Education Committee Chair
SEPTEMBER’S SPEAKER EVENT
September's Education Evening was a big success!
Over 70 people attended the event, which was held in Conference
Room A at the Glenrose Hospital on the evening of September 28, 2004.
Psychologist Dr. Joanne Tessier spoke on the topic of "Parenting
the Anxious/Worried Child." This presentation usually requires a full
day but Dr. Tessier condensed it to two hours and feedback from the
audience was very positive.
Lisa Mackowetzky
Education Committee Chair
TS FOUNDATION OF CANADA
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
MOVING MOUNTAINS,
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES
This was an inspiring
weekend for the executive members of the Edmonton Chapter who attended
this fun filled conference in Vancouver in June 2004. We all came home
feeling rejuvenated and energized. We learned lots, met people living
with TS from across the country, were inspired by renowned speakers
and had a fabulous time in Vancouver. This included a limousine ride
to False Creek, where we dined at an elegant restaurant by the ocean
enjoying the succulent seafood and several glasses of local wine.
We’re not sure if the limousine drivers and waiters have recovered
from the Edmonton TS ladies and their “off the wall” sense of humor.
We dined and danced the Saturday night away at the Closing
Banquet, which included a Silent Auction, Karaoke singing, and dancing. Dr. Duncan McKinlay sang a few songs that he wrote and
danced with incredible energy along with many other conference
participants. We’re already looking forward to next year’s conference
in Montreal and encourage other members to start saving up, so they
can join in the fun.
The program offered a
variety of outstanding speakers, including some that have authored
books and are renowned speakers in their field and others that
personally live with Tourette syndrome and have found ways to overcome
their obstacles and inspire others.
Stuart Ellis-Myers
presented a moving keynote “If the Kids Can …We Can! He introduced
three young people with TS who told their touching stories of their
challenges and how support from the Tourette Syndrome Foundation
helped them overcome their obstacles. Stuart has TS himself and uses
his tremendous energy as an international motivational speaker. He
challenged the participants to let go of negative thoughts (“uninvited
guests”), by acting as if you can do it! He reminded us to pursue
what we love and to be passionate about it.
On the Friday program,
there was a workshop for Educators by Dr. Sheryl Pruitt, author of
“Teaching the Tiger” who is also the mother of a son with TS+. She is
a dynamic and practical speaker and she presented useful strategies
for the classroom and teaching children with TS and other neurological
disorders. When she introduced her adult son with TS at the end of
the session, you could see how her sense of humor, insightful
strategies, and caring relationship with her son had helped him
succeed.
Concurrent sessions were
held on Friday morning. One of the speakers included Dr. Margaret
Weiss who spoke about ADHD- the Complete Picture and it was very
informative and interesting. Next Dr. Gary Shady, and his team from
the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Program in Winnipeg talked
about sensory processing, Obsessive Compulsive Behaviors, and
Social-Emotional Considerations related to TS. They offered
suggestions on ways to understand and cope with these complex
conditions. Dr. Gabor Mate presented “Beyond the Medical Model: A New
Look at Disorders of Childhood”, which I was told was very insightful.
Dr. Duncan McKinley talked
about his Personal Recipe for Success. Dr. Duncan has TS+ and
struggled with trying to suppress his severe and painful tics and
intrusive thoughts throughout his childhood and adolescence until he
was diagnosed at age 19. He discussed 13 Essential Ingredients
leading to his personal recipe for success. Check out his website at
www.lifesatwitch.com.
Saturday morning started
with the Annual General Meeting and a breakfast followed by Dr.
Scamvougerous. He spoke on current treatments and medications for
children with TS. Next Dr. Robert Araujo, helped us understand how
and why children with Neurobiological Disorders such as TS have
problems following directions and coping day to day in a classroom
situation. He explained how standard approaches to behavior
management might escalate difficult situations. More enlightened
approaches where the teacher sees the child as having a neurological
disability and tries to understand the child and offers support,
results in a more positive environment for the child and the class.
Dr. Ross Green, author of
the Explosive Child, offered a new approach for parents dealing with
explosive/non-compliant children who don’t respond well to traditional
approaches such as behavior modification. After several years of
practice as a psychologist, Dr. Green, began to question the
traditional approaches when parents would report their children’s
behavior wasn’t improving and in some cases becoming worse with
behavior modification. Dr. Green believes that some children are
delayed in the development of the skills of flexibility/adaptability
and frustration tolerance. He advocates Collaborative Problem Solving
(CPS), which teaches the child the skills of flexibility and
frustration tolerance, while maintaining adults as authority figures.
Children do well if they can…but if they can’t, we adults need to
figure out why, so we can help.
Each conference participant
was given a binder of notes to take home. The National Conference was
inspiring and motivated the participants to consider new approaches
and more positive attitudes to living with Tourette Syndrome or
supporting others with TS. We encourage our members to come out to
our Support Meetings and education sessions and borrow resources from
our recently updated library. Books and articles from the conference
will be available at our first support meeting in October at the
Academy of King Edward.
Jacquie Dahl-Warren
Vice President
EDMONTON CHAPTER
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE TOURETTE SYNDROME FOUNDATION
The AGM was held on April 17, 2004 in
Conference Room A at the Glenrose Hospital. Around 90 people registered
for the meeting and over 80 people attended the presentation by Dr. Neil
Mulholland. The topic was Dealing with Stress and Dr. Mulholland
discussed stress and strategies to help parents cope with the day to day
struggles of raising children with Tourette Syndrome (TS).
Dr. Mulholland discussed how children with TS,
particularly those with associated disorders, can create a lot of stress
within the family. He asked parents in the audience to fill out a
questionnaire to assess the level of stress they are experiencing and
how they’re coping. He also passed out a questionnaire on Coping and
Adapting strategies that parents could fill out during the presentation
or at a later date.
Next, Dr. Mulholland talked about a family Adaptation
Model. He stated that your appraisal (feeling and thoughts) or how you
react to your situation could add or subtract to your stress. Although
parents may need to unload negative feelings, they also need to refocus
their thoughts and talk about positive strategies.
It’s particularly important for families who have
children with TS to have a support system. This could include friends,
family, and others in the community to help with child-care. He
emphasized that while counseling is usually helpful, that going to a
support group with other parents is very important. It helps parents to
feel they are not alone in dealing with the demands and challenges of
raising a child with TS. By sharing their ideas and their children with
others, parents feel supported, learn new coping strategies and have a
lot of fun. Other parents of kids with TS are usually more understanding
and less judgmental of your family.
Some strategies that Dr. Mulholland discussed were:
1.
If we catch kids being good, we are going to
give them a more positive appraisal and help them to accept themselves.
2.
Try to focus on the positive; people who have
depression and anxiety usually focus on their negative traits.
3.
Give your child “tic time” to unwind after
school.
4.
When you notice your child getting frustrated
or heated up, suggest “cool down time out” before the explosion. Let
the child decide where to go. If the child does cool down, reward them.
5.
“Consequence time out” is used for defiance,
manipulation or other deliberate misbehavior. This is quite different
from “cool down time out” and a firmer tone and direction is often
needed.
6.
Cognitive therapy with a counselor can help a
child challenge and stop their negative thoughts about themselves.
Dr. Mulholland finished the presentation with a
relaxation exercise, which left us feeling calm and more empowered.
Thank you, Dr. Mulholland, for a great presentation!
After we enjoyed a coffee break with tasty snacks and
had a chance to visit, our Edmonton Chapter President, Dalene Onciul
called the Annual General Meeting to order. She gave an overview of
fundraising done in 2003. Through fundraising that the chapter has
done, 800 copies of Understanding Tourette Syndrome, A Handbook for
Educators were distributed to schools in Edmonton and area. Our goal is
to promote optimal teaching and learning and to promote acceptance and
understanding of TS in school settings and the community. Dalene also
discussed the role of the Edmonton Chapter in providing inservices on TS
to schools, providing information at the Edmonton and area Teachers
Convention and workshops at Colleges and Education Conferences.
Dalene presented the Treasurers report and copies
were available at the back of the room.
Dalene introduced the current executive, asked for
additional nominations, and members were asked to vote for each
executive position. The current executive members will continue their
work for the upcoming year. Our current treasurer wished to step down
from her position so a new treasurer was nominated. As well, the
positions of Fund Raising Chair and Public Relations were filled. We
had two people offer to be members for the Resource/Library and
Education Committees. The executive thanked Dalene for her work and
dedication to the Edmonton Chapter and passion for increasing awareness
and understanding for children and adults with TS. She has served as
our illustrious leader over the last six months as well as continuing
with fund raising, public relations, and other work for the Chapter.
After the meeting, we had a draw for the door
prizes. Thanks to our new volunteers for offering to help out. The
executive and working committee members of the Edmonton Chapter have a
lot of fun at meetings and socials while accomplishing our goals for
fund raising and increasing awareness and understanding for people with
Tourette Syndrome. We encourage members to come out to our support
meetings, socials and welcome those who want to get more involved.
Jacquie Dahl- Warren
Vice President
SEPTEMBER SPEAKER EVENT
For several years, we have
hosted a Speaker’s Event in September in place of the monthly support
meeting as a way to kick off the school year and to highlight TS Awareness
Week. This year, the event was on September 16th and was held,
as usual, in a conference room at the Glenrose Hospital. Our speaker was
Auni Amini, an Occupational Therapist with Community Health Services at
West Jasper Place Public Health Center.
Auni spoke about Sensory
Integration Dysfunction, focusing on how sensory processing impacts a
child's behaviour and what strategies parents and teachers can use to help
a child cope with sensory integration problems. Children with Sensory
Integration Dysfunction can be either oversensitive or undersensitive to
touch, taste, smell, sound, light or movement.
The oversensitive child is
often irritated by tags or seams in clothing, avoids many foods because of
their taste or texture, is bothered by even faint odours and slight touch
or movement.
The undersensitive child, on
the other hand, may crave lots of movement or noise or light, and enjoys
spicy foods or strong scents or intense touch.
Auni's presentation was dynamic, entertaining and very educational. The 60
people who attended came away with a new understanding of sensory
processing and some very detailed handouts to refer to on coping
strategies. Extra copies of these handouts can be obtained at the monthly
support meetings.
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The Education Committee would welcome any suggestions on topics
or speakers for future events. If you have any ideas or would like to
help on our committee, please call Lisa at 465-1680.
