April is notable for many things, chief among them Occupational Therapy Month and Autism Acceptance Month. Scroll down to read more, and to get a few updates on what's happening at the clinic!
Occupational Therapy Month
We’ve written before about how occupational therapy is often hard to concisely describe. It does so many amazing things for a multitude of people. A few years back, I sat down with Christina and she talked about the power of play in pediatric OT. On the other end of the spectrum, you’ll find OTs who work with adults. After a stroke where he lost the ability to move one of his arms, a team of OTs gave one grandpa the ability to hug again. This 2-minute video delivers all.the.feels.
As you know, we're a small pediatric practice and we don't have a team of OTs, but we do really cool and fun stuff like writing with disappearing ink in Friendship Group! And if you're curious about other things OTs do, check out our 10 Things OTs Do downloadable resource!
Autism Acceptance Month
In recent years, there’s been an evolution in the way this month is observed. The name changed from Autism Awareness Month to Autism Acceptance Month. I’ll be honest, at first, I had a hard time grasping the difference, and shied away from talking about it out of fear of doing it wrong. Over time, I've learned a lot by paying attention to the lived experiences of #ActuallyAutistic folks on Twitter. One of my favorites is Adriana Lebrón White, an autistic librarian, and writer. She just put together an excellent list of 15 children's stories by autistic authors. Laura recently shared the website of Emily Lees, an autistic speech-language therapist from Manchester, England. Her views are helping us challenge old ways of thinking and evolve the way we serve our families. Finally, check out the tweet below for one autistic person's fantastic explanation of the puzzle piece symbol. The #AutisticComicTakeover hashtag is full of proud autistic voices, sharing their voices and their lives. Check it out if you have a chance!
Other clinic updates
The clinic has been a little extra quiet these days with Sarah out on maternity leave. We are happy that she is able to savor this special with her baby. We're also looking forward to introducing some new faces in the coming months! Stay tuned.
