(812) 288-4688 southern indiana children’s therapy...

December 2015/Issue 16www.meaningfuldays.com

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Meaningful Day ServicesMAIN OFFICE: 225 South School StreetBrownsburg, IN 46112 (317) 858-8630 Fax: (317) 858-8715SOUTHERN INDIANA TEENAGE ANDADOLESCENTS THERAPY CENTER: 700 Missouri AvenueJeffersonville, IN 47130 (812) 288-4688 SOUTHERN INDIANA CHILDREN’S THERAPY CENTER: 590 Missouri Avenue, Suite 201Jeffersonville, IN 47130 (812) 288-4688NORTHERN INDIANA OFFICE: 7525 Maplecrest Road #171Fort Wayne, IN 46835 (260) 517-3811 INDIANAPOLIS DAY SERVICES: 2346 South Lynhurst, Suite 303Indianapolis, IN 46241(317) 248-0016 Fax: (317) 248-0013

IN THIS ISSUE: Meaningful Moments in 2015 pg 7 What is Recreation Therapy pg 10

A the best wishes to you and yours!

Funny Holiday MemoriesWhen I was a child, my parents were terrible about

keeping presents secret and would put things underthe tree early. My brothers and I simply waited for a moment when both were gone and then unwrapped all the presents. We never knew for sure whose gift waswhose, but since I was the only girl, it was prey easy toknow what I was geing. Occasionally, we screwed up,which led to some interesting fights on Christmas Day!

My father, though, had the best Christmas ritual.About the first of December, he would bring home a hugebox (like 10 lbs.) of mixed chocolates and announce

loudly, “I am puing these in the freezer and no one is totouch them until Christmas!” Well, the freezer was in the far back of the laundry room and you aretalking about five kids who rarely got candy. Invariably, Christmas Eve, my Dad would pull the boxof candy out of the freezer all excited only to find less then 2–3 pieces left (all with holes dug inthe boom and left because they were cherry or raspberry). One year, a table knife actually fellout of the box. Each year, he would be flabbergasted, running to the store at the last minute tobuy another box, swearing next year there would be no candy!

The next year, he would forget and repeat the process, forgeing how naughty his children werethe year before.

Hopefully, my Dad is eating a box of chocolates in Heaven right now (leaving the cherry andraspberry, because who really eats those?)

To all of you, have an amazing holiday! —Sandi Miller

[ FROM THE CEO

MDS Newsletter – 2 – December 2015

Providing quality,hands-on services that enhance and improve

the independence of each unique

individual.


Tips for Keeping the Holidays HappyBY AMANDA HILL, M.ED, LPCA-BEHAVIOR AND ASSESSMENT COORDINATOR

The holidays can be an exciting time of non-stop activity: family get-togethers, parties with friends, and

time off from work and school to celebrate with loved ones. It is a time of year looked forward to by many,

but to a child with a developmental disability, all of the extra activities and extra people can be overwhelming

and stressful. Here are a few tips to hopefully make everyone’s holiday season merry and bright:

1) Be prepared… and make sure your child is, too. Everyone likes to know what is going to happen next.

It gives us comfort and allows us to prepare mentally for what the upcoming situation might be like, who will

be there, what you want to wear, etc. The same can go for your child. Talk to your child in advance and let

him or her know what day Aunt Sally’s dinner gathering will be and who might be there or what time you’ll

be headed to Grandma’s.

2) Know your child’s frustration tolerance and be mindful of it. If you know a one-hour wait in line for a

photo op with Santa will surely bring on an epic meltdown, try to go during a time when the wait might not

be so long. If being at someone else’s house for two hours triggers tears and repeated requests to go home,

start preparing to leave for home and say your goodbyes after an hour to hopefully keep the tears at bay

and keep your exit (and ride home) peaceful.

3) Let others know the best way to greet your child. If your child doesn’t like hugs, simply say, “Oh, she

prefers handshakes,” or fist bumps, or even a wave and “hi,” or whatever it may be. You don’t have to

apologize for your child or make him or her hug people they don’t want to. We all have our preferred ways

of physically interacting with others.


[ ABA SERVICES

Peas in a Pod: An Empowering Approach to Early InterventionBY HANNAH SAUBER, M.S, BCBA

The Preschool program at MDS provides early intensive intervention for children diagnosed with autism. This treatment uses Applied Behavior Analysis to address the behavioral deficits and excesses associated with an autismdiagnosis. We start with basic “learning-to-learn” skills, suchas imitation, attending, play, and language. Our kiddos work one-to-one with trained behavior technicians, speechlanguage pathologists, and occupational therapists. The goalis not to simply teach all the skills they lack, but to empowerthem with the pivotal skills needed to learn from their environment, allowing them to continually access new reinforcers and learning opportunities. A day at preschool is

structured into 30-minute “rotations”—group lessons, activi-ties, or structured play times. As preschoolers build skills inthe one-to-one setting, they then practice and generalizethese skills during the rotations, which mimic situations theywill encounter in school and the community. Effective treat-ment outcomes help our clients enjoy a full and independentlife. We have seen tremendous gains from our preschoolersthis past year and we are so excited for 2016. Our preschool program is currently accepting new students. Call to schedule a tour today!

Welcome Lauren Tinker to the PodLauren has five years’ experience in Applied Behavior

Analysis and she spent two years as a classroom teacher at aschool for children with autism before joining our Pea PodTeam in September as our new Preschool Coordinator. Welcome to the team!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. . . to be a TrailblazerBY COOPER PASS, B.S.-ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF ABA

December is going to be a busy month for the Trailblazers!We will be volunteering at all five of our different volunteerlocations: Savoy Fitness, Meals on Wheels, Orange CloverKitchen and More, Providence Nursing Home, Ronald McDonald House, and St. Joseph’s Children’s Home. Our volunteer responsibilities can include anything from lightcleaning to rolling silverware, basic office duties, makingboxes of canned goods and other items for needy families,baking goodies for families who are staying at the Ronald McDonald House, and working in the ice cream parlor atProvidence Nursing Home. Our big opportunity this month isto pair-up with the Salvation Army to be bell ringers on two

Tuesdays this holiday season. Whilevolunteering is an exciting and important part of Trailblazers, ourclients are are also working on functional living skills, independentliving skills, social skills, and otheradaptive skills while at the center inJeffersonville. We hope to grow theprogram even more and includemore volunteer opportunities for ourclients for the upcoming year, as wellas continue to enrich their current essential skill programming. Now accepting Trailblazers, call and sched-ule an information session today!

Elaine and Rebecca

ABA’s newly registered behavior technicians.

ABA South: Recapping Our Fun andFestive Fall and Other HappeningsABA South held its annual Fall Break Program November 5

through 16. There are always a lot of activities in the commu-nity going on this time of year, and it’s fun to get the kids involved in new things. This year, we were pleased to haveperformers from StageOne Storytellers come to MeaningfulDay and do a performance of The Lorax. The performersbring popular children’s books to life by encouraging the audience to help tell the story through music, interaction,and lots of imagination. We also visited Beckley Creek Parkand participated in a guided creek walk; and we visitedGood Garbage: Center for Creative Reuse, where we madea craft from recycled, upcycled, and donated materials.House of Boom Extreme Air Sports, a facility that housesover 10,000 feet of connected trampolines, was a huge hit

ABOVE: Everyone enjoysmaking art at the GoodGarbage Center for Creative Reuse.

LEFT: John enjoys a day at the House of Boom.

StageOne Storytellers perform The Lorax for Pea Pods kids.


(continued on page 6)


[ ABA SERVICES

with everyone, staff included. For the grand finale, a fall festival was held at MDS complete with games, a professionalface painter and balloon animal artist. We are now gettingprepared for our Winter Break Program which is just aroundthe corner. We are currently accepting clients so call us formore information on how to get in on the fun!Along with all the fun, we have also had several opportuni-

ties in the past quarter to partner with other organizationsand host information sessions for parents of clients, as well asthe whole community. In September, we conducted a train-ing called, “Next Steps,” to highlight what services wereavailable to children once they transitioned from First Stepsat age 3. We also opened our doors to ASK (About SpecialKids), an organization staffed and led by parents of childrenwith special needs that helps other families of children withdevelopmental disabilities understand the various systems of support, and the Arc of Indiana, who, together, held aMedicaid waiver information session. On October 27, Gordon Holmes, a financial planner with MetLife, who has ason with special needs, presented to parents on how to planfinancially for the future of loved ones with disabilities. In addition, we have also been busy planning with STRIDES(Strengthening Transitional Resources for Individuals by Discussing Gaps in Everyday Services), a community thinktank that strives to bring together all area service providers to identify barriers to treatment for individuals with disabilitiesacross the lifespan and seek solutions to decrease and eradicate those barriers. Finally, we are very excited about our work with the AFC in Louisville. The AFC (AutismFriendly Community) is an initiative of Louisville’s mayor,Greg Fischer, to make Louisville the first city identified as“autism friendly” in the country. As you can see, we have bigplans for 2016 and we look forward to bringing you updatesin the New Year. Have a safe and wonderful holiday season!

Karly Sciortino-Poulter from Arc of Indiana presents at ourASK-sponsored event.

TOP: Amber enjoys a guided creek tour at Beckley Creek Park. ABOVE: Shane and Phillip take a selfie.


ABA SERVICES ]

Nick Neal, who has been a Trailblazer for the past year, volunteersweekly at Orange Clover Kitchen and More, a popular lunch and break-fast spot in Jeffersonville. He takes his job seriously and even wears acompany shirt. His main job is rolling silverware for the restaurant in themorning just before their busy lunch shift. “Working with Nick is a greatopportunity for us. It adds a new dynamic to what we do and improvesthe lives of all involved,” says Rachel Smallwood, owner and chef at Orange Clover. Rachel goes on to say that she has seen great improve-ment in Nick’s skill over the time he has volunteered there. “The first couple of times, (his therapist) would re-roll a couple of bundles, but nowhe’s able to do it all on his own. We love seeing him learn and grow andit really helps us out, because rolling silverware is now something wedon’t have to do.” And Nick loves the opportunity and has really becomepart of the team. “I love rolling silverware and I like to make food; I evengot a t-shirt and I work really hard,” he says. Nick’s mom, Leslie, says thatvolunteering at Orange Clover is good for his self-esteem. “Like Nicksaid, he’s a hard worker, like Katie (Nick’s sister). He wants to be likeeveryone else and it’s important that he feels valued.” We are all veryproud of Nick and grateful to have the community support for our mission.

Meaningful Moment

Occupational Therapy gets messy!It has been exciting celebrating fall in occupational therapy

over the past few weeks! This time of year offers many oppor-tunities to practice fine motor skills by getting hands messy.Carving and painting pumpkins offered an opportunity for ourpreschoolers to progress from using a spoon to scoop theslimy pulp, to cleaning up the pulp with their fingertips. As youare celebrating this time of year with your family, there aremany ways to include kids who might initially turn away fromthese messy activities. Begin by offering a tool, such as aspoon, to scoop or tongs to pick things up. Make sure to provide frequent breaks or split the activity into several smallsteps if it is stressful or difficult. Sometimes, kids aren’t ready toexplore these sensory-rich activities with touch, but you can encourage them to participate by using other senses, such assmelling dough as you roll it out or watching paint splatteronto paper as you work on a craft. Participating can meanmore than touching the materials you are using.

Jennifer Wagner, our speech-language pathologist, frequently utilizes augmentative and alternative communica-tion (AAC) during speech therapy sessions for clients who haveminimal oral speech. AAC is used to express thoughts, needs,wants, and ideas. These tools can be used to supplement existing speech or replace speech that is not functional. If yourchild utilizes an electronic AAC device such as an iPad or iPod,please make sure that it is fully charged each time your childcomes to MDS. Once skills are mastered in speech therapysessions, our goal is to generalize skills to other settings, including ABA, occupational, music, and recreational therapysessions, as well as to home and community.


[ ABA THERAPY/SUPPORT SERVICES

Trinity decorates her pumpkin.

Melissa and Taylor dressed up for ZooBoo


BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT SERVICES ]

Behavior Management Counties

Providing quality, hands-on services that enhance and improve the independence of each

unique individual.

Welcome to Kait!We are excited to welcome a new behavior

consultant to our team. Kait Carlos has beenworking in the field of Applied BehaviorAnalysis for several years and has a passionfor helping individuals with developmentaldisabilities reach their goals. Kait is workingtoward sitting for her exam as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Kait is accepting

new referrals in Indianapolis and the surrounding areas.

http://meaningfuldays.com/about/kait-carlos-ma/

FOCUSING ON STRENGTHSWhen working with individuals who are experiencing

challenging behavioral issues, we often times get so wrappedup in all the problems that it’s easy to ignore the positives.When this occurs, it’s easy for these individuals to begin to seethemselves as someone who behaves inappropriately and tolose sight of all the wonderful things that make them uniqueindividuals. When someone sees him or herself as having “behavior problems,” they are more likely to continue theseproblematic behaviors. When things are particularly challenging with your loved

one or client, take a moment to remember the positives. Thinkof the things that make you smile, or the things this individualexcels at. Try to catch your client or loved one doing some-thing positive and make a huge deal about it. Use positivelanguage in front of others about this individual. Try to ignoresome of the problematic behaviors, while rewarding the desired behaviors.This change of focus isn’t always easy to do (especially

during very challenging times), but it can go a long way toward facilitating more desirable behaviors.

We are now on Instagram at:Meaningful_Day_Services.

Find us on Twier: @MDSIndianaor follow us on Facebook!


[ RECREATIONAL THERAPY

Why is recreation and leisure an integral part of oureveryday lives and why is it so important…let’s look at thestatistics:According to Money Watch from data they derived from

the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2014, “people who aren’temployed have a lot of leisure time—6.97 hours per day.But even full-time workers have 4.09 hours per day” on average. There were also some variances in the amount ofleisure time based on age, gender, and adults with andwithout children.There is limited data on what the statistics look like,

specifically for people with developmental disabilities, butinformation from a study in the Disability and Health Journal concluded, “Individuals who are limited in theirdaily activities are more likely to allocate their time to passive leisure (e.g., reading, television, video, and radio)and less likely to spend their time in social entertainment(e.g., theater, culture, and social events) as compared tonon-disabled individuals. In addition, we find significantdifferences in minutes per day spent on leisure activities bygender, age, marital status and number of children.” Think about the amount of free time you have each day

and how you spend that time. Now, imagine if you had aphysical or intellectual disability…what barriers would youface? Would you have the same opportunities? Would you be reliant on others for support to engage in those activities? It’s important to keep these things in perspective when caring for someone with a disability. It’s also important not to downplay the importance of justrelaxing!!! If you (or your loved one) wants to nestle in andspend an entire Saturday watching movies or a favoriteNetflix series…go for it! If you find yourself doing thesame thing on Sunday, well…maybe it’s time to get moving. It’s about finding a good balance of leisure time(reading a book, listening to music, watching TV), coupledwith meaningful recreational activities (social activities,community, exercise) built into your everyday lives for thephysical and mental health benefits you’ll gain and qualityof life. If you need help finding recreational opportunities and

resources in your area, reach out to your Recreational Therapist for help.

Recreation and Leisure Time

Recreational Therapy Services Can:• Improve quality of life

• Increase independence

• Focus on health promotion

• Promote valued healthcare outcomes

RECREATIONAL THERAPY SERVICES ]


Welcome New Therapists!We are excited to introduce a new therapist toour team, Rio James. Rio earned her Bachelorof Science degree in Recreational Therapy from

the University of Toledo in Ohioand she did her internship in Colorado, where she workedwith individuals with develop-mental disabilities. Rio is serving clients in Hamilton,Hendricks, and Marion counties.

We are also excited to introduce our new therapist,Ohlashia Aminy. Ohlashiaearned her Bachelor of Science degree in RecreationalTherapy from the University ofEastern Michigan. Ohlashia will

join our great group of therapists in the Fort Wayne area.

You might also see this facearound! Janessa Faris joinedMDS in August for her Recreational Therapy intern-ship and just wrapped up inearly December. Janessa plansto return to MDS next monthto serve clients in Central Indiana. Good luck to Janessa on her boardexam in January!

Service Areas for Rec Therapy

John and Samantha play pickleball.


[ MUSIC THERAPY SERVICES

Music Therapy CountiesWe Welcome New Therapists!As always, our Music Therapy Depart-ment has been busy recently, as we continue to grow statewide. We are verypleased to introduce Liz Krickhahn, whois serving clients in the Kokomo/Peruarea.

http://meaningfuldays.com/about/liz-krickhahn-mt-bc/

Our therapists in Jeffersonville hosted a client concert inNovember, and other areas of the state will be having holiday concerts this month, including a sing-along in Fort Wayne on December 4, two concerts in Kokomo onDecember 12, a client concert in Albion on December 8,and another sing-along in Brownsburg on December 18. Be on the lookout for many individual performances innursing homes and community centers in the upcomingmonth as our therapists and clients help to spread holidaycheer in our communities!

Upcoming Drum CirclesFort Wayne Drum CircleDrum Circle: January 8, 2016 (6:00–7:00pm)Valentine’s Dance: February 12, 2016 (6:00–7:00 pm) Epiphany Lutheran Church6606 Maplecrest Road, Fort Wayne, IN

North/Central Indianapolis Drum CircleJanuary 8, 2016 6:15pm–7:15pmFebruary 12, 2016 6:15pm–7:15pmCarmel Lutheran Church4850 E Main Street, Carmel, IN

Henry County Drum CircleJanuary 20, 2016 4:00pm–5:00pmFebruary 17, 2016 4:00pm–5:00pmDSI, 1510 Washington StreetNew Castle, IN

Brownsburg/West Indy Drum CircleHoliday Sing-a-long December 18, 2015 5:00pm–6:00pmJanuary 15, 2016 5:00pm–6:00pmCornerstone Christian Church8930 N State Road 267, Brownsburg, IN

Jeffersonville Drum CircleJanuary 16, 2016 10:30am –11:30amFebruary 20, 2016 10:30am–11:30amMeaningful Day Services Center700 Missouri Avenue, Jeffersonville, IN

Read more about our staff at meaningfuldays.com/about/

Liz Krickhahn


MUSIC THERAPY SERVICES ]

Taylor performs with Kate at theBrownsburg concert.

Ali performs with Meghan at the Brownsburg concert.

Ben performs with Meghanat the Brownsburg concert.


[ ADULT DAY SERVICES

The Trailblazer group from ADS would like to thank everyone whopurchased a meal for the lunch sale that was held in October at theAdult Day service location. We were able to raise money by sellingmeals that included hot dogs, chili, and cheese cake. With our earnings, we plan to go on outings that we normally could not afford. Once again, we thank you for all your support!

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