special needs world, during his several weeks hospital stay. His experience inspired him to write SPARQE. He decided to write a book where kids had special abilities rather than special needs. This book is best for kids ages 10-15, but can be useful for adults as well.   Links Email Facebook Book Website Netflix show     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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    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 82: Adoption Of Special Needs Children with Guest Dr. John Cranham In this episode, Dr. John Cranham discuss adoption of special needs children. His son Cornell was born at 23 weeks. He spent the first 6 months of his life on a ventilator and trached before moving to a transitional unit. John’s wife initially worked with Cornell in the hospital as his therapist, and then decided that they should take him home as a foster child. They thought about it for a while, and then decided to move forward with it. They went through 2 months of training. Cornell initially required, PT, OT, speech, PEG tube, trach, and nursing care. When he was around 2, the ENT found that the tissue around the trach site was closed off and air wasn’t getting to his vocal cords. He then required surgery, which did not go well, leading to him stopping breathing frequently. It took another year to take the trach out and do the next surgery. At age 11, he was having difficulty breathing again and found that the trachea area hadn’t grown, and he needed surgery to fix it. John couldn’t meet Cornell until he was approved to be a foster parent when Cornell was more than 1 year old. Even though it was incredibly challenging, he found a lot of joy in going to see him. He had to do an overnight stay with Cornell in the hospital, which John found frightening at first. For a while, John had a lot of doubts. Over time, Cornell began to really feel like theirs. They experienced joy, fear, sadness, loss of your life. John and his wife decided to adopt Cornell after his 2nd birthday, he went into respiratory distress, they didn’t think Cornell was going to make it, John started reflecting on his own resilience, he thought Cornell was going to pass away, and then a few seconds later, Cornell started fighting even harder. Then John decided that if Cornell could fight that hard, John was willing to fight for him. Early after the adoption, they went to see a psychologist, who told them that it was important to tell Cornell about the adoption before age 5. Creating an IEP for him was challenging. Educationally, they had such a bad time moving him from Kindergarten to first grade that they took him out of public school. After attending a special school through 6th grade, he went back to the public school. There, he attended some inclusion classes and some special education classes. Socially, Cornell was in an unusual place because he didn’t fit in with mainstream or special education children, so he didn’t have a lot of friends growing up. Nowadays, he has a larger social group through his religious organization. For the transition to adulthood, Cornell had difficulty coping because his younger sister was able to go off to college and he wasn’t. However, he was able to attend a rehab facility which had some similarities to college, and Cornell really enjoyed it. To learn to drive, Cornell practiced with simulators, and persisted with trying to take the written test. He currently still lives at home, but does laundry, cooks dinner for the family twice per week, and is working on getting ready to go out and live on his own. John coped by working at work really hard, using nursing care, respite care. Themes in the book include not comparing himself to others (comparison is the enemy of contentment), persistence, perseverance, purpose and passion, and embracing your obstacles as your biggest gifts.   Links: Instagram The Cornell Effect: A Family's Journey towards Happiness, Fulfillment and Peace       Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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    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 81: All About Dyslexia With Guest Lizzie Shearing Today, we discuss all things dyslexia. Guest Lizzie Shearing discusses that dyslexia is a reading learning disability. Individuals process written words differently in their brain, such that they rely on the left frontal lobe, rather than more on the left posterior areas of their brain. They show inefficient patterns of brain activity. Dyslexia occurs in 1 in 10 people. Symptoms include difficulty with reading, reluctance to read out loud or to read at all, reading being slow, reading fluency being slow, reduced awareness of patterns of words, spelling difficulty, and difficulty remembering words (working memory and phonological memory). Symptoms parents can look out for include difficulty following multistep directions, poor working memory, a delayed ability to read, misreading words, guessing words and rushing through, spelling difficulty, event sequencing difficulty, labored reading, and choosing not to read. Educational psychologists and dyslexia specialists can make the diagnosis. It cannot be a pediatrician who diagnoses. To make the diagnosis, they assess working memory, handwriting, reading fluency, spelling, and IQ. They also need to rule out visual difficulties, including Irlen syndrome, as well as hearing impairments. The earlier a child is diagnosed, the better things are for them, including emotionally. The earlier a child enters treatment for dyslexia and the more treatment they get, the better the outcome. Treatments include going back to the beginning and making sure the child has grasped and mastered all the skills that they have been previously taught, a cumulative structured phonics program, filling in all the gaps, inference learning, trying to visualize scenes, and support with reading fluency. If children don’t get treatment, they tend to experience anxiety. Regarding school, accommodations can be helpful, including differentiated teaching across lessons, list of spelling for key vocabulary, writing frame provided for the student, use of voice to text, use of bullet points rather than writing essays, extra time on tests, prompting, and rest breaks. Other helpful tools are quizlet/flashcards. Tech accommodations include immersive readers and dictation. To help their kids, parents can encourage reading in any form, use audiobooks and read along with it, obtain specialist support for your child, make sure the specialist has a good relationship with your child, use google books, and use audiobooks from the library. To emotionally support children with dyslexia, help your child develop a growth mindset, help promote resilience, and help your child find a hobby they love. Links: Linked in Dyslexia Buddies SEN Buddy Irlen syndrome Orton Gillingham Quizlet.com Barrington Stoke Carol Dweck: Growth Mindset Simple Habit App     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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    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 80: LGBTQ In the Autism Community With Guest Danielle Sullivan In this episode, Danielle Sullivan discusses the gender and sexuality spectrum in the autism community. LGBTQ is very common in the autism community. There is also a high number of individuals who are autistic in the LGBTQ community. Individuals in the LGBTQ community have a higher likelihood of depression, anxiety, and suicidality as are individuals who are autistic. Therefore, support is really important. Start talking to your children about gender early. Start talking with young children about pronouns and demonstrate use of pronouns respectfully in daily life. Identify people you don’t know with “they.” Show that you get to decide your own gender and pronouns. Use the pronouns people ask you to use for them. Talk about how different bodies are different. Read books to the kids about conception and birth that are not gendered. Let them know that just because a body looks a certain way, we can’t assume that we know the status of the body’s reproductive organs. Read diverse books and watch diverse TV. Remember, you will not hurt your child by talking to them about sex. The more familiar they are with their body, the less likely they will experience sexual assault. Sex education is important. Start it at home at an age appropriate level. Don’t depend on school sex ed. To support your child in coming out, know your location (state/country) and if it safe. Show your child that you know they are valid and you see them and you know them and one day it will be safe to come out. If your child is one of the first trans kids in their school to come out, consider going into the school and talking to the teacher and principal ahead of time to tell them about their pronouns and answer any questions they have. Provide them with a list of commonly asked questions and ways they can answer them, if other children have questions. Consider doing an informative presentation with your child in their class. Find support groups online. Find LGBTQ friends for your children. In her experience, most kids disclose easily to their friends, with relatively little difficulty. Talk with your child that fitting in may not be the goals, but rather being your authentic self may be their goal. Children may even already have a friend who has come out. For younger kids, just reassure them that they are loved and supported. A friend will be your friend regardless of what you are dressed in or wearing makeup and if not, they are bad friends. A friend supports you and is there for you.   For coming out to family, the child’s joy and wellbeing may be more important to you than what family members think, or their opinions. Family are grownups and are responsible for themselves. You are the parent and are responsible for your child’s wellbeing. It is your job as a parent to support your child.  If a child’s gender and sexuality are not being authenticated, suicide rates rise. It is your job as a parent to inform your child that there is nothing wrong with them. They are celebrated for who they are. Anyone who has a problem with that, is the problem.   To support your children, listen to them. Get them in groups with other autistic peers and/or support or friends group with other LGBTQ children. Local autism society chapters often have peer social groups for children and teens. Ask other parents where they are getting their support. Consider therapists for autistic LBGTQ support.   To reduce transphobia and homophobia in the community, try to get the school library to have LGBTQ resources in it, see if the school can celebrate LGBTQ holidays. Ensure that the school is offering disciplinary behavior to exclusionary or discriminatory teachers. Get support from other parents and group up to make your voices heard. As far as therapists, they are supposed to be supporting your child. If they are homophobic, they are actively harming your child. It is helpful to decide if the therapy they are doing is worth the damage there are doing to your child.   Website Instagram Facebook Twitter Pinterest   Books: Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love What Makes A Baby by Cory Silverberg I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings It Feels Good To Be Yourself By Teresa Thorn and Nicke Grigni   Podcast Episodes One Bad Mother Episode 383 One Bad Mother Episode 385 One Bad Mother Episode 388     Organization for Autism Research   Sex Ed for Self Advocates Autistic Women and Nonbinary network Trans Autistic Healthcare guide The Autistic Self Advocacy Network Guide to Holding Inclusive Events   Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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    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 79: Living With Autism While Parenting Special Needs Kids With Guest Danielle Sullivan   In this episode, we discuss inclusivity, organizational tools for special needs parents, and living as a parent with autism. Guest Danielle Sullivan discusses that all places should be as accessible and inclusive as possible, even for invisible disabilities. The world needs to consider light, noise, and visual clutter as well as physical disabilities. Listen to others when they suggest ways to be more inclusive. Awareness is key. Acknowledge and expect that people will behave differently. Model acceptance of different kinds of behaviors. Remember, differences are not harmful, they are just differences. Consider doing presentations in your child’s classroom about neurodiversity to assist with open-mindedness for the other children. Get involved in your local education system to see what change you can make toward inclusivity. Advocate for sensory friendly times and activities in your area. Suggest that paces offer sensory friendly bags with headphones and other sensory friendly objects. Clinics that offer autism evaluations could provide more evaluators to ensure it takes less time to get an autism evaluation. Danielle was diagnosed with autism as an adult, as once her oldest child was diagnosed with ASD, as she began to see a lot of herself in him. She experienced depression and anxiety and sensory meltdowns (which she thought were panic attacks). It was helpful for her to find out that she was autistic. As far as having a leg-up on parenting, she feels that she understands her son well, and can figure out why he gets stuck and how to help him through it. She understood him better when he was learning to talk. They both have sensory processing and auditory issues, think in certain similar ways, are sensitive to certain stimuli, and have similar difficulties with social niceties, which helps her to be closer to her son and be able to parent him with more understanding. She finds it helpful to be able to hyperfixate when needed. She finds it helpful to notice what is absolutely necessary and not necessary for interacting with others, prioritizing, and maximizing her use of her energy with her kids, prioritizing their sensory needs. The biggest challenge of having autism and parenting is the amount of noise, touch overwhelm, the effects of sleep deprivation hits her differently, and more difficulty adapting to changes in routine. Coping skills that have helped her include neurodiversity resources, focusing on scheduling, prioritizing basic needs, reducing sensory input, setting up signals to her partner that she needs a break, getting headphones and earplugs for herself, having sensory fidgets, and explaining her triggers to her kids. To help her child with auditory processing disorder, she may touch him or physically guide him to help him follow instructions, touch him on the shoulder, get in his space to make sure he realizes she is there, get closer to him, make sure he sees her mouth, repeat herself as needed, slow down, enunciate, turn off other noise, and make sure he has noticed that she is talking to him. For creating household systems for neurodivergent individuals, she uses a loose routine, smaller routines that she can use at points during the day but are adaptable, breaks things down based on their priority to the family, focuses on what the kids need, builds in breaks, and has helpers like a list of food options, a list for every room she needs to clean, a shared google calendar, communication apps, and lots of lists. These systems can from trial and error and figuring out where she ran into problems the most.   Website Instagram Facebook Twitter Pinterest     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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    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 78: A Blind View With Guest Ashley Wayne In this episode, Ashley Wayne discusses parenting children with special needs through the lens of blindness. Ashley was born blind, as were her two older children. Her son also has cerebral palsy. She was initially worried about how she would be able to parent while blind. However, no one else appeared concerned, so she pressed on. She had done some babysitting in the past, and it hadn’t gone well. However, she found successful ways to parent by trial and error. She found that her children being blind actually made learning to parent easier. She found that her own experience was helpful in teaching her children tips and tricks to make living with blindness easier. To help her she uses braille labels, a braille tablet, Facebook groups and support, taking her time, and a screen reader. She has found it helpful for the kids to use a braille typewriter. She copes by enjoying silence, drinking soda, prayer, social support, and dates with her husband. She recommends taking it one day at a time, letting the children go at their own pace, and reaching out to others.   Facebook: A Blind View by Ashley Wayne Shriners hospital National Federation for the blind Braille bookstore     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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    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 77: Shaping Our Children Through Reading With Guest Sara Bradford In this episode, guest Sara Bradford discusses how children can benefit from reading children’s books about special needs. Her daughter has dyslexia and her older two children, as well as her husband, have autism. She discussed finding out during quarantine that her younger daughter has dyslexia, as school never picked it up. Sara chose to write children’s books about differences to make sure children could see themselves in the books, to explain the conditions they experience, and to provide information to other children. She also found it helpful, since she has physical differences as well, and was bullied for it as a child. She hopes to help discontinue bullying in future generations. Writing her books has inspired her daughter to publish her own book. Her books are written for children in preschool through third grade. Books such as this can help the children to understand their own emotional maturity and the emotional wellbeing of the children with special needs. She would recommend having the teachers read the books to the kids and having them in the class library. Parents can read them as bedtime stories and place them in community libraries.   Website Email address Facebook Twitter Insta Youtube     Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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    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 76: Live Like Sean With Guest TJ Nelligan In this episode, we discuss living like Sean; living your best life. When Sean was young, he was diagnosed with an intellectual disability. Guest TJ Nelligan initially began mourning the child he thought he was going to have. After that, life got busy managing doctor appointments, medications, and therapy appointments. A friend later told him about Special Olympics. TJ and Sean went to check it out and loved it. They and their entire family quickly became involved in the organization.   Through raising Sean, TJ learned lots of lessons. The first was to advocate for your child by heavily researching and visiting schools to find the right fit for your child and then get involved in that school. Will this school meet the needs of your child and maximize their ability through the school’s resources? When an issue arose, TJ never backed down.   Another lesson is be present. Sean always lived in the moment, which made everyone he met feel special and seen. By being present, Sean made lots of friends and enjoyed every moment of his life. It also led him to some really exciting experiences that wouldn’t have occurred had he not lived in the moment. Gratitude is another lesson. Sean only focused on his strengths, which led him to be a grateful person. Tying that with being in the moment, he woke up every day with a great outlook and enjoyed every day. Over time, this led TJ to see Sean’s strengths, rather than deficits. Sean taught TJ to be happy. Find your passion and it will bring you happiness. You can make your own happiness by being in the moment. Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Ignore the destination and work on the journey. To stay in the moment, TJ now focuses only on what he can accomplish that day. Allow your child to inspire you. For TJ, that was in part from the Special Olympics. He found that that organization and unified sports really helped. These led to so much more kindness. TJ found it important to include TJ and everything. Make sure the children have time around their peers and spend time in the community. Help your child find their passion.   Links: Website Linked In Twitter Facebook Instagram Special Olympics Young Athletes Best Buddies       Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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    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 75: Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome With Guests Dr. Thomas Glenn and Tawanna Nishibayashi In this episode, we discuss hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Dr. Thomas Glenn discussed that the condition is a congenital heart disease where the left side of the heart is underdeveloped. Nowadays, a diagnosis is done prenatally, but once kids are born, the diagnosis is confirmed via an echocardiogram. Doctors also test the saturation around the baby’s body before they go home to make sure the baby is ok. If the condition is not diagnosed prenatally, visible symptoms might include blue color to the child, changing breathing pattern, fast breathing, the child having a difficult time breathing, perfusion being different, mottling of extremities, and the child not feeding initially. This is a condition that can only be treated at 10-15 centers around the country, successfully, so it important to catch this condition early. The main treatments are surgery, transplant, or palliative care. The three main surgeries include the Norwood, Glenn, and Fontan. The goal of these surgeries is to get the right side of the heart to do what the left side would have done and then to redirect the blood from the heart to the lungs. During the early periods, these kids are followed every week and have echocardiograms at least once a week. Medications are always needed. Parents need to be careful about the exposure the children have to other people during the interstage phase. Dr. Glenn shared his personal experienced with Hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Tawanna Nishibayashi’s daughter Avery was also born with that condition. Tawanna shares Avery’s story. Avery had a complex case, fraught with complications, including needing a Berlin heart and a heart transplant with rejection, and injury to other bodily organs.     Some possible complications of the condition and surgery include involvement of the liver, kidney, and needing NG tubes for feeding. There is a possible need for a heart and liver transplant in adulthood. A lot of patients have to deal with PTSD, anxiety, and depression. These children may not grow as fast as their peers and may experience developmental delays. Factors contributing to this is frequent anesthesia, lower saturations, abnormal brain development in utero, and spending a lot of time in the hospital. Tawanna recommends that once you have found out that your child has this condition, take time to process. Begin the morning process early (of a normal pregnancy, baby shower) and the death of normalcy. Process the length of time your child might be in the hospital. Learn the science as much as you can, including treatments, outcomes, mortality, conditions, centers, procedures, surgeons, care teams, follow up, and support. Be an advocate for your child. Develop a relationship with your team. Expect the unexpected and prepare for that as much as you can. Quality of life is also an issue for children, including ICU psychosis, aspiration, feeding troubles, nausea, and trust issues. Moreover, parents often experience PTSD and CPTSD. To prepare the children for medical appointments, cluster care, read books with them about the procedure, watch shows about doctors and shots, have the child hold the stethoscope, get their permission, let them know what to expect, bring their favorite things, and maintain a routine. Be prepared for financial difficulty. Often, one parent is no longer able to work due to helping their child. Sometimes, neither parent can work, in order to care for the child. Treatments, procedures, medical equipment, medications, anything insurance doesn’t cover, outside therapies, hospital stays, home health nurses, parking, food, laundry, and groceries all factor into financial difficulties. For advocacy, use your voice. Ask a lot of questions. Attend all the rounds. Spend a lot of time with your child. Have someone with your child as often as you can. Keep in touch with your support team, even while you are outpatient. Being a medical mom can be very challenging, as it is intensive, time consuming, people might not understand, and you have less time for fun things. Expect the unexpected. Roll with the punches. Other coping strategies include hospital relationships, carving out your own quiet time, having a routine, learning to ask what you need, taking time outside of the hospital and get fresh air, yoga, and music therapy. Links: Dr. Glenn: Glenntm3@gmail.com LinkedIn Tawanna:  Tawanna.nishi@icloud.com Website Instagram LinkedIn      Hypoplastic Left Heart Symptoms Facebook group Heart Camp- Camp Delcorazon Children’s Heart Foundation ParentWise   Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. 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    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