Disability Workshop

Today Randy and I went to an all day disability workshop and resource fair. It was really more geared toward autism, but some of the general topics apply across the board. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we had already been exposed to most of the general topics, so we felt that it wasn't as useful to us as we had hoped. There were 5 time slots that were available to attend workshops, and it was a bit of a guessing game which sessions would be the most useful to us.


The first one I thoroughly enjoyed although it probably will not be anything we would need for Justin. It was about auditory training, which is an aspect of sensory integration (didn't know that going in...) and not something that really applies to Justin. But it was amazingly interesting! I learned so much about hearing and listening and the nervous system and the tonal range of various languages.



We learned about the Vagus nerve, the longest nerve in our bodies, and the only one with an external port (the ear). It touches many of our main organs, so when hearing is affected, it can affect many organs as well. If the ear drum is not taut, the nerve reverberates throughout the whole body!



And many children who have listening problems (not the same as hearing problems) are left ear dominate, which means that sounds enter the left ear, go to the right part of the brain, which coincides with the left ear, and then has to cross through to the left side, the language center. No wonder messages get lost in all that traveling!



And we hear ourselves speak though bone reverberation, sound traveling through bone, which is why we sound differently when we hear a recording of ourselves because then the sound is traveling through air. We start hearing sound through the bone reverberation in utero. So we are already becoming tuned to the tonal frequencies of our mother's language before birth. The English language encompasses a certain frequency range, so we become accustomed to that range, making it more difficult to learn another language unless we become readjusted to that language's frequencies. Russian has one of the widest ranges of frequencies, which explains why it's so hard to learn!



And some children's listening problems are not caused by volume, but by frequency. This is why the vacuum cleaner drives some children crazy. He used an example of a child saying after this training that the rain didn't sound like machine guns anymore. And he said that Sting uses auditory training to keep tuned to hearing how he sounds while singing. That's actually why auditory training was developed: to train opera singers.



I cannot even remember all the cool things that this seminar included. And if this is ever something that Justin needs, we are already in the know!

We also learned about how Medicaid waiver programs work into our estate planning, reinforcement and reinforcers, optimizing health care with natural remedies, and evaluating the effectiveness of a child's treatment and education. It was a full day of information-gathering. Now we have to go back and pick out the parts that are beneficial to Justin's care.

The one other really cool part was visiting the church's area designed and built for kids and adults with special needs. They have an area for medically fragile kids, a calming room, and areas to teach kids not always by age, but by ability. There is an area for video games after lessons are over, an indoor play area as well as an outdoor play area with HIGH fences so kids cannot escape, and a shower room (with complete wheelchair access) in case anyone has an accident. There is also a room for adults and they have about 40-50 every week. Anyone with extra concerns (like flight risks or food allergies) are tagged with bright colored wrist bands so everyone knows to check them out. Some of the other children serve as "buddies" and are served almost as much as the children with special needs. The area is also open for a playgroup during the week for parents with special needs children. The church has also trained over 70 other churches nationwide to create similar areas and programs. And I think the most amazing part in that this church only has 500 members. That's a lot of minstry for not a lot of members!

All in all, it was a fun "date" for Randy and me, and we did some good exploring into some different areas that we hadn't tapped yet. We will definitely keep this in mind for next year.