Meet Lynne Jackson from ConnectedFamilies.com, Part 2
Welcome back to the second part of this three part series with Lynne Jackson. Lynne and her husband Jim are the founders of www.ConnectedFamilies.org. In Part 1 of the series, Lynne told about how the Connected Families Ministry began. Their ministry does not focus exclusively on kids with special needs, though they offer services for certain special needs populations. Today, she’ll describe that population along with the parenting issues they face. She’ll then suggest strategies parents can implement with them.
Question 4: What Special Needs Population Do You Work With?
We focus mainly on children on the autism spectrum, those with sensory disorders, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). I do it because it’s part of my training as an occupational therapist. Also, the church needs to focus on these kids. They have lots of potential for growth and improvement, but the traditional authoritarian parenting approach does not work with these kids.
Question 5: What Are the Major Parenting Issues This Population Faces?
It all boils down to one thing. The behavior of these kids flows from how their brains work. They are more intense than other kids, which leads to high anxiety. This anxiety is at the root of their behaviors. Some kids cope by disappear into their minds to get away from the environment that makes them anxious. Others have more observable anxious behaviors and are diagnosed with anxiety disorders. Others cope with anxiety and fear with oppositional behavior (ODD) or by being compulsive (OCD).
However, parents often don’t recognize a child’s extreme oversensitivity as the cause of anxiety. Parents see the clingyness or outbursts of a highly stressed, overwhelmed child, but they can’t figure out what’s wrong. Are they bad parents? Does the child have a bad character? This lead to shame and blame. The parents get worn down, and the child feels like a loser and acts out more.
Question 6: What Strategies Do You Suggest for Parents?
The parenting framework we’ve developed works well with these parents. The model is fully explained on this page of our website, so I encourage parents to spend some time studying it. Basically, the challenge for parents is to ask “What’s going on in me?” before they react to the child’s behavior. This principle is so important because as Matthew 12:34 states, “For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.”
Is Your Head Feeling Full?
If you spent some time studying the Connected Family Parenting Model (and I hope you did), your brain might be overloaded right now. But, never fear, the weekend is here. So take the weekend to digest what Lynne shared today, and come back Monday ready for the final installment in this series.
See you then,
Jolene
