Hello i'm Kimberly, 1 part of the BigNoticeBoard duo... I hope everyone likes the new site.. I surely do!!!. Well done Leighan all them weeks of coding have really paid off.
Volunteer to Help.....
As well as BigNoticeBoard i also help families set up the Son-rise program in their homes, Son-rise is a social skills program to help all children on the Autistic spectrum. The spectrum ranges fron dyslexia, to ADHD, mild to severe autism, Apergers and tourettes. It's an intensive program which looks at the core of Autism.
Let me make one thing clear, Autism is seen by many as a behavioural disorder, this is wrong. It's an Interactional relational disorder - they cannot connect with people on a socially exceptable level due to many different reasons. The 'bad behaviours' you may see are built upon complete frustration of being unable to communicate what they want or need. Each child with Autism have different strengths and weaknesses and the Son-rise founders understand this deeply and passionately, thats why the child is our teacher. In a one on one ratio, we can focus all our attention on him and vice versa. By observing the childs motivations, we can create fun exciting games to help them create their own social drive and want to interact in our world. When the child becomes exclusive, meaning he has shut himself out of the world, your voice, your body and your games are no longer seen or heard and they spend maybe minutes or hours in a repititious activity,when they do, we join them.
For 3 reasons:
1 - They need to do this because our world is full of unexpected bright lights, loud noises and ultimate chaos. We can handle the stresses of daily life due to our brain filtering through information into important and unimportant. Without the ability to filter, children with Autism are faced with dealing with these overstimulating situations regularly. The beauty of Autism is that they have created a way to help them overcome being overwhelmed by performing medative repetative behaviours.
2 - By Joining it helps us understand, love and accept.
By becoming an amassador for our interactive world one minute then a split second later can, without warning, drop our interaction to willfully join him in his world, this is bonding at it's best, imagine where in most cases, children with autism are not accepted due to peoples beliefs or views about it verses someone sitting beside you who is joyfully rocking backwards and forwards in the same motion, boosts confidence by saying without words - hey you are loved so much and you are perfect just the way you are - i am just going to help you find ways to channel it.
3- allowing them control over the situation- when you give a child control, you get so much back.Flexibility is one of the biggest challenges children with autism face, so for us to be flexible is key.
Flexibility, along with eyecontact, communication and interactive attention span are the 4 main areas we look at. By monitoring these closely and regularly, we can specify goals that need working on in the playroom.
If you are interested in working with either Laif, Spencer or Edward look for contact details next to their pictures below.