Therapies Archives - More Than Quirky

The Magic of Speechies: Speech Pathology Week 2024

August 29, 2024

It is Speech Pathology Week 2024. This year’s theme is “Communicate Your Way”. Speech Language Pathologists / Speech Language Therapists, really don’t get the recognition they deserve for how much they contribute to the wellbeing of our society, particularly when it comes to neurodivergent children. Despite the name, they do so much more than help people with speech. What Do They Do? Speech Language Pathologists / Therapists (SLPs, or “speechies”) assist a wide range of[…]

Urge Surfing: Developing Impulse Control

November 14, 2023

TRIGGER WARNING: mentions of suicide Impulse control can be difficult for many neurodivergent people. Sometimes it is a genuine inability to control reflexes, responses, and behaviours. Often, however, it is just an inclination; the simple fact that impulse control does not come naturally and needs to be learned more explicitly through techniques such as Urge Surfing. Admittedly, this is also the case for some neurotypical people too! Just as the majority of the general population[…]

The Underachiever: Failing to Reach Potential

November 1, 2023

One of the awful phrases parents of neurodivergent children often hear from medical professionals* is “They’re failing to reach their potential.” * The ones who aren’t neuroaffirming, and don’t really understand what they’re talking about. This is usually based on measured assessments, or ideal milestones for their age. Children who might be considered to be “failing to reach their potential” could include, for example: Is it True? Sometimes the professionals will be blatantly wrong. For[…]

Therapies: What and How Far?

June 27, 2023

Because neurodivergencies are generally based on a deficit model, the focus of many medical professionals is to “fix” what they think they can. What this means is that a diagnosis focuses on what a person can’t do – in comparison to an average neurotypical person – rather than on their strengths. It also rarely takes into account that many neurotypical people aren’t strong across all areas of their lives either, but aren’t forced into therapies[…]