Find Your Focus

31/01/2024

We’re running 2 Key Word Sign Australia Workshops in March:

👍Bundaberg - 8th March: https://www.stickytickets.com.au/1JUF3

👉Maryborough - 15th March: https://www.stickytickets.com.au/TVYP8

03/11/2023

🌻🌿

What are your PDAer's favourite sensory tools?

Accommodating your child's sensory needs plays a huge role in regulating their nervous system.

These are some of the accommodations that we have in place at our house...

Auditory- Our PDAer is sensitive to noise so we avoid having music playing and warn him before there is going to be predictable loud noises like the vacuum cleaner, mower, blender etc. He has access to earmuffs and will independently choose to put these on.

Tactile- Our PDAer loves to snuggle with soft comfort toys and plush, cosy blankets. He enjoys weighted blankets, stretchy lycra body socks and building nests out of cushions. He has a box of fidget toys (things like pop its, pin boards, Rubix cubes and stretchy bands) and will often use these as part of his winddown routine before bed. He also loves digging in the sandpit.

Oral input- Our PDAer enjoys drinking with a straw and eating things that are icy cold.

Smell- Our PDAer is sensitive to smell so we eliminate strong fragrances from the house.

Vision- Our PDAer enjoys fidget toys that have a visual component (things like glitter wands and liquid timers). He loves watching fish tanks and has access to sunglasses if it is a bright day.

Vestibular (movement input)- Our PDAer loves his bike and scooter. Swinging is his happy place, especially nest swings. Our trampoline also gets a good work out most days.

Proprioceptive input (this is the input that gives us the sense of where we are and it has a grounding effect on our nervous system. We get it through pushing, pulling, lifting, high impact jumping and crashing and deep pressure touch)- at our house we do lots of rough and tumble/roughhousing type play on soft mattresses (squish squash, play wrestling, turning into sandwiches between cushions, running hugs).

Accommodating sensory needs is going to look different in every house. What are your PDAer's favourite sensory tools?

PDA stands for Pathological Demand Avoidance, a profile of Autism.

29/10/2023

Chronic protection modes comes from a "broken dimmer switch" - interesting way to think about our PDA brains and responses 🌻🌿

26/10/2023

Trauma Informed Schools - Podcast series by Robyn Gobbel 🌻🌿

If you need help advocating for your kids at school, check out this six-part podcast series.

It starts with an episode that gives you an actual email script for reaching out to your child's teacher or administrator.

You'll hear from experts in the field of trauma informed classrooms including The Regulated Classroom, Revelations in Education I Dr. Lori Desautels, Greg Santucci, Occupational Therapist, and more.

You can find the whole series by clicking the link in my bio, or heading to my website and clicking on the Free Resources tab.

24/10/2023

🌻🌿

Attention Plan Managers:

📝 Let's chat about invoice requirements, because some Plan Managers are driving me up the wall making things much harder than they need to be.

❌ Providers aren't required to give line item numbers.
❌ There's no need for providers to provide an NDIS number.

Although it's handy to ensure claims are made against the right NDIS plan, there are other ways to achieve this without wasting everyone's time!

📃 Here's what a legal invoice must have, straight from the ATO website: "must include enough information to clearly determine the following 7 details:
1. document is intended to be a tax invoice
2. seller's identity
3. seller's Australian business number (ABN)
4. date the invoice was issued
5. brief description of the items sold, including the quantity (if applicable) and the price
6. GST amount (if any) payable – this can be shown separately or, if the GST amount is exactly one-eleventh of the total price, as a statement which says 'Total price includes GST'
7. extent to which each sale on the invoice is a taxable sale”
💡 Remember, if the invoice is over $1000, it should also have the buyer's name/identity.

🚫 Let's stick to the legal requirements and avoid asking for more than necessary.


pic desc: cartoon drawing of a person holding their hands to their face, looking frustrated, surrounded by speech bubbles containing different lists and tickboxes.

16/10/2023

Just what I needed to read at this point in our PDA journey. The acceptance that it is ok to not eat at the table is freeing!

How do you support your PDAer with eating and mealtimes?

Our PDAer chooses what he eats, when he eats, where he eats.

We have let go of the concept of having family meals together and create opportunities for connection at other times of the day.

Food is accessible and our PDAer will often help himself and prepare his own food.

The rest of the family eat more routinely, and he can opt in or out or suggest an alternative.

If he says he is hungry we have a few things that often work.

- Sometimes I can list off a few options. It’s ok if he suggests an alternative.

- Sometimes I will hold up items in front of him for him to pick from.

- Sometimes I will ask him to have a think and let me know when he is ready.

He regularly has ‘treat’ food alongside his meals.

Our PDAer usually watches a TV show on his iPad while he eats.

We make sure to pack a lunch box when we go out, even if we are going somewhere where there will be food, so that he has safe options to choose from.

We can often gauge how regulated our PDAer’s nervous system is based on how restricted his food intake is. In periods of dysregulation, it is much more limited, and we don’t comment on it. In periods of more regulation, he will eat a larger variety of foods and can understand the importance of eating a range of foods to help his body grow big and strong.
Supporting mealtimes and food choices is going to look different in every household. What have you found works at your house?

01/10/2023

PDA can be difficult to explain to others! Casey from At Peace Parents has been my go to for information on how to improve our PDA household.
🌻🌿

29/09/2023

🌻🌿

25/09/2023

🌻🌿