Family Forums are held on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month, and are intended to be a time of education, constructive dialogue, and support. Occasionally, topics of particular interest may also be discussed during a lunch hour forum.
Last week’s forum was about changing our approach when our children can’t — a perfect segue into this week’s Lunch & Learn on parenting children who have autism or sensory processing issues. Any parent of a child on the autism spectrum will tell you that parenting takes on a whole new shape. The same goes for sensory processing disorder (SPD). Things that other parents may not ever have to think about (like tags in clothes) can send a child with SPD into a spiral. An activity that would likely be fun to a neurotypical child (like a friend’s birthday party) can be cause for significant distress for a child with autism.
If you have a foster or pre-adoptive placement with autism or sensory challenges, or if you’re even considering adopting a child with these diagnoses, you won’t want to miss this forum! Through our dialogue, we’ll take some of the mystery and fear of the unknown out of these diagnoses, and replace those with resources, knowledge, and confidence that you can parent a child whose brain processes the world differently.
All Recommended families will receive an email inviting them to register for upcoming Forums. If you are Recommended and have not received an email invitation, please contact us at iap@fireflyIN.org. If you are not Recommended with Indiana Adoption Program, but have recently adopted or are in the process of finalizing an adoption and would like to participate, please email your request to your local adoption consultant.