special needs family – Page 2 – Isaac's Autism in the Wild

Episode 94 | Sabita Finds Her Voice: Advocacy for the nonverbal

By isaac-autism-in-the-wild | May 24, 2021

This week on ISAAC’S Autism in the Wild podcast Holly is joined by an amazing mother, entrepreneur, and advocate for the nonverbal community, Dr Stephanie Vavilala. We were honored to zoom chat with Dr Stephanie about the amazing facility she is opening as well as the services she is currently offering in St. Augustine Florida through her LMH practice Therapeutic Expressions and her nonprofit organization Sabita Speaks. Listen in as we discuss important programs that have been created to fill the many gaps in special needs care across the country and the release of Dr. Stephanie’s book, Sabita Finds Her Voice which serves as a flagship for educating the youth about AAC Speech Devices and how they can better bridge the gap between the verbal and non-verbal populations.

Dr. Stephanie Vavilala, Ed.D, LMHC, BCBA, RPT-S is the CEO and founder of Therapeutic Expressions and Awetism Wonderland (an autism therapy center), as well as the author of the children’s book Sabita Finds Her Voice. She is the mother of a daughter who has autism and is non verbal, Sabita. Stephanie’s daughter inspired her to become a leader in the space of special needs. Her therapeutic style is holistic, empowering, and action-oriented. She and her daughter reside in St. Augustine, Florida.

The main link that Stephanie uses as a one-stop shop for her initiatives: https://stephanievavilala.com/

Sabita Speaks: A nonprofit which seeks to raise awareness around AAC devices for non-verbal folks: https://www.sabitaspeaks.org/

The website for her main practice (which isn’t limited to special needs) is here: https://therapeuticexpressions.com/

Purchase Sabita Finds Her Voice: https://www.amazon.com/Sabita-Finds-Voice-Stephanie-Vavilala-ebook/dp/B092Q2GFTW

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Episode 92 | Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

By isaac-autism-in-the-wild | May 17, 2021

This week on ISAAC’s Autism in the Wild, Holly is joined by three special needs parents and they are discussing the fights that just aren’t worth fighting. These are the tasks that at one point in their life were worth an argument, but now in hindsight, were not worth the time/energy invested. We discuss topics like wearing appropriate footwear, screen-time, and dinner table etiquette.

Huge thanks to our new podcast voice, Nicole, who shared a gem of wisdom with us “Don’t accept criticism from someone you wouldn’t ask for advice” this sentiment was a great voice of reason while discussing the constant criticisms special needs parent’s tend to find themself surrounded by.

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Episode 86 | Birthday Parties During A Pandemic

By isaac-autism-in-the-wild | March 15, 2021

It has officially been one year since Covid-19 restrictions have been part of our lives. This means every single person has experienced a “Lockdown Birthday Party.”

Today our panel of special-needs parents are discussing hosting birthday parties when the traditional idea of a party is not allowed. What did they do for their kiddos on their special day? What do they wish they had done? What has the pandemic forced us to learn about the traditional idea of a party?

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Episode 85 | Building and Maintaining Self Esteem

By isaac-autism-in-the-wild | March 9, 2021

We know that on the whole, our children on the spectrum receive many more corrections each day than a nuero-typical child. In a world of “don’t do that” and “it is better if you do it this way” it is hard to achieve a high sense of self esteem and maintain confidence in yourself. We have discussed building self esteem in passing while recording other episodes but wanted a chance to discuss this topic as a whole. So, we invited a panel of parents that discuss the challenges their children-on all ends of the spectrum have faced regarding growing and maintaining self esteem.

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Episode 82 | Indoor Activities

By isaac-autism-in-the-wild | February 16, 2021

In today’s episode we talk about ways to keep your children entertained when the weather just doesn’t allow you to go outside. During the covid-19 lockdown we are all stuck inside, alone, and our kids are starting to climb the walls! How are you keeping your kids busy and entertained when the outside world is closed? We discuss this with several of our autism parents and discuss different activities that have been successful in our homes. Toward the end of the program we also dip into outdoor winter activities and found that most of the resistance to outdoor fun–actually comes from ourselves as parents. Listen in and see if you agree!

Laser Tag: (several variations available online, this is the one that we purchased) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZPGM6NQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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Episode 81 | Autism & Mealtime

By isaac-autism-in-the-wild | January 26, 2021

Full Disclosure, this episode originally started out as a “recipe share” program. Our goal was to find those perfect gems in the culinary world that are nutritious and every member in the family will happily eat and enjoy. In recording this episode, we realized that this is basically NEVER the case. We had this discussion with several of our autism parents and between the 5 parents, all of our ideas were “no-go” items in one or more of each other’s households.

What did we learn from this epic fail? We learned that we are all very similar in different ways, and all share the same struggle of cooking for picky eaters. Listen in as we desperately try to find ONE food that all of our kids will eat, as I have already given away–we don’t find it (unless ketchup and cereal counts as a meal), but we have an exceptionally entertaining conversation as we tried to get there! And as an added bonus, this was recorded within earshot of Caleb, Holly’s son, who made several cameos in the episode with his delightful interjections. Enjoy!

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Episode 80 | Receptive, Expressive, and Body Language

By isaac-autism-in-the-wild | January 21, 2021

On todays episode of ISAAC’S Autism in the Wild Podcast we are joined again by Alecia Weeks of Niche Therapy. She is the current speech therapist for Holly’s son Caleb. Alecia brings a wealth of knowledge to the table as we discuss Receptive, Expressive, and Body language and what barriers may be keeping your child from reaching their communication goals. We discuss the semantics of language disorders, and how therapy can benefit your child and help them to reach those communication goals.

Resources:

Here is a link to the social thinking website. It is a great resource for providers and parents for helping build pragmatics. https://www.socialthinking.com/

Duffy, J. R. (2013). Motor speech disorders: Substrates, differential diagnosis, and management. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.
The Out of Sync Child: available anywhere books are sold: AMAZON LINK

About Alecia with Niche Therapy:

https://www.facebook.com/nichetherapyLLC

Insta@ nichetherapyllc

website: nichetherapy.org

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Episode 79 | Self Care During a Pandemic

By isaac-autism-in-the-wild | January 11, 2021

This week ISAAC’S Autism in the Wild checks in with a few parents to see how they are keeping sane during these insane times. We are now over 9 months into the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss how our own self care looks as we have settled into the new normal. We discuss alone time, sleep, hobbies, social media and more. We also explore how our thoughts on self care have changed as we’ve adjusted to the decline in social interaction.

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Episode 78 | De-stigmatizing Group Homes

By isaac-autism-in-the-wild | January 6, 2021

On this episode of ISAAC’s Autism in the Wild we discuss group homes. Over the years we have heard many polarized conversations regarding the care of those with disabilities. Often times a group setting is the most beneficial placement for a child with behavioral issues. We are happy to talk with Judi, from Visions for a New Beginning, who has started group home facilities in the Spokane area that find that happy medium between structured group home and a happy loving family home. Visions for a New Beginning has 5 locations in the Spokane area, all housing children that needed more support to address their behavioral and emotional needs. Judi is there with open arms to take in these children and help them find the structure and comfort they need to excel.

Listen in as we discuss some of the stigmas surrounding group care facilities and learn how Judi has seen these obstacles and worked to provide loving caring support teams to assist these children.

Visions For A New Beginning

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Episode 77 | Parent Support

By isaac-autism-in-the-wild | December 29, 2020

In this episode of ISAAC’s Autism in the Wild we discuss support options for parents with children on the spectrum. Thanks to technology there are many more outlets for parents than there were in the years past. We discuss these opportunities with a couple of autism parents; Phara, mother to a young adult male, and David, father to a school-aged girl. We talk about the emergence of facebook support groups, programs through local non-profits (including The ISAAC Foundation’s Parent Nights Out), and focus on the emotional aspects of parenting a child with special needs.

References:

The ISAAC Foundation Parent Support Opportunities

Arc of Spokane: Parent to Parent Program

DADS Move: Support Groups

Facebook Groups: There are a ton of specialty groups out there, just search by keywords (autism/asd/special needs/neurodiverse/etc. local to your area.

*tip*If your child is diagnosed as ASD 1 be sure to look up “asperger” as many of these groups were formed when asperger was still a clinical diagnosis.

Asperger Experts

Asperger Parents

Special Kids of Spokane

You Too? Support in Spokane for Parents with Special Kids

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