The team around the child: A mum's story of her son's neurodiversity

Bec Edser is a Child and Family Partnerships Coordinator at Emerging Minds. She is also the mother of a six-year-old son with neurodiversity. In this episode, Bec describes the evolution of ‘Team Wolfie’: a concept developed by her partner as a way to ensure practitioners shared important understandings of his son’s support and advocacy needs. The ‘Team Wolfie’ concept has enabled Bec and her family to negotiate the many challenges that confront a family who are dealing with a new diagnosis. Bec describes the ways that practitioners have demonstrated their commitment to being on her child’s team and offered her support in acknowledging and holistic ways. Bec’s experiences of navigating her son’s neurodiversity have contributed significantly to Emerging Minds’ online courses, Child-centred and family-focused practice with children with disability, and Child-centred and communication-focused practice with children with disability.     In this episode you will learn:

• about Bec’s experiences in receiving a diagnosis of neurodiversity for her son, and some of the practical supports she received from professionals during this time [1:42]
• how practitioners can join parents in forming a team around the child, ensuring shared and coordinated understanding and advocacy [7:06]
• how practitioners can acknowledge the many tasks that parents complete so that their child can be supported to the best of their ability, in ways that enhance confidence and engagement [9:16]
• how practitioners and parents can help children to describe their support needs, in ways that help them engage in everyday activities [15:12]
• the importance of holistic practices that consider all aspects of a child’s daily life [23:39]