It was not surprising to read a strong, clear case for access to primary health care in Dr. Jane Philpott’s prescription to reform health care in Canada, in her manifesto Health for All: A Doctor’s Prescription for a Healthier Canada. I was surprised by her focus on spiritual health in the second section – as…
The boy’s tongue is thick /
and inexact /
and his lips will not arrange themselves . . .
In the end, this round of antidepressants didn’t do me much good. I tried the latest kind, upped and downed the dose with my doctor, and stuck with the most promising for a year and a half before deciding to ditch them at the end of the summer. Maybe there were days when they evened…
When prompted to think of someone with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder), most people imagine an overly active child, usually a boy, bouncing off the walls in class, unable to retain any bits of information. When prompted to think of someone with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), most imagine a quiet, perhaps non-verbal child (also usually…
Brazilian State Legislator Andréa Werner runs a one-of-a-kind office. “Our working hours are flexible, most of the team works from home, we changed the lighting in our offices to be less bright than other offices, and we also create processes to make sure people have the resources they need,” says Werner. “My team is very…
“Kill yourself!” The client repeated this countless times throughout our counselling session. This tic had been observed and discussed as evidence of the client’s experience of tourette’s syndrome, and now neither of us bothered reacting to its presence. Instead, it functioned as an indicator of the client’s stress level – utterances would increase as we…
In 1998, I was teaching middle school students in Minnesota. I wasn’t aware that Australian sociologist Judy Singer and American journalist Harvey Blume were discussing the idea of individual differences in brain variation and neurodiversity. What I did know at that time was Parker Palmer’s book The Courage to Teach. His words, written then, echo…
Neurodiversity has been a part of my story for a while, even as it has taken me a long time to recognize that and see the goodness in it. It wasn’t until someone started talking about the connection between autism spectrum disorder and the inability to escape fight or flight mode that I recognized a…
Who wouldn’t like to go to a restaurant that is designed especially for them? Since about half of my three-person family is neurodivergent, we were happy to head to 1056 Bloor Street West, downtown Toronto, where Sarang Kitchen is located. Sarang Kitchen is a sensory-friendly restaurant. It provides a welcoming space for customers – particularly…
My children take risks, and that’s all right with me. Risky play, or what we lovingly call danger play in our house, is an incredibly important part of childhood. While it can be difficult for a parent to watch, the thrill of it allows children to feel excited by their accomplishments and challenged by the…
Aging – is it a blessing or a burden? A long life is considered a gift; the longer one lives, the more they experience. And yet, paradoxically, society poses it as a problem to fix. Get older, pop culture says, but don’t let the years show on your face. Grow, but don’t allow the hardships…
It is sometimes necessary to talk about suicide. Recognizing this, the campus ministry my wife Brenda works for decided someone needed to have suicide prevention training, and off she went. Hearing back from her made me think of things that happened in Utrecht, where I lived as a student and where my aunt Lieneke lived…
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