Caregiver Connections

Good morning, y'all. Happy caregiver Thursday. How is everybody doing today? I hope you guys have your, your hug in a mug this morning. Whatever brings you a little warmth and comfort and self care. I have my tea this morning. I'm trying to stay away from, from too much coffee these days. So try in the tea in the mornings instead of coffee. We'll see how it goes. So for those. Oh, good morning. Speak wonder. Good to see you on here. So for those of you who I have not met yet, I am Stephanie Irwin and I live in Savannah, Georgia and I'm a mom of two neurodivergent children.

My daughter, who is 7, about to turn 8, was diagnosed with autism and have a son who's also neurodivergent and he is 11. Professionally. Good morning, Ray. RAY Professionally, I am a certified child life specialist and I work with hospitalized children and, and their families in the hospital as well as within doing programs for them within the community. So part of working with the hospitalized children and their families is providing support to them while they're going through a tough time. You're sipping through coffee.

Oh yes, coffee at your favorite shop. I love going to coffee shops. They're just so relaxing. Yes, yes, coffee, tea, whatever you've got. Bring your hug in a mug this morning. So, yeah, part of working with the kids in the hospital and their families is just providing the support to them and helping them through times where they may not understand their diagnosis or they may have some fears about hospitalization or things that they can't control. And just the unknown in general can be really scary.

So I thought it would be a great idea to share with you guys some activities, some therapeutic activities that I have used with the children and their families that I work with. And truly they can be used for kids, adults in between, all ages. And it's just a really great way to help work through some of these, some of these feelings or some of these fears that may pop up. And so, and, and some of these, you know, are great for kids, but truly it's, it's great for adults too, to play with, play DOH or make slime doing something tactile.

So, you know, doing something with your hands and that could even be as some of you guys like to knit or sew, that's also a tactile experience and just like a stress ball play DOH is really great when somebody's stressed out or when they're upset or angry. I try to do this with my kids a lot because sometimes they have a hard Time with their big emotions. And so these. These things can be used for the people you care for. You can do them yourself, you know, in times where you're feeling stressed out.

I love worry monsters. We used to do a lot. And you take like a cup of paint with a little bit of water in it, and you pour it on a cup, on a piece of paper, and you take a straw and, you know, you're taking a deep breath and you're blowing through the straw, and you're designing these worry monsters on the page or whatever you want them to be. So. But it's a really great way to get people deep breathing and, you know, taking the focus off of something that maybe they can't control, and it's giving them something that they can control.

Love building with Lego blocks. Yeah, it's really great. And, you know, it provides a distraction too. Somebody's like going through something, having a hard time, just giving them that diversion, that activity that they can be doing, like Legos. It's. It's really great. And it's things that we may not think of as adults to use for ourselves as well, but it's really important that we do that and that we can still incorporate play into. Into our lives as well. Coloring books are great. Like, the adult coloring books are really enjoyable for a lot of people.

And it just helps them have, you know, a sense of calm. So that's something. That's great. Mandalas are great if you want to take a more meditative approach. Writing down the five senses. You know, sometimes it's hard to remember this. I know a lot of you probably, probably know about thinking of your five senses and how it's just a really great calming technique. And. And yeah, adult coloring books. They're fabulous. They are fabulous. Now I need to make myself do that too, because I have them just.

It's just reminding myself to do it. So, yeah, writing down the five senses. So what can you see, what can you hear, what can you taste, smell, touch? And you can even make it into a scavenger hunt if you want. That really just helps people focus on what they can control instead of what they can't. Yeah, so the five senses are really great thing, whether you're thinking of them, writing them down, doing a whole scavenger activity, any deep breathing activity. And for little kids, we like to do bubbles because that's just a really great way to get them to take deep breaths while they're in the hospital.

And, you know, sometimes we get stressed and we forget to take deep breaths. So, you know, maybe. Maybe you guys want to start blowing bubbles, too. I mean, it's good for everybody, but that's a good way to just help remind you to breathe. And especially for children, when they may not understand deep breathing techniques, that's a good way to get them going and bringing in a form of play. You can do a Jenga game and turn it into a feelings game where you can talk about your feelings. So there's a lot of options online where they can give you questions and you can write it on there.

I believe there's some companies that actually make their own, but sometimes we like to make our own. So instead of buying the companies and you just tailor it to you, or. I mean, it could even just be like a conversational piece that you write right on the Jenga blocks. It doesn't have to necessarily be talking about feelings, so it can be. Can be really anything. And it's just a great way to get chatting with the person you care for or people in your family or friends. And it's just a great. Playing games together is a great way just to connect with one another.

And there's. There's just so many good ones. So you guys feel free to share, if you can think of any, or you have experience with some great therapeutic activities that you like to do. I'd love to hear what you have. And even if you're watching on the replay, feel free to. To type that in. And it's good for us to just share with one another all the great things that. All the great advice that we all have. Yeah. So I hope you guys have a good Thursday, and I hope you do something for yourselves today.

Anything, whatever it may be. All right, y'all take care. You're doing great.