Swap out and tag team teaching

http://www.magnificentminds.ca/apps/blog/swapping-out-and-tag-team-deescalation

A TASTE:

From time to time, it can hectic in a group learning environment; even in a one to one learning situation, you sometimes need support. It is essential to your professional efficacy, and sanity, that you support your team members as you work together towards common goals. There are two techniques I have often called upon in tougher situations, behavioural meltdowns, or total stand-offs, which can help deescalate and manage your own emotional responses and maintain control of the situation. It goes without saying that teachers and therapists need to maintain calm, cool and collected; but, it’s not always easy. 

Strength Based Programs for ASD

Available at our new blog:
http://www.magnificentminds.ca/apps/blog/strength-based-programs-and-asd

We've moved.

To our wonderful and faithful followers: we have moved!

You can find us at our new home MagnificentMinds.ca/Apps/Blog

Looking forward to continuing to support your families, and classrooms!

Warm regards,
MM

Summer Fun

We are 3 steps ahead of your typical day camp experience, with some important modifications to suit our learners.
From arts and crafts to sensory science, from sports to water works we participate in all your favorite camp-time games. Understanding the social skill development is the goal of a successful camp experience--it was important for us to hand-pick a team of qualified professionals to lead the troops.
With a 4:1 ratio our camp, with on average 12 children on site, we find exactly the right balance for our campers. Our campers are a dynamic mix including peer mentors who participate in inclusive cabin groups alongside their peers with a variety of social-considerations from Autism to Down's Syndrome.Whether typically developing or exception, there are distinction at our camp. Everyone is here to learn, have fun, and make friends. With enough hands on deck to provide every camper with a 1:1 as needed, we ensure safety and security while providing an authentic camp experience..."Let me see you're funky chicken...

What's that you say?

I said let me see your funky chicken...

What's that you say?

I said Ooooh Ah Funky Chicken Ooooh Ah One more time!"

Music is such a huge part of the camp experience; we use music to teach social skills from greetings to social rules, from echoics to intraverbals (those are verbal behaviour terms that mean increased communication). With specialty activities chosen to suit the age of the campers in the group, our campers experience the real-deal camp experience (from boondoggle to camp-wide meetings), with a few minor adjustment to meet the unique needs of children with special considerations like allergies, neurological impairment, sensitivities, behavioural, emotional or social concerns.

Having a quiet place to take a break is so important for kids with social challenges. Socialization is hard-work even for the extroverted, so for introverted kids, a calm space to recharge is essential. In each class we have a tent like this one, and/or other options for relaxing quietly in your own space; we have pillow-reading areas, huge floor pillows to curl up on, or quiet sensory games to play on the floor like digging in corn flour, sandboxes, or bean buckets. Especially in the summer, when the schedule is go-go-go and transitions are every 30 minutest, we need to make sure that our campers have enough down time, and enough time to recharge so that they are at their best when it comes time for activities. We love to take a break from the fluorescent lights by switching to a black-light-only atmosphere or soaking up the sun on our fantastic property. 

1 down...lots to go

A reflection on biopsychology, and the  biopsychosocial as a whole.

A Bigger Picture Perspective

This course has impacted my counseling style by giving me a deeper understanding of the characteristics associated with a wide variety of diagnoses from depression to anorexia (Pinel, 2012); uncovering the complexities of each condition has been fascinating. This course has given me insight into characteristics, coping mechanism and behaviour patterns associated with clients from infant to elderly.

Coming from a strictly behavioural background, it has become increasingly clear to me that the connection between mind and body is very powerful. I found Sigelman and Rider (2012) to be particularly insightful when it came to depicting the holistic perspective and cyclical relationship between mind and body.

Sigelman and Rider’s concept of social norms as a contributing factor to parenting style was insightful and relevant for me as a child-behaviour therapist; understanding the various perspectives has allowed me to be an active part of trouble-shooting, and parental support. A large part of my role is the education and training of parents; gaining insight into the various styles of attachment, and parenting was both relevant and informative.

As before I find myself learning towards alternative therapies (that is, alternative to medication) like diet, exercise, conversational therapy, behavioural intervention and so on; but after having taken this course, I appreciate that though medication should be a last resort, it is the missing piece of the puzzle for some individuals. The ability to know when to make a referral, is a very valuable (actually, an essential) skill.

References

Pinel, J.P. (2012). Basics of biopsychology. Boston: Pearson

Sigelman and Rider. (2012) Life span and human development (7e) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth

Woolfson, L. L., & Grant, E. E. (2006). Authoritative parenting and parental stress in parents of

pre-school and older children with developmental disabilities. Child: Care, Health & Development, 32(2), 177-184. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2214.2006.00603.x

Sleep Issues

Discussion 8: Sleep Issues in Adults
By: Alley Dezenhouse, BA ABS
Sleep is an essential part of healthy development and functioning.  A good sleep is essential to proper executive functioning, and diagnosis of sleep disorders is essential to facilitate the process. Takahashi (1999) as cited in Pinel (2012) notes that it could take an insomniac over one hour fall sleep; this provides a good framework for assessing normal sleep issues, from sleep disorders.

Sleeping disturbances impact nearly every aspect of functioning, whether it’s insomnia or narcolepsy too much or too little sleep can be debilitating (Pinel, 2012). Sleep apnea impact the sleeping process by causing recurrent night waking, due to lack of airflow which causes the individual to stop breathing and awaken. Interestingly, many do not know that they have sleep apnea (Pinel, 2012); but rather, complain of sleeping poorly and describe symptoms of insomnia (Pinel, 2012). Not surprisingly, sleep apnea can be linked to comorbid asthma, which symptomatically worsens at night (Nihat Annakkaya, Akin, Balbay, Arbak, Toru, 2012). 

Restless leg syndrome is described as a build-up of tension that presents itself in the individual’s legs (Pinel, 2012); the individual complains about tension, anxiety and restlessness at bed time that is hard to shake. Interestingly, one of the primary interventions, or therapies, for sleep disturbances like insomnia, is “sleep restriction” (Pinel, 2012, p.393). In the process of sleep restriction, systematic teaching is used to slowly increase the time spend in bed; this intervention calls for a very behavioural approach to treatment (Pinel, 2012).

References

Annakkaya, A., Akɩn, N., Balbay, E., Arbak, P., & Toru, Ü. (2012). Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

in Adult Patients with Asthma. Healthmed, 6(1), 53-64.

Pinel, J.P. (2012) Basics of biopsychology. Wadsworth; Allyn & Bacon

GF in Niagara Falls, ON

Good Morning and Happy Summer!

I was lucky enough to have a few days off in between school, and camp--I traveled to Niagara Falls (Canada side) and had a few days of adventure and relaxation. I am happy to report that the entire trip was Gluten-Free and allergy sensitive. I wanted to post my experience, so that other families traveling to Niagara that are working on a GF or allergy-aware diet, will have some sense of direction. I found the city amazing, and very knowledgeable; a far cry from my last carribean vacation when I learned the phrase LIBRE DE GLUTEN and still got responses like...No seniorita, there are no flowers in the soup.

So where to begin...on the way up, it was nothing fancy, but breakfast was apple sauce from a Wal mart we spotted on the drive; of course, no road trip is complete without a million Timmy's stops.

There are a surprising number of Starbucks locations as well, that was a special treat because they have soy milk, so I got to have lattes, americanos and pike's place, OH MY!

Once we got into Niagara we were ready for lunch; we had been tipped off that the local ma and pa places were a much better way to go than the touristy stuff; what a great tip that was! We chose a Greek place; the name is escaping me, Kitikoukous or something else amazingly fun to say with lots of hard k sounds. (Even on holiday I never forget my communication-training roots).

The waiter was so friendly, and had all the time in the world to chat about my allergies. He checked 3 times, about 3 separate ingredient allergies for each dish I ordered...all turned out to be safe bets on the chef's good word. So I ordered: A lemon-chicken-rice soup; it was so creamy I actually had the poor guy double check that there was absolutely no dairy...sure enough, none whatsoever. A GFCF miracle. I also had a skewer, totally GFCF and delish, and a side Greek salad. All in all, we ate so fast it must have been good; did not even stop to take a picture until I was just about finished. THAT good.

Next up we went to check into the hotel; walked up and down Clifton Hill and the strip outside our hotel to scout out some allergy friendly locations to eat at over our stay. Our first stop was Starbucks and for how many there were in Niagara, you would think they would be a little more allergy aware. I ordered a soy-frappaccino and got it served to me with whipped cream...then they tried to just "scrape it off"; I was quick to inform them that that was not going to work for me. They were apologetic, but proceeded to roll their eyes as I turned away (thank goodness for travel partners who look out for you :P). Considering how much time I spend at Starbucks in general life, I was not impressed.

That night we decided dinner would be at Old Faithful; that's what we call the Keg  because it is always safe, they are always amazing about allergies, and it is always delicious (even without gluten or dairy...and their bread...just fyi for the gluten-indulgent, LOOKS amazing). So I ordered a lobster and steak combo--I know right, who does that? It was amazing, and good to the last drop. So good, I once again forgot to take a picture until I was half way done.

The next morning we went to IHOP; it was in our hotel. They were so incredibly accommodating, and even offered to substitute my bread for fruit; this is a big deal because most breakfast places are pretty strict about no substitutions. Then I got the bill, and realized that for an $20 breakfast, they had better be accommodating ;). I ordered eggs which I specifically requested not be fried in butter; I made sure NOT to order an omelet, because they put their pancake batter in it to make the omelets light and fluffy...yum, right?
Not so photo worthy; but yummy and safe for my tummy. By this point it was breakfast of Day 2 and still no accidental gluten...this is BIG!

We stopped at a grocery store to get some items for a pic nic lunch, we were heading to Marineland. We spent the morning checking out Friendship Cove, and thinking about how THANKFUL we were that we had the idea to bring a pic nic. There was not a single allergy safe item to eat there; it was all corn dogs, and pizza and hot dogs and burgers...yum, but not for me.
We made it back to the hotel and desperately needed a coffee after all that walking; we were so thankful that Starbucks was right in our hotel lobby; with soy  milk!

That night we headed out to the main strip and found a Mediterranean place to eat at; the food was nothing short of amazing and gluten and dairy free without having to order any special procedures. Since we have travelled to Israel, we know all about the ingredients and were confident in ordering. I did not eat the fries because they seemed like they might have been coated in flour...but there was more than enough tomato, onion, beef, pickles, hummus and beets to fill me up. It was so nice to sit outside on the strip, watching the tourists and the hustle and bustle of Niagara.

We didn't eat or drink much after that dinner, which is always a sign that it hit the spot. We did check out some attractions, they were definitely something I would do if I went with kids.
The next day...We went for a pre-breakfast walk along the falls, so magical! We had Starbucks in hand, and yes still with soy milk :). We decided to venture to a local place for breakfast; we found a place with tons of gluten and dairy free options, and filled our tummies. We headed to Niagara on the Lake, where we did not eat a single thing. We were full from breakfast until about 2pm at which point we found a hero burger for some good old fashioned GF burgers.