Tips & Tricks: Other*

If you have suggestions that have helped make it easier for you, your child and/or your family to navigate more easily through the world of special needs, please email them to us info@fgsyndrome.org.

Behavioral

• Use positive reinforcement at every opportunity, or “catch them being good!” It sure sounds easy, but many people find that tuning into those moments when their children are quietly behaving can be a lot harder than noticing when they are not. But making the effort to praise your child (often) when they are doing what is expected can reap big rewards in the long run.
• Provide choices, for example, “do you want to do your homework/clean your room now or have your snack first/wait five minutes?”

Therapeutic/Fun & Games

• Yes…Therapy can be fun and games! Many people comment that keeping that in mind can make the process a whole lot easier for everyone. Your child might have no idea that they are “working” if you include therapeutic items to their playtime (play putty, connecting and building toys, toys that encourage spacial relationships, etc.). Encouraging your child to talk about what they are doing while they are doing it is great for speech and language development. Many Nintendo Wii games provide opportunities for exercise, and encourage athletic skills. Ask your therapeutic professionals for ideas that would benefit your own child.

Other

• If your child has SID and can’t stand anything touching his skin, but needs to wear a medical alert bracelet, here is a great alternative: Have a stamp made with thenecessary medical info and a phone number. This can be done inexpensively at local office supply stores. If this still bugs him, add something special to the stamp (like a little picture picture of a dinosaur or a favorite cartoon character). Simply re-stamp the child’s hand every morning…his/her own special “tattoo”.
• We all need to be concerned about the foods we purchase. This can be especially true for our children with digestive issues. Here is how to spot the difference at the grocery store between Organic,
  Regular and Genetically Modified foods. All the produce will have a 3 or a 4 at the beginning of a four-digit number. For example, bananas are 4011. If the item is organic, it will lead with a 9, so organic bananas are 94011 (a 5 digit number). If it has been genetically modified, it will lead with an 8, so genetically modified bananas would be 84011. So the mantra is, “We hate the 8 and with a 9, we are fine.”