ATTACHMENT NETWORK OF MANITOBA GENERAL MEETING
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 at Adoption Options
Present: Leslie Johnston and Joanne Brown (co-chairs); Jen Theule, Sayma Malik, Rosanne Papadopoulos (Board members); Nelda Johnson, Susan Emerson, Dawn Warkentin, Brigitta Perkins, Kelly Turenne, Cathy Seitz, Kristine Pau, Mila Toews, Bonnie Snow
Leslie thanked Bonnie for continuing to host our Network meetings
Information Shared:
The Network will turn 15 in 2017 and as a teenage network, we decided to create a conference on Attachment Needs and Mental Health of Teens, which we hope to present in the fall of 2017, hopefully with Stan Kutcher, Marlene Moretti, Jody Carrington and Karen Young.
We have our workshop entitled Infancy Matters proceeding on Oct 24/25 with Dr. Mary Claire Heffron. We have had major troubles with paypal but that will soon be rectified and people can then pay online again.
Dr Heffron is presenting a free evening for parents of fussy babies on Sunday, Oct 23 from 6-8pm at the new SSCY Building at 1155 Notre Dame Ave. We ask that people try to rsvp at so we can keep track of numbers.
We will co-host with HCMO, the Connect Training in March 6,7and 8, 2017. This is a culturally safe attachment focused program out of Simon Fraser University that has been rolled out throughout BC and across North America. It is a parenting group for those who care for children over 8. HCMO is looking into covering the costs of the training and subsequent supervision for perhaps 35 people (an $1800 cost per person). Stay tuned.
We hope to again offer the Making the Connection training in 2017 as well.
Watch for us on Facebook. The Public Service Committee just completed the adaptation of the brochure, 10 Things Your Baby Wants You to Know into still form video. These 10 things have been fitted with pictures and text in 20 second clips. We will be promoting them on Facebook.
Our next Network meeting is Tuesday, Feb 7, 2017 over lunch hour.
Rosanne Papadopoulos presented on some of her work as an Occupational Therapist who works primarily with children with autism, both in private practice and at the Louis Riel School Division. Rosanne’s work is with RDI (Relational Developmental Intervention) which is similar to the DIR model or Floortime model offered through the province. Unfortunately the province is very married to, and offers huge funding (100 times the funding actually) to ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) programs as opposed to the relational therapies. She let us know of ADAPT (Association of Developmental Autism Programs and Treatment) as well as the RELATE program which puts on workshops for staff and parents.
Rosanne spoke about joy being a key emotion that helps babies grow their brains. Children use co-regulation and mirror neurons to activate more dormant regions of the brain. When we see a baby show a startle reflex, the clutching forward is the grabbing for relationship. Infants are hardwired for connection. The parent is the master craftsman of the brain. Relationships give us love and release oxytocin, which heals us.
Children with autism don’t seem to store episodic events in memory and will recall memories that are ones we love or have hate/fear, but they do not share the meaning of events. Their perseverative behaviours originate and aren’t mitigated as well, and they find it tough to inhibit thoughts and behaviours. It is tough to be resilient without memory of having had success.
Developmental therapies focus on emotional regulation, to promote trust of the parent, and on emotional sharing, especially joy, and practicing eye contact in a low stimulative environment. They focus on nonverbal communication, joint attention (developing curiosity), coregulation (the give and take, back and forth), conversation and dynamic thinking.