Do you enjoy colouring by yourself or with your child? Get your free copy of the Mindful Parent Colouring Book!
Are you feeling overwhelmed? Are you getting conflicting advice about how to proceed? You are not alone!
Our gift to you: Register above for your copy of the Mindful Parent Colouring Book!
What happens when your child is diagnosed with a disability or with a delay?
When your child is diagnosed with a disability or delay, the discussion with professionals quickly shifts to early intervention. There’s often a huge emphasis on starting therapy as soon as possible. Some parents are told that their child needs to see multiple therapists, each with a minimum number of hours per week, in order to see the best results. It’s no wonder that parents of disabled children start their journey feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Next, the challenge becomes trying to balance therapy around all the other things in everyday family life. Like siblings, activities, our careers, finances, friendships, and everyone’s health and wellbeing. It can feel like an impossible task.
What special needs resources exist for parents?
One of the most important things to realise early on is that therapy is not the thing that has the most significant impact on your child’s life. While it most certainly helps their growth and development, there is so much we can do as parents, outside of therapy alone, that can make a real difference for our children now and in their future.
As the expert in your child and family our programmes will empower you to:
Use your child’s strengths and interests to support their development
Foster a sense of belonging for your child
Build collaborative relationships with therapists and healthcare professionals
Prioritise what is important to your family
Increase the well-being of your child and your entire family
What supports are there for families with disabilities or for disabled parents?
The idea of being family-centred has been with us for many years, and it does describe the approach of the best professionals: respecting the family's expertise and supporting the network around the child. But too often professional power still dominates the family’s experience and negative stereotypes and expectations can build up which stop the family moving forward with hope.
Part of the answer to this is to make peer support - family to family and teen to teen support. We have developed methods of planning, reflection and mutual support that really lift people to a new place of strength.
What supports are there for special needs parenting?
Families with young children with a developmental delay or disability or who are neurodivergent have the support they need early in their journey to create a life that is meaningful and fulfilling to their child and family. Our guiding principles are:
* We are led by families and value the power of peer support.
* We believe in a strength-based, evidence-informed approach.
* We believe in the beauty and capability of each child.
* We respect and uphold the rights and dignity of all people.
* We believe all families are capable and have the right of self-determination.
* We believe in inclusion and promote a sense of belonging.
Why peer support?
Parents have told us: “Connecting with other families is central to coping best”
MyTime is for parents and carers raising a child with a delay or disability. It’s a place to share and learn from other families and talk about your experiences. It’s a world away from appointments and therapy. It’s support for you. Our peer groups are run by trained and knowledgeable parent facilitators who understand what it’s like to have a child with disability and have experience navigating the different services and systems.
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These virtual topic-based sessions are run regularly with sessions that are self-paced and accessible when you are free, meaning you are able to learn the information most relevant to your child, and the stage in your parenting journey. These give you access to our own parents community which you can come to at any time. Hosted in a private Facebook group, it is a moderated community for families raising a child with disability to come together to share, learn and celebrate with each other. It’s a safe space to get help with everyday life, as well as look at the big picture.
Having a child diagnosed with a disability or developmental delay can be overwhelming and isolating.
You are not alone: Our organisation is parent-led… It means that we have been there before!
One of the many things that help us is to understand what keeps us going. Because we do so much for our children and family, we often forget to take care of ourselves…
So here is our gift to you: A Mindful Parent Colouring Book to relax and reflect about ways to build on your child’s and family’s strengths page after page, drawing after drawing!
About us
We support families by sharing:
* Free resources packed with parent-tested information, knowledge, and wellbeing practices
* Stories and interviews of parents like you packed with their tips and best ideas
* Professional Best Practice so that you know your rights and what you can get from the ‘system’
* Online courses co-designed by parents who are also teachers and psychologists and share their experiences
All of these are designed to help you get the results you want and accelerate progress for your child.
Register above for your copy of the Mindful Parent Colouring Book!
Check our website: www.ftitrust.org