Developmental Therapy

In today's episode, I chat with Kirst Nordstrom who is a Developmental Therapist in Nashville TN. Kirsti talks about the Family Guided Routines Based Intervention framework which she uses to coach families to help their children with developmental delays or disabilities maximize function with strategies to promote feeding, reading, play, movement, speech, and other milestones of development. Most states have a free voluntary Early Intervention Program available to families who are concerned about their child's development. In the State of Tennessee, this program is called TEIS and is part of the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disability.

Edited Transcript

Marsh Naidoo (00:18):

Hello and welcome to the Raising Kellan Podcast. My name is Marsh Naidoo and I blog at raisingkellan.org, where we curate resources for parents raising children with disabilities. As always, remember, the content on this podcast is purely informational, and if you seek specific advice for your situation, to always contact a trained professional. Today on the podcast, I'm joined by Drake Box, who is a communications major at the University of Tennessee Martin and who is interning with us this summer. He's actually going to help us as well on the live event we have planned. Drake welcome.

Drake Box (01:09):

Absolutely. I appreciate you having me here. It's always good to come on the podcast. And I'm here to talk about the Day At The Lake event that we are coordinating and putting together. It's a parent-led conference with the goal of empowering and educating parents, raising kids with disabilities, and kind of making them aware of the different resources that they have available to them. It'll be held on August 26th, 2023, and it's from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM It's at the cottage at Fyrne Lake in Dyersburg, Tennessee. And our main audience or target audiences are parents and guardians of people with disabilities, caregivers, educators,

Marsh Naidoo (01:50):

Drake, we have a robust line of speakers lined up. There's a little bit for everyone, whether your child is of kindergarten age and actually going right through the spectrum to those that might be transitional school age or looking for opportunities after school. It would appeal to a wide cross-section of folks. We would also like to thank our generous community Legacy Sponsor, Shari Tidwell, Family Nurse Practitioner at Family Practice Clinic in Dyersburg, Tennessee. So Drake, this will be a ticket advance at $15 a ticket, and that's basically to cover the cost of the lunch that's going to be provided.

Drake Box (02:38):

So just outta Curiosity Marsh, what's today's podcast gonna be about?

Marsh Naidoo (02:42):

Well, Drake, today we are going to be chatting with Kirsti Nordstrom, who is a developmental therapist. So without further ado, guys, put your feet up, grab that cup of coffee and get ready for some awesome conversation. Kirsti, thank you for joining us on the Raising Kellan podcast.

Kirsti Nordstrom (03:02):

Yeah, of course. I'm happy to be here

Marsh Naidoo (03:05):

Guys. I first heard Kirstion Merry Brown's Conflict Managed Podcast and when I heard that this young lady was a developmental therapist, I immediately wanted to connect and talk with her. So as I said, Kirsty is a developmental therapist and works with First Steps in Nashville, Tennessee. Kirsti, I'm gonna kinda ask you a little bit of background information as well before we head into the developmental therapy to see how that may have informed your choice.

Kirsti Nordstrom (03:46):

So I lived in a lot of places in my life. I grew up with my grandparents and I came to Tennessee when I was 16 and I have now lived here longer than anywhere else. And I first started school just in psychology actually. And then I learned about a degree called Family and Consumer Sciences and I decided to switch over to that and it was much more holistic in, its in its content. And so I got to learn fashion, nutrition, gerontology, child development, and just get a big scope of study. And my first job out of college was working in mental health, which was really great, but it just wasn't quite what I was looking for. And then I found this job as a developmental therapist and I never thought that I would coach parents. It wasn't something that I was really in my mind, but I found it, it also sounded like a job that I wouldn't be qualified for. And I applied anyways and they called me and they told me what the job was like and, and I got it of course. And I'm doing it now and I have really enjoyed it. I've learned so much that I never could have imagined that I would learn. And it wasn't something that I was necessarily looking for either. I just thought I'm qualified for this, or I could potentially be qualified for this. I have some child development knowledge. Yeah, I am now in it.

Marsh Naidoo (05:31):

Kirsti, what I would like to really talk a little bit more about is your family-guided routines-based intervention. So what is that exactly and how does that intermingle with what you do on a daily basis with your clients?

Kirsti Nordstrom (05:50):

Okay, so family-guided-routine-guided routines-based intervention is pretty complex. I don't wanna give the the college version, I'll give the family version. So basically what that means is that I talk to the family, I figure out what is most important to them in their daily life in making their day-to-day easier. And then we work on goals and skills within those routines. So family guided and then it's routines based. So it's within diaper changing meal times. Let's say the family loves reading books before bedtime. We're gonna look at that book reading routine and then intervention. So intervention is gonna be, I want my child to point at the pictures in the book. Okay, great. What can we do during reading to prompt them to look at those pictures and get their little pointer finger out and point at the images. And so that's the intervention portion of F G R B I

Marsh Naidoo (06:49):

Do kids come to the program through the Tennessee Early Intervention Program or are there other ways that your referral source happens?

Kirsti Nordstrom (07:00):

So we are contracted through D I D D, so we get all our referrals throughTennessee Early Intervention System.

Marsh Naidoo (07:09):

And I just think it's really neat that you don't have to be a medical provider to refer someone to T E I S as well. I mean, it could just <affirmative> be a person that's concerned or grandparent or a friend. And, and they could make the referrals. Well, it's not necessarily Yes a medical profession. And, and what is so neat that when my son was in the program itself, I think services carried us to perhaps three years old and then we bridged over to the school, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So what are the bright spots in your day? What are the, the moments that you know, just that you wanna celebrate?

Kirsti Nordstrom (07:56):

Oh my goodness. Okay. So of course some of the brightest things are when a child starts walking, when a child starts talking, they say their first word, their first approximation of a word. That is of course the best. But I think in like, the smaller victories for me are children that ha are globally delayed, that are holding their head up even though they're are older and, but they're finally holding their head up. They're finally able to reach, finally able to do those things. And then seeing the look on the parent's face that's relief. Like, oh, we got here and to this moment that they weren't sure they were gonna get there, that is just the best to me. Because I spend so much time coaching them and encouraging them and letting them know your child is beautiful no matter what, and we will get them as far as we can. We're gonna do our best.

Marsh Naidoo (08:53):

In your actual career field itself, is developmental therapy something you would like to kind of extend out and, and concentrate more on and, and build and grow in?

Kirsti Nordstrom (09:10):

So, I actually,doing developmental therapy has really got me interested in some of the regulation portion of my teaching. So helping parents with behaviors and redirection and things like that. And so I am exploring looking into more of those areas of study, maybe going back to school and looking at I really like restorative justice, justice models and things like that. And so teaching kind of appropriate behaviors and appropriate ways to interact and engage with others. That's something I'm really interested in. I don't know where it would take me because I'm interested in so many things, but that's kind of where my mind is at right now from what I've learned from developmental therapy.

Marsh Naidoo (10:06):

There is also an extremely interesting project that you volunteer at would you kindly let us know more about it?

Kirsti Nordstrom (10:15):

Oh, yes. So I have not gotten to be a part of anything big with them just yet due to work schedules and things like that. But I, I have joined Awake in Nashville, which is advocates for women and kids equality. And basically what they do is they look at the legislature and house bills that are coming across the floor and they will do research on those and let people know, hey, these are some things we're looking at right now that are gonna affect women and that are gonna affect children's lives. And they kind of help people be aware and they give them the information that they need as constituents to either to support and go down to the house and say, Hey, we agree with this, or Hey, we don't really agree with this. And I think it's really important to be knowledgeable about what's happening in your space and in your area especially if it's something that you don't like. So I'm trying to get more involved and be more aware of those things.

Marsh Naidoo (11:21):

When it comes to your actual developmental therapy approach and you trying to teach or coach the parents with those skills that would help facilitate the, their child's development or perhaps improve their function are there any hair raising moments or moments that you know, kinda you've gotta kind of sit back and, and just watch or how that interaction occur between you facilitating the parents and that child?

Kirsti Nordstrom (12:01):

So the model has a big emphasis on observation and reflection. So the first thing we're supposed to do is we're supposed to watch that routine and see what they're already doing because parents are so good, they already do so many things well and we don't wanna jump in and immediately be like, well, have you done this? Have you done this? Have you tried that? Because they might have and they may already be doing it. So we wanna see what their strengths are first and then we can see okay what is working really well for you right now? Okay, awesome. When you pause for a second and then you hand them their cup that works for you what could we do in the middle of that? Like what could we say before the pause? So a lot of it is based in just observation and seeing what they're already doing well. And then is, am I missing a part of your question? What else?

Marsh Naidoo (13:05):

No, I think, I think that that pretty much nails it, so, okay. It's more that reflect, reflection and reflective questioning

Kirsti Nordstrom (13:13):

On cause reflection is gonna engage them and help them be self-motivated as well and see the things that they're doing well, which is the best. Because if you feel like you're doing something well, you wanna keep doing it, doing

Marsh Naidoo (13:25):

It.

Kirsti Nordstrom (13:26):

So did Kellen ever have a developmental therapist in his life or was it more physical therapy maybe OT,

Marsh Naidoo (13:34):

We, you know, we, we kind of were a little late to the table with the T E I in terms of he perhaps had it for a year mm-hmm. <Affirmative> before we went on to the school system. But I clearly do remember Bonnie and she, she was his developmental therapist through T E I s and they, he basically had weekly visits. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, it was the initial intake, which is always like this complex battery of tests, I think the Bartel and give a baseline of where your child is at at that moment in time and you know, and what their behaviors are, what their movement looks like and how they function. So we, we had an experience with a developmental therapist perhaps just once a week for for that year.

Kirsti Nordstrom (14:31):

Okay. Amazing. Yeah, we have weekly and then we have some families that will do two times a month as well, just depending on skills and needs and things like that. And even family needs, parents are very busy, so sometimes we just do two times a month because that works best with their schedule. So yeah. Okay. Amazing. Love to hear that.

Marsh Naidoo (14:53):

So if for that parent listening out there, they as a developmental therapist, but you know, just as Kirsti, what would you like for parents to know?

Kirsti Nordstrom (15:09):

I want every parent to know that they are doing well, even if they cannot see it. I tell parents all the time or I hear all the time, oh, is the fact that they're this way my fault? And I always tell them no. Especially when it comes to speech. I always encourage parents, I'm like, you are being a parent. You are doing everything that your child needs and they need you to do that. I was like, I am the person that gets to come in and say, Hey, what if we paused for a second? Because you are being such a good parent, <laugh>, you know, and you're filling those spaces an,d some children just need a little extra prompting. You are doing well as a parent and you are teaching your child even if you don't see it. Because I think when you do something day in and day out, it just becomes a routine and you don't see the fruits of your labor basically. It feels like, well, am I even teaching them? Are they learning from me? And I just want every parent to know Yes, they are, they are learning from you.

Marsh Naidoo (16:18):

I just really thank you for your time, Kirsti.

Kirsti Nordstrom (16:21):

Well it was so nice to talk to you and too. You too.

Marsh Naidoo (16:24):

Yeah, you too.

Kirsti Nordstrom (16:25):

Bye

Marsh Naidoo (16:26):

Bye Ty. Have a great day now. Okay,

Kirsti Nordstrom (16:29):

You as well.

Marsh Naidoo (16:30):

Bye-Bye. As always, thank you for listening along on the podcast today. Remember that live events we have coming up on the 26th of August in Dyersburg, Tennessee. As yet Drake, we are actually not quite sure if the event will be recorded or not, but there is a possibility that it may, and if it is, it will be available @raisingkellan.org. Is there anything else that you would like to leave us with before we end off re

Drake Box (17:02):

I would just like to say I, I think this event should never shouldn't be underestimated on the impact that it may be able to have for a parent or maybe even the child with disabilities because I believe, you know, knowing about resources is half the battle to actually utilizing resources. So this is pro, this is probably gonna be one of the most important events that I've ever been a part of and I'm glad to be a part of it.

Marsh Naidoo (17:26):

Thank you so much as always for your support Drake, and it's kind of, it's serendipity that you are here with us today. For those of you new to listening to this podcast, you may wanna hop along to episode one because that actually was done with Drake.

Drake Box (17:44):

The way back to the start.

Marsh Naidoo (17:46):

Yeah, that's like 90 episodes. I believe this will be 90 if I'm not mistaken. Well anyway guys, until we see you all the next time, as always, remember, get to the top of your mountain. Hold on. Yeah, I've got a little guest. Do you wanna say sign off? Sorry. Not today. Not today. Okay. He doesn't wanna sign off today. As always. As always. Guys remember, get to the top of your mountain. This is Marsh Naidoo signing off