Invisible Disabilities: Sensory Processing Disorders (Dyspraxia, etc.)

STAR Institute for Sensory Processing Disorder: Subtypes of SPD

Their Mission:

To improve the quality of life for children, adolescents and adults with SPD, and their families by providing:

• Comprehensive assessment and effective intervention for Sensory Processing Disorder
• Rigorous research with our collaborating university-based research partners
• Education for caregivers, pediatric professionals, and educators; and
• Advocacy for official recognition of SPD worldwide.

The Story of 7 year old Luc Carpenter from County Kildare, Ireland:

 The Irish Times: Dyspraxia – A Disability that Nobody Can See

See Also: The Dyspraxia Foundation

Videos Explaining Dyspraxia:

 

Embracing All God’s Children

This is a marvelous resource for parents or friends of children (or adults) with special needs!

Children from Bangladesh

The full title: 

Embracing All God’s Children: Including Those with Special Needs in the Church Community, by Wendy Cwiklinski

Ms. Cwiklinski (Matushka Wendy – she’s an Orthodox Priest’s wife) has several children with disabilities of her own and personally knows the challenges.

She briefly explains the nature of invisible disabilities, PDD (which includes autism), ADHD, Mental Health Issues, and Co-Morbid Disorders (LD, Tourette Syndrome, ODD, Anxiety and Depression, SID). She then gets into the many sources of help (a wellness team) for the challenges which must be addressed. And there are suggestion on how the Church family can help to include the special needs person in your family, or in your circle of friends. There are helpful illustrations and pictures in this presentation, including a picture of her family.

To Access:

Also:

Other Helpful resources by Wendy Cwiklinski for Download

Modern Christianity’s Mental Health Stigma Must End

Getting Past “Pray about it. Have more faith!” 

Relevant Magazine: Modern Christianity’s Mental HealthStigma Must End , by Rachel Moreland

Rachel Moreland shares her thoughts and feelings about many frustrating encounters in Church, as well as the stigma in the workplace and elsewhere.

What I am warning against are the instances when the Church uses clichés to dismiss what is a very complex and multifaceted issue. 

Rachel Moreland also has a blog: with love from Rachel  

More on the Subject (A Video): Transforming Health Stigma 

 

Saints for Students with Learning Difficulties

Saints for Students with Learning Difficulties 

by Agatha Rodi

from the webpage of  Charlotte Riggle

 

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Ms. Rodi is a teacher in Greece who feels blessed to be teaching children with disabilities who have been mainstreamed into her classrooms. She speaks of prayers which enable both teacher and student, and of Saints who she finds especially helpful as she works with students with dyslexia, autism, issues with working memory, short-term memory, stuttering, and ADHD,

St. John of Kronstadt from Wikimedia Commons

She lists four Saints to whom she prays, and how certain of these Saints helped a student of hers with learning difficulties. And she writes of these things in an inspirational way:

Be inspired and don’t hesitate to teach students with special talents. They will surprise you along the course of time, and you will feel how much they changed you as a human being. The impact is huge.  . . . .          d Prayer is the key!  . . . .   s Faith is the magic word to make the impossible, possible!

Brain Injury Rehabilitation

(With a focus on Prism Adaption Treatment) a video will appear in a moment . . .

See also From Wikipedia – Prism Adaption

Glory to Thee, O God!

Glory to Thee for Thy mercies, seen and unseen; Glory to Thee through every sigh of my sorrow;
Glory to Thee for every step of my life’s journey for every moment of glory; Glory to Thee, O God, from age to age!

– from the “Akathist of Thanksgiving” (“Glory to God for All Things”), composed by Metropolitan Triphon  Turkestanov, killed in Soviet Russia in 1934- A Christian Martyr

 A Free Online Version of the Akathist of Thanksgiving

The Full Text

Loving an Autistic Child at Church, by Charlotte Riggle

Charlotte Riggle is an Orthodox Christian mother of children with various neurological conditions. They have grown up now, and in this blog post shared her reflections on seeing children with these issues through to an abiding relationship with a Church community, from their childhood years into their adult lives. She has experienced the challenge of doing this, and speaks from her reflections on her personal experiences. 

Charlotte Riggle: Loving An Autistic child At Church

Here is another Orthodox Christian mother who has taken up the same challenge:

 The Least of These: Raising Autism in the Church, with Dignity