Boys Brigade Celebrates Together- Joy of being Together

Hey all, yesterday we had a birthday party of a little one who turned 4. The tinny Minnie's who got together to party were a group of 4 children, 3 boys all age 4years with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, and a 4 year old Girl with Global Developmental Delay. For the boys brigade it was the first ever exposure of a birthday party.

Such social exposures are so important for children to display the skills they have learnt through therapy. Such interactions if viewed an analysed with a clear focus can help us know our next plan of action in therapy with children. I have been taking therapeutic play groups for the three boys in pairs.

One of the children showed great skills of observing peers, identifying them, taking their names and even taking them in the room by holding their hand. Another child showed delayed imitation, trying to blow the whistle or saying yeyeye to express his excitement after observing his peers. With another child I noticed that though he imitates in a one on one individual therapy session, he couldn't become a part of the group of three children and imitate his peers whom he is otherwise comfortable with. I haves list of things that I have noticed for these children and I am ready to update my plans and strategies for them in the coming months.

I always encourage parents to expose their children to natural setting and social gatherings. These places can become wonderful training grounds for our children.

If you feel inhibited to take your child out to a social setting, please break through your inhibitions. Human Beings can't grow in isolation. Like we find our nurturance amongst others like us, the same stands true for our children. Please go all out for your child and give him the experience of being around an with friends and playing there. Please plan a play date for him/ her with one cousin, friend, and neighbor and give him the joy of play. A child must play. Please go all out to gift your child the Joy of play.

For consultation please email at Kanica2011@gmail.com

A TRIBUTE TO THE MOTHERS - THE UNSUNG HEROS :)

Mothers are ones we are the closest to. They bring us to life, then love us and cherish us; they do everything possible so that we become happy. Mothers have two broad tasks to accomplish. They are the very mission of each mother.

Two tasks every mother has are

1. To make sure her children are happy.

2. To ensure they become very capable individuals

A mother will go all out to ensure the child is fine, his needs and wants our fulfilled to the best of her ability and he becomes the most capable individual.

I work with children with developmental delays, language delays, Autism, Asperger's, Down's syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, GDD, ADHD, etc. Most of the children come in for therapy with their mothers. Mothers are the ones who come in asking their concerns, sharing a vision they have for their child, challenges they face each day. A supportive family and an understanding father only makes things easier.

These wonderful Mothers are the Unsung Heros. Thanks to all of them for taking complete responsibility of their children. If the parenting goes right today, the love and affection is in perfect balance, I am over joyed to visualize what wonderful individuals will arise taking lead in 2030.

Thank you mummy for being my mother, loving me so much and always being there when I fall, loving me despite my mistakes, hugging me and reassuring me ‘I am there for you’ when there was no one else at my side, listening to me blabber when you really didn’t want to hear, cooking the yummiest food when you yourself were tired, getting me the best things and cutting down on yours. This list is endless.

I love you Mom for helping me to become the. best version of me : )

I promise to make you proud each day

Being Fun Therapist is Fun: Working with a 11 year old boy with Asperger's Syndrome

I am working with a child, 11 years, diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. He loves football and plays for his school. We talk about everything under the sky. We do crazy experiments like putting Mentos in Coke to see the effect. We blow bubbles with straw and make mountains of it, we sit in a pool of balls and have ball juggling competitions. We dance on songs and even tried ball dance with each other. Lots of laughs!! He dared to do it. Our present interest is Musical Instruments. He Is learning tabla, and I am learning mouth organ using you tube. It's not easy to learn something new, but it's fun. So why not try!! He asks me what kind of a therapist am I? I say I am a fun therapist. 

One of the therapy sessions, we were playing Truth and Dare. So I got to ask him a question in Truth, where in I asked him "Do you like coming to me for this class? If Yes, why? "

There was a long silence. So I redirected after a while saying, I asked Do you like coming to me? The answer can be a yes or a no. Feel free to say what you feel. He said, "I like talking to you.”

Another session, he said something and I said, "you can share anything that comes to your heart with me. We have become friends. I like it." And he said, yes Ma'am, you are my diary." I felt so overwhelmed when he said it. I told him I feel so happy you said that.

Co-creating Joy together through Play and increasing positive experiences together is the foundation. A dialogue, without judgments and with opinions and suggestions works well in therapy also. Thank you Ikeda Sensei for helping me learn this.