Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Autism Parenting SUPPORT Is Outdated!
Transcript
- 0:00To my computer. Hey guys, welcome back to
- 0:03another interview here on the channel.
- 0:05What is going on? It's the New Year, I'm pumped to
- 0:07be back. And today I have a very special
- 0:09guest. Actually she's one of my friends
- 0:11also and colleagues today I'm talking to Carla from Ames
- 0:14Global which is a I'd say they are an international kind of
- 0:19support group for supporting autistic children by helping and
- 0:22supporting the parents which really cool going to go into all
- 0:24that right now. Let's go Carla what's going on?
- 0:28Alright then, thank you so much and happy New Year's to you and
- 0:32your Lee. Yeah, Happy New Year to you too.
- 0:34It's been crazy as everyone can tell.
- 0:35I've moved into a new house and this is my new office but it's
- 0:38an absolute bomb site at the moment.
- 0:40So it's so I apologize to everybody about the background
- 0:43but we're here is a new year kind of rhyme to school.
- 0:47I'm wishing everybody has a good 2020 and you Carla helper your
- 0:49new year was great. Thank you.
- 0:52Yeah, no great. We're just pumped to to help
- 0:54more parents. Yes.
- 0:56So as a little bit of background guys, I mean kind of like
- 1:00working with color and And the team for about, I don't know,
- 1:04I'd say about eight to nine months.
- 1:05Now, I've been maybe a year maybe, I don't know who knows.
- 1:08And these guys are awesome. They actually have a great
- 1:10backpack out which I do have and it's in this box.
- 1:12Next to me which I'm going to do a video on my Instagram.
- 1:15So if you haven't already checked out my Instagram, go
- 1:16follow me on Instagram. I will try and do a video on
- 1:19here where I show the backpack is all, but I don't know when it
- 1:21will be so I can't give you a definite but if you don't follow
- 1:23me on Instagram, they have a backpack and is like a sensory
- 1:26backpack made for kids, and it's absolutely amazing.
- 1:28I actually, I really do love it. My son loves it too.
- 1:30So that's how we got involved. I think as you would like,
- 1:32Creating products for autistic kids which is obviously a huge
- 1:35huge thing that people do need. But since then you guys have
- 1:38moved into like more education learning and training the actual
- 1:42parents and trying to like how can you, how can you help the
- 1:45most children in the most effective way I think would be a
- 1:49good way to explain it. So like you know what concerns
- 1:51do you think that autistic children how to write what
- 1:54concerns do you think that the parents of autistic children
- 1:56have color like, how would you, how would you explain this?
- 1:58Yeah, that's a good question. I think we've been in the field
- 2:01of Autism and Related conditions for the last 17 years.
- 2:05And I think the net, and I mainly the concerns around the
- 2:10child's communication, how they communicate, their sensory needs
- 2:15a lot of anxiety issues and you know, functional communication
- 2:20is a big one and then also social social interaction like,
- 2:23how do we get our kids out there, to make friends and to
- 2:27learn from their peers. So those concerns I feel like
- 2:30are the most important ones, you know, parents, Sometimes worry
- 2:33about the future. I think that's always in the
- 2:35back of their mind. But yeah, I think the most
- 2:38important thing is to help their child where there are right now.
- 2:41Yeah, you would you say that like that the the the kind of
- 2:46like making friends because I got a lot of questions about
- 2:49this, right? Do you say that this is one of
- 2:50the main concerns like making friends is a kind of like a
- 2:53third of the top and is this something that's quite common
- 2:55between all the parents that you speak to?
- 2:58I think yes I think making friends in their own way, right?
- 3:01I think Parents will for the most part parents really want
- 3:05what's best for their kids so they don't mind which friends
- 3:09they make, they just want them to be happy and we've busted
- 3:12that myth long time ago, third autistic, people don't want
- 3:15friends, they do things. Yeah, we just need to find a way
- 3:19for them to be able to make the friends that they want to have
- 3:22in their lives and to have the interest similar interest
- 3:26involved. Yeah, I know, definitely.
- 3:28And and I agree. It's not, it's not what the
- 3:30can't make friends, although they don't Wanna make friends.
- 3:33It's just that, it's the process.
- 3:34And how you find those specific friend rate?
- 3:39Sorry, so kind of what type of support is available and when,
- 3:45when is this, have a spot available?
- 3:47So, usually, when a child is diagnosed, they, they diagnosed
- 3:51by a pediatrician and the pediatrician will recommend
- 3:55possibly number of hours of behavioral therapy, or they will
- 4:00say, okay, let's start with speech therapy.
- 4:02Or occupational therapy and then see how that goes.
- 4:06It's quite overwhelming to receive a diagnosis as a parent
- 4:12you know to your child and and you go through a lot of
- 4:15different emotions and then on top of that.
- 4:17Sorry. Yes, no I just you know, the say
- 4:21saying this reminded me something I said in my last last
- 4:24time I was a lot of info coronavirus, I was doing all the
- 4:26talks and Keynotes and one of the things my Keynotes is are
- 4:28saying that when parents get this diagnosis for their kid.
- 4:30It's in a very Drastic can have negative environment because the
- 4:34hospital or a clinic and like nobody goes to a clinic for
- 4:36funding and I mean, it's like, hey, I'm I've been diagnosed
- 4:38with something that's great. Never happens.
- 4:41So when because autism neurological kind of can develop
- 4:43mental condition, it's different to kind of like saying, oh, you
- 4:46have a disease or something. So, when parents have this
- 4:48environment, that is normally - and you get the diagnosis, like
- 4:51you said, it's overwhelming, it's kind of like, all right,
- 4:53there's something wrong. That's, that's the, that's the
- 4:55key is like they think it's something wrong when actually,
- 4:57it's something that can be manageable, right?
- 4:58Which is what you're trying to portray.
- 5:00Yes, exactly. And that.
- 5:02That I don't think that is told to parents in the beginning.
- 5:05I think that we still need to do a lot of work there, how we
- 5:09translate that message, how we provide the message of your
- 5:12child's autistic, but that doesn't mean that he or she
- 5:16won't be able to learn. Make friends you know, develop
- 5:20in typical ways or in there. We'll just pick ways but you
- 5:24know, not different to their peers, not that different to
- 5:27their peers, they just need the right type of support.
- 5:30And I feel like if parents goes Right into all of these
- 5:33therapies, it's not just overwhelming for the child but
- 5:37also for the parents and and that sometimes leads into issues
- 5:42with relationships, you know, with the with the parents is
- 5:45relationship and also with friends and family members.
- 5:49So I feel like there needs to be a bit of a pause.
- 5:52And what we found is that if parents educate themselves on
- 5:57some of the basics of what they can do themselves.
- 6:00Yeah I don't need to Spencer. You know, the other thing is
- 6:03the, the financial aspect of they don't need to spend any
- 6:06money on all these different therapies.
- 6:09Everyone's getting overwhelmed. We've seen this.
- 6:11It's a Snowball Effect. Yeah, I think that's why we're
- 6:15focusing so much on parent, Education and Training.
- 6:18Yeah, unless you've got, you know, a lot of it, I'm not
- 6:20saying that there's like scammers out there, bro.
- 6:21I'm trying to say is that sometimes you get clinics, that
- 6:23have just created so many different programs.
- 6:26Because obviously they're trying to stay afloat and of a bottom,
- 6:28they're recommending all things. Do you think or do I need all
- 6:30this stuff and so, it's a compass.
- 6:32Into this - kind of thing. It's overwhelmingly.
- 6:34Like I'm Gina piled with stuff and sometimes, it's like, if you
- 6:37just wasted many, like you said, you know, and then that strain
- 6:39on your relationship, you know, the mom and dad might be like,
- 6:41oh, you know, got a financial strain, as well as the same
- 6:43emotional. Strain is really interesting,
- 6:45but above that I like it. Are there any issues that you
- 6:47see in the current support services are available.
- 6:50Yeah, I mean you just highlighted one of them right?
- 6:52And that's probably the biggest one is that if a parent receives
- 6:56a diagnosis for their child and they are recommended a certain
- 6:59number of hours of therapy, they go.
- 7:02Go to this therapeutic setting and it's the amounts that they
- 7:06charging are massive. And now the parent is thinking,
- 7:11okay, well I need to do this because the professional is
- 7:14recommending this to me but I don't like from the years of
- 7:18experience that I have speaking to Professor's and autistic
- 7:21adults and Advocates like yourself.
- 7:23You know that I've learned we've learned that need to myself at
- 7:27Ames Global. I've learned that they don't
- 7:30actually need all this. Don't be like you can decrease
- 7:34the amount of therapy easily and financially sustainable.
- 7:39So to keep things a little bit more affordable because this is
- 7:44not just the one year thing, you know, your childhood cystic for
- 7:48here. Shh, it's kind of like, you're
- 7:51optimizing the, the support route, right?
- 7:54Yourself rather than kind of like, you know, just like
- 7:57shooting in the dark, right? You just kind of give them a bit
- 7:59more direct and it's really interesting.
- 8:02Because like, you know, that there are, there are so many
- 8:05different people trying to do different things and it's so
- 8:07hard for the parents to kind of like navigate to this and think,
- 8:09you know, what's what? And it's something interesting
- 8:11actually. So Carla mentioned that, you
- 8:12know, she didn't, you know, she's obviously done years of
- 8:15research, which is also interviewed a lot of different
- 8:17people. So if you want to check out our
- 8:18YouTube channel, which mostly interviews are hosted on
- 8:20currently, I will leave a link for everything in the
- 8:24description of this video and in the show, not to this podcast.
- 8:26So Kyle, he's a question like, how do you help overcome the
- 8:30issues and all the The kind of challenging issues that parents
- 8:34have currently like how do you guys help that?
- 8:37So we've got various options. I mean we do we do have
- 8:40therapists available to to work with parents in their homes.
- 8:44That that is one of the options that we have also got online
- 8:47therapy, therapists available and therapy and then
- 8:51supervision. But the one thing that we really
- 8:53focus on is like I said the parent trainings.
- 8:56And at the moment we're teaching parents how to create an Autism
- 9:01friendly Went at home. How to interact with their child
- 9:05successfully and how to increase functional communication and
- 9:10that leads then into a decrease in anxiety because if your child
- 9:16is able to communicate in his or her need way, you know, best way
- 9:20possible. Then for them, their anxiety
- 9:23will decrease or to be like, yeah.
- 9:26Yeah, that's really interesting because I think anxiety is one
- 9:27of the biggest kind of like because you know that there's
- 9:31all this other stuff obviously. Some causes a lot of issues, but
- 9:34anxiety seems to be kind of like at the Pinnacle of like, that's
- 9:37as soon as you have like a bulk load of like anxiousness and
- 9:41anxiety, everything else kind of crumbles away.
- 9:43So like if you can, if you can hit that and you can kind of
- 9:47attack that and say, okay, how do we stop this?
- 9:49This worry. I'll because I'm going to see is
- 9:51a worry in, which is a byproduct from something that hasn't
- 9:52happened. So there's a lot of different
- 9:54ways you can attach and I think you're right, you know, if you
- 9:56can hit anxiety and the other things will become a little bit
- 9:59more easy because of a manageable, other more
- 10:00optimized, right? Sorry, I just wanted to say with
- 10:03that anxiety. It is, it is so important to
- 10:07note that if your child is going to therapies, that are pushing a
- 10:13child to the point where, you know, we were told and one of
- 10:17the, one of the training programs that I went through and
- 10:19I went out of was to that we need to break our kids into
- 10:24learning and that is that is horrible for any child.
- 10:28So we need to see it from the other point from the other side.
- 10:32From that from an autistic person side and from an autistic
- 10:35child side. And that's what we tried with
- 10:37Amos Global to do. Because, you know, we're a
- 10:40holistic form of therapy and we need to focus on the awareness,
- 10:46the interest, the movement, and the same story.
- 10:48And that's why Ames is called Ames know.
- 10:51And, you know, it's interesting because like, it's not just,
- 10:54it's not just a type of therapy or the type of kind of, like,
- 10:57helping support you offer. It's the people who offer that
- 11:00support one of the things I met, you know, You could be like, you
- 11:03know, something he doesn't really care about kids but it's
- 11:05in that role and, you know, because it's a good job or
- 11:07whatever and they went to college for it and then now
- 11:09they're teaching kids and they're not even that
- 11:11approachable and very charismatic but I know you guys
- 11:13very well. I know they're not like I know
- 11:15Carla like these guys really nice.
- 11:17You know? So if you, if anybody was going
- 11:19to be like getting, you know, some therapy or training, or
- 11:22whatever support for these people, you know, that it's good
- 11:24because these people care, you know, they, you know, then
- 11:26that's a parent like you guys have, you know, I mean, you're
- 11:29not, I can explain you're not - or you're not in it just for the
- 11:31job. It.
- 11:32Because you want to help people write in this is super
- 11:34important. Now, aims Global you guys are
- 11:37hosting a live free webinar, helping train parents to tell us
- 11:41about it. Tell us about it and let us know
- 11:43what it's all about. Yes, of course, we're very
- 11:45excited about this. The first one is actually coming
- 11:47up this Saturday, the 8th of January and the times vary, I
- 11:52mean, depending on where you are.
- 11:54So it's 9 a.m. UK time and we are going to
- 11:59focus on providing parents with Practical support strategies.
- 12:04So, these are going to include templates that they can print
- 12:06immediately utilize with their child to increase, functional
- 12:10communication collaboration. So working with their child,
- 12:13increasing social skills, increasing the coping skills so
- 12:18that the anxiety again can decrease.
- 12:21So it's really on. We try to hit all the most
- 12:24important Concepts to help the parent and the child.
- 12:29And then from there on that provides that And such a nice
- 12:33solid base that they can, they can then increase more of the
- 12:37other stuff that their child might need to know whether it is
- 12:39academics or self-help skills or Independence skills.
- 12:43Just so I'm actually going to, I want to, I want to join this.
- 12:47So how do people how do people sign up for this free webinar?
- 12:51You know, and what can I expect, you know, from the signup
- 12:54process goes. So we've got a, we've got a
- 12:57landing page where they can just go to and I can I can share that
- 13:01link with you. You, okay?
- 13:02And they just the description. Thank you.
- 13:05Yeah. They just need to sign up with
- 13:08your email address and then we will send the date that they
- 13:11can, that they can register for. I think the next one is the
- 13:15weekend after a while. I know this the 15th of January,
- 13:18okay? So I think I first one is full
- 13:21like, we just received a notification that it's full, but
- 13:25the 15th of January is for the next one and there's still some
- 13:29spaces available, but it is free.
- 13:31And We will be sharing all our notes.
- 13:33It's going to be money but done myself.
- 13:36So the two founders of a global and we will share everything
- 13:41that we've learned from autistic adults and the professors and
- 13:45everyone will the speech therapist, no T's that we work
- 13:47with. So we're very excited about
- 13:49this, I'm excited. I'm pumped about it, you guys
- 13:51are amazing, like and this isn't really interesting, like I know
- 13:53you guys very well and you guys are very well educated you know,
- 13:57and I think there can be a lot of value in that 30 so you know
- 14:00and it's completely free. So if you want to sign up, Up.
- 14:02Make sure you do now. Like the net said, sorry like
- 14:04Carla said, the first one kind of I guess is for leopard.
- 14:07If you sign up if you use that sign up page, those ping you a
- 14:09message and this is something important.
- 14:11So can people join on their cell phone or the tablet and
- 14:14computer? Or is it just computed only how
- 14:15do they can I use multi-platforms?
- 14:17Yeah they can use any any platform to sign up and they can
- 14:21also use any platform to to join the webinar because it's going
- 14:25to be unzoom. So we'll send a link through as
- 14:28soon as they sign up will send through a link that they need to
- 14:31follow. To make sure that they attend
- 14:34the workshop. And for anybody, any
- 14:36technophobes are there who are listening and watching, you can
- 14:40answer any Zoom call using a web browser on your phone or your
- 14:43tablet. You don't actually have to have
- 14:44the zoom after it does help. So if you want to download Zoom
- 14:47make an account that does help but you know, don't be afraid
- 14:50of. No, I don't have zoom, it
- 14:51doesn't matter. You can click a link and it just
- 14:53loads in your browser. And everything's cool.
- 14:55So, Carla, thank you so much for joining me today.
- 14:57I am super pumped to to join your webinar.
- 15:00Actually, I'm going to be there, can be front.
- 15:02The front row, but I'm going to go on the second one because
- 15:04I've missed a deadline for the first one.
- 15:07So that's how I roll man. Moving house.
- 15:09Know what just so guys if you want it, be in to check out what
- 15:12Ames club or have to check out the free webinar to learn some
- 15:15awesome skills. If you're a parent, over the
- 15:16sister kid, or anybody who's interested in this, make sure to
- 15:19check out the links in the description down below.
- 15:21I will also leave a link for this social media so you can
- 15:23check out the videos they pump out on Instagram, YouTube and
- 15:25Facebook, very cool stuff. These guys are awesome and yours
- 15:29truly recommend. So guys, I'll You in the next
- 15:32video and I'll see you on the course.
- 15:34Bruce, thank you, Dan. Thanks for listening to this
- 15:39podcast episode. If you are new, don't forget to
- 15:42subscribe to listen to more of these because I know that you're
- 15:44listening and you're not subscribed.
- 15:45So do it right now. All right, guys, talk to you
- 15:47soon.