Childhood Evaluations: Replacing Worry with Curiousity

In this episode, we invite you to join Bainbridge Island parent, Chis Adcock, and BYS therapist, John Carleton, LMHCA, for an informative conversation about Technology and Parenting:  The good, the bad and all the inbetween.

Show Notes:

April 2023: Youth, Phones, and Social Media

• When is it appropriate for your child to get a phone? Read here. 

• When are youth ready for social media? Read here.

• Understanding your relationship with social media? Read here. 

• Media and technology guidelines for children. Read here.

Helpful book I mentioned:

Raising Humans in a Digital World: Helping Kids Build a Healthy Relationship with Technology

By Diana Graber

ISBN 9780814439807

The Social Dilemma - how algorithms drive/control what we see(/feel/think)

Parenting in the Digital Age: Fostering Well-being and Resilience

Webinar recording

John’s notes from the above webinar

In this episode, we invite you to listen in on a conversation between three Bainbridge Island community members and mothers as they discuss how they nurture cultural identity in their families, as well as foster curiosity and appreciation for other cultures outside of their own.

Sources referenced:

https://www.parentmap.com/article/helping-children-develop-a-sense-of-cultural-identity

https://www.childwelfare.gov/topics/adoption/adopt-parenting/intercountry/culturalconnections/

https://www.azquotes.com/quote/587501

In this episode, we invite you to join Bainbridge Island parent, Martin Maggio, and Winslow Way Branch Manager of Umpqua Bank, Aalesa Barker, for an informative conversation about financial literacy for children.

In this episode, we invite you to join Bainbridge Island parent, Mairead Shutt, and nurse practitioner from Peninsula Community Health Services, Elizabeth Zaroff, ARNP, for an informative conversation about how mental health and physical health are intertwined.

In this episode, we invite you to join Bainbridge Island parent, Brynn (she/her pronouns), and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Family doctor, Dr. Mike Tomberg (he/him pronouns), for an informative conversation about parenting and the gender spectrum.

In this episode, we invite you to join members of the Bainbridge Youth Services Youth Advisory Board in a conversation about local underage drinking. We welcome BYS Youth Advisory Board members Lily, Max, Gabriella, Emma and Maxwell to share their work concerning underage drinking through the Healthy Bainbridge Alliance. We hope you find this episode to be engaging and informative and perhaps a catalyst in encouraging you to consider what you can do to help our community to lessen the incidence of underage drinking.

In this episode, we invite you to join Bainbridge Island parent, Christy Remedios, and co-founders of Neurodiverse Connections; Marcee Ben-Menachem, licenced therapist who specializes in neurodivergent populations and Meg Wolf, chairperson of Neurodiverse Connections, for an informative conversation about parenting neurodivergent youth and understanding the world of neurodiversity.

Additional Resources:

From Meg:

If you want to reference any other resources, I recommend:

Tilt Parenting Podcast -focuses on parenting ND kiddos.

The Neurodiversity Podcast- hosted by a LMHC and tends to focus more on 2e (gifted plus other ND identity).

And the book I quoted was Barry Prizant’s Uniquely Human— he’s the one who says “There’s no such thing as ‘autistic behavior’ only human behavior.”

And I referenced Amanda Diekman in saying that we need to be “the parent our child needs us to be,”. Her website is at: https://www.amandadiekman.net/

From Marcee: "I wrote this program note because I felt it important to share my personal experience while recording this podcast. I had a panic attack. It started about 5 minutes before we began recording and lasted until about 5 minutes into the session. When you listen to this podcast, you may notice that at 2:48 minutes into our discussion, there’s a skip in the conversation. That’s when I recognized it as a panic attack and asked the team for a break. So why am I telling you this? Panic attacks are a type of neurodivergent overwhelm that your child, student, neighbor, or loved one may experience daily. My superpowers are Dyslexia and ADHD, but I also grapple with anxiety stemming from my experiences growing up masking and navigating a neurotypical world. While I get overwhelmed occasionally, I haven’t had a panic attack since my early 20’s. In 23+ years of public speaking, classroom lessons and zoom trainings, I’d never had a panic attack — which is why it took me so long to recognize what was happening in the podcast. Neurodivergent overwhelm often causes a stress response. In the simplest terms, a panic attack is an “extreme” stress state. In my case, I was triggered by the tiny recording room, the seating orientation, and the recording equipment. These factors added an extra layer of complexity for my nervous system to process and interfered with my ability to engage naturally. My heart started to race, I felt uncomfortably warm, and my palms started to sweat. I was fidgeting more than usual and had extreme difficulty organizing my thoughts. I was trying to process everything in the room while also being painfully aware that I wasn’t processing anything. This experience lasted just 15 minutes for me, but many of my autistic clients feel this way ALL THE TIME. At 47 years old, I prioritized taking care of myself so I could re-engage with the program — something my 20-year-old self was never encouraged to do by society. I encourage you to ask yourself if this could be the case for your child, student, friend. What can you do to create a greater sense of safety for your loved one, neighbor or friend? How can we as community members make the world feel safer for our neurodivergent community members? In my case, I was surrounded by people who “got it”. What would it feel like to live in a world where our children can ask for what they need and not feel shame in that? I’m grateful that I had this uncomfortable experience and pushed through it because it reminded of how many kids struggle in this way everyday. I hope you enjoy the program and feel seen by us."