Category: Parenting
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When the Mind Can Only Take Us So Far, the Body Brings Us Back Home: What Lives Under the Challenges We Seek to Understand
I remember sitting in my daughter’s room during a moment of overwhelm, saying the supportive things I’d read in the books, trying a different approach to the situation, and allowing her to have space to unravel. I remember that forced calm inside of me that I perfected in my career as a nurse, and noticing…
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The Power of “I Don’t Know That I Don’t Know”: How Authenticity in a Chaotic Moment Created Inconvenience and Expansion
In our tiny slices of reality, which are completely unique to us and created by our programming and experiences, we bump up against what we label as problems or challenges. We believe that our current reality is something that is fixed. We tighten into the triggers and divert up to our intellect to figure it…
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In the Midst of a Trigger, our Signals Dance: An Adoptive Mother’s Journey
On my journey as an adoptive mother, I have had the honor of being challenged beyond my own limiting beliefs, values, and attitudes about myself and my world. In the absolute joy that comes with parenting, I have also met my edges where strategies and knowledge made zero difference. Those precious moments showed up in…
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My Journey: Heart-Strong International Changemakers for Children
This past week, I was very proud to receive my certificate in the Heart-Strong International Changemakers for Children course, taught by Sandi Lerman. Signing up, I already knew that anything Sandi and Heart-Strong International had put together was going to be amazing! AASR has a long-running relationship and collaboration with Sandi and Heart-Strong International, including…
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Life After a Behavior Modification Program
In my junior year of high school, I was woken up in the middle of the night at about four in the morning by two strangers who escorted me to the airport. From there, I was flown from Houston, Texas, to La Verkin, Utah, to a place called Cross Creek Programs, also known as Cross…
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Informal Removals Can Violate Federal Civil Rights Protections and Don’t Help Children
My child was informally removed from public school in 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th grade. Each time, the decisions came from increasingly powerful school officials: initially, a school counselor, then the school principal, and eventually the head of special education. Initially, our concerns were for their mental health. However, formal removals in 9th grade…
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Accommodations Prepare Children for The Real World
October 2023 was very different from October 2024. My children were enrolled in public school in a small town in Connecticut, and we were all feeling miserable. My oldest son, Frankie, was in second grade and struggling tremendously. We had yet to have an IEP meeting after nearly two months of school. His anxiety was…
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Stickers Don’t Work for Adults Either
We are a society of “earners.” The transactional systems many of us have been raised on that focus on earning prizes, tickets, and rewards do not have the expected effect. It does not create intrinsic motivation. I could quote Alfie Kohn from his book “Punished by Rewards” here. But what I am seeing is that…
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Singing with Stingrays: Reflecting on Disability Pride Month
As July draws to a close, I am reflecting on Disability Pride Month. Yesterday, I was drawn into a discussion about trauma-informed practices in education at a social gathering. As usual, I found myself passionately defending the rights of disabled students in the United States and despaired over the lack of resources to support them…
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A Walk to the Park: A Story about Authority and Autonomy
I have since learned so much about supporting my now-diagnosed neurodivergent sons. I share this day to reflect on how far we have come and how far we still need to go and to remind myself that everyone is in different stages of their educational journey. I wish I could say that the practices responsible…