Spring 2021 Newsletter
Clinic Closures
Metro Therapy will be closed in observance of Memorial Day on May 31, 2021
Continuing Education
Katy Fischer, COTA/L and Erin Braaten, COTA/L completed a 16 hour course called AEIOU: An Integrated Approach to Pediatric Feeding
Lindsey Brown, COTA/L completed ADHD - What Now? a journey to Growing Your Happy and Healthy Family When Your Child has ADHD hosted by Veronica Hunter - an 11-day webinar series with 20 health professionals' presentations.
Sarah Hetz, CCC-SLP, completed Use Your CCCs: Cultural Responsiveness, Connection, and Compassion and Feel More Confident Understanding and Implementing the Minimal Pairs Approach.
Like and Follow us on Facebook
Did you know Metro Therapy is on Facebook? Like and follow our page for important updates such as weather closures, fun photos of therapy in action, announcements about upcoming events and community activities, and useful information about topics related to speech and occupational therapy. This year it will also be a place to learn more about our staff as we will be featuring one team member per month in a series of posts.
Student Clinicians
Metro Therapy is proud to contribute the education of future therapists by accepting students to complete practicums at our site. This spring we will have two OT students working with us. Student clinicians work alongside and are closely supervised by our therapists to ensure a quality educational experience for the student and continuity of treatment for our clients.
Teletherapy Reminder
If you are unable to attend your in-person therapy session due to COVID exposure quarantine, other illness in the household, weather, or transportation issues, you can still complete it via teletherapy! Call the clinic to let us know you need to complete your session virtually and your therapist will email you a link for the Zoom session. As always, you have the option to reschedule missed sessions in person as well, but teletherapy has worked well for many of our clients as both a long-term and temporary solution.
April is Autism Acceptance Month
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network is a nonprofit organization run by and for autistic people. ASAN believes that the goal of autism advocacy should be a world in which autistic people enjoy equal access, rights, and opportunities. ASAN’s members and supporters include autistic adults and youth, cross-disability advocates, and non-autistic family members, professionals, educators, and friends. On their website, www.autisticadvocacy.org, they describe autism in the following way.
Every autistic person experiences autism differently, but there are some things that many of us have in common.
We think differently. We may have very strong interests in things other people don’t understand or seem to care about. We might be great problem-solvers, or pay close attention to detail. It might take us longer to think about things. We might have trouble with executive functioning, like figuring out how to start and finish a task, moving on to a new task, or making decisions.
Routines are important for many autistic people. It can be hard for us to deal with surprises or unexpected changes. When we get overwhelmed, we might not be able to process our thoughts, feelings, and surroundings, which can make us lose control of our body.
We process our senses differently. We might be extra sensitive to things like bright lights or loud sounds. We might have trouble understanding what we hear or what our senses tell us. We might not notice if we are in pain or hungry. We might do the same movement over and over again. This is called “stimming,” and it helps us regulate our senses. For example, we might rock back and forth, play with our hands, or hum.
We move differently. We might have trouble with fine motor skills or coordination. It can feel like our minds and bodies are disconnected. It can be hard for us to start or stop moving. Speech can be extra hard because it requires a lot of coordination. We might not be able to control how loud our voices are, or we might not be able to speak at all–even though we can understand what other people say.
We communicate differently. We might talk using echolalia (repeating things we have heard before), or by scripting out what we want to say. Some autistic people use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) to communicate. For example, we may communicate by typing on a computer, spelling on a letter board, or pointing to pictures on an iPad. Some people may also communicate with behavior or the way we act. Not every autistic person can talk, but we all have important things to say.
We socialize differently. Some of us might not understand or follow social rules that non-autistic people made up. We might be more direct than other people. Eye contact might make us uncomfortable. We might have a hard time controlling our body language or facial expressions, which can confuse non-autistic people or make it hard to socialize.
Some of us might not be able to guess how people feel. This doesn’t mean we don’t care how people feel! We just need people to tell us how they feel so we don’t have to guess. Some autistic people are extra sensitive to other people’s feelings.
We might need help with daily living. It can take a lot of energy to live in a society built for non-autistic people. We may not have the energy to do some things in our daily lives. Or, parts of being autistic can make doing those things too hard. We may need help with things like cooking, doing our jobs, or going out. We might be able to do things on our own sometimes, but need help other times. We might need to take more breaks so we can recover our energy.
Not every autistic person will relate to all of these things. There are lots of different ways to be autistic. That is okay! Autism affects how we think, how we communicate, and how we interact with the world. Autistic people are different than non-autistic people, and that’s okay. ASAN advocates for a world where all autistic people have equal access, rights, and opportunities. Nothing About Us, Without Us!