Being An Advocate For Your Child

On Wire Talk this past week we invited my good friend Christy Bennett on the show. Christy is a mother and an occupational therapist who shared her insights with us on sensory-based disorders. Whether you have a child with sensory-based behavior or not, I think you’ll learn a lot from our discussion, so tune in! My biggest takeaway from Christy was that as moms, we need to be advocates for our kids. They do not necessarily understand yet how they are different from other children or what they need. And their teachers and/or coaches may not have the quantity of time with them to understand why they are behaving like they do in certain situations. When you act as an advocate for your child, you are not being overprotective, you are helping set your child up for success.

When Taylor was young, he didn’t like loud noises. Especially at the church we attended, the music was always very loud and it took all the enjoyment out of going for him. Instead of dismissing him, or telling him telling him not to let it bother him, I asked the leaders if he could stand in the back by himself during worship. They were fine with it and it made a world of difference for all of us on Sundays. He eventually grew out of it, but we worked with him instead of trying to force him to adapt. The point is, during those younger years, our children need us to stick up for them and know them so we can help them navigate the world they live in.