Empowering Parents as Agents of Change!

Relationships are EVERYTHING.        We are dynamic beings, interacting with each other in an ever changing world that seems to be speeding up at an exponential rate. Children are faced with much more stimuli than ever before, socially, emotionally and academically. Gadgets, games and screens have taken children and adults hostage, distracting us from being present and essentially robbing us from experiences that allow us to connect with others and draw meaning into our lives. The screen is interactive, no doubt, but lacks in providing any reciprocal dynamic feedback to the player. It is static and predictable, if I do this, I get that. Not so in a dynamic interaction. Sometimes I do this and I get that, but more often, I get something different and need to process and assimilate the new information.  So it is no wonder that so many children are faced with social and emotional obstacles early in life, which often derails development and with age, begins to stick out like a sore thumb and interferes with relationship building on a deeper level.       The Neurology of a Relationship     Our primary relationships, with parents, caregivers and siblings, are the foundation from which all new relationships are formed. As infants, we spend thousands of hours in practice, mastering simple, yet essential developmental objectives. Much like building blocks, each small feat of mastery is dependent upon the one before. As we take in our environment we learn the skills of interaction in a safe, ever changing dynamic world of people, objects and sensations. As we learn, we pave new neural pathways in our brain. Neurons fire each time we make a new connection to something previously learned. Emotions are tagged to the experience and memories become encoded, and are stored for the future, to be use with new people to solve problems and make decisions. This is essentially how we learn anything in a dynamic environment.

Neurological Vulnerabilities and the Autism Spectrum