Parents Plus co-founder and Clinical Director, Dr John Sharry, recently welcomed some of the over 150 Accredited Parents Plus facilitators to an engaging workshop for those wishing to integrate a neuro-affirmative approach to their work with parents. A neuro-affirming approach, like the Parents Plus model itself, is compassion-driven and celebrates each child’s unique experience and way of being in their family and in the world.
Some of the topics covered in the workshop include:
Language regarding neurodiversity, as in other areas, has been evolving and is important. The workshop heard about the need for language to be both respectful and inclusive of people’s experience. John suggests the phrase ‘neuro-distinct’ as a more strengths-based term than ‘neuro-divergent’ which may hold connotations of deficit or ‘othering’. Language and terminology is a topic that can be explored with individual parents in relation to their preferences.
Neurodiversity and the family: Neuro-distinct children are much more likely to have neuro-distinct siblings and parents. Ensuring our Parents Plus groups are inclusive spaces which cater to diverse needs and experiences is essential when planning and facilitating programmes.
Change the Environment, Not the Child: Many of the challenges that ND children face are due to living in stressful environments that do not meet their needs, rather than any individual pathology. In moving to a more neurodiversity-affirming approach, the focus is on accepting the child as they are, and changing the environment through providing reasonable accommodations that meet their needs and support their well-being.
The Parents Plus Strengths-based approach aligns well with a ND affirming approach. The focus on relationships rather than compliance, on encouragement rather than correction, on strengths rather than deficits, embraces the individuality and potential of each child and family. Equally, the problem solving model, “Pause, Tune In and Plan”, which is so central to the Parents Plus approach, supports families to find their own solutions to their unique challenges.
This was the first in a series of advanced practice workshops for our community of accredited facilitators. It further equipped facilitators to deliver parents plus programmes that empower caregivers to build strong, respectful relationships with their neuro-divergent/neuro-distinct children.
Karin Todd is a Parents Plus trainer and supervisor and is an experienced facilitator of our evidence-based programmes. Her professional background includes youth and community work, service management and therapeutic family work. Karin has a special interest in adolescent psychotherapy and in the family experience of parental separation and loss. She currently works in a community-based setting as a family support practitioner.