ABOUT

Over 35 years ago, my husband, myself and our three children found ourselves having a "open-door ministry" in our home. We had taken in college students, married couples, homeless men, unwed pregnant women, and foster children. We have also adopted two children, one of which has developmental disability. Later on, I entered into the mental health profession, as licensed counselor and marriage & family therapist.

Time passed, and all of our five children grew and fledged. The one with disability moved back to the farm with her 11 month old baby daughter. We endeavored to help her raise and train her child as independently as possible. We developed these little posters for them. The mother would have a nice, neat memory prompt, and the child would have a consistent pattern to follow and eventually to do independently.

We have shared these pages with other parents and caregivers. They reported that it relieved stress, because the posters offered consistency for all in the home. For foster parents, the children could take copies of the posters to their next home, to communicate what skills they have learned and are working on.

This material is designed for flexibility. Each page comes with a "lesson" of sorts. But this is not a "Rule Book". We hope that the parent or caregiver will review the written material but adapt it to YOUR family. You can change up the vocabulary. You can cut out the parts you want and rearrange them. In our house, we have printed some pages on cardstock and made assignment cards with them.

Another important suggestion we have is to be kind, and be patient. When introducing a page, identify what is already part of your routine, and strengthen and celebrate that! When adding new skills, expect only one or two to be learned at a time. The benefit of the poster is that it can be reviewed daily while focusing on improving only one or two skills at a time. As the poster is learned, and skills are mastered, children develop a sense of accomplishment and independence in the best skills in life.

Someone once said, "This project will be as big as you want it to be". That said, we already have a lot of material to upload, and we will try to get them up in a fast but orderly fashion. And there are always more posters on the drawing board! So we suggest checking back often. We will post updates on Facebook.

And may God bless you all in a special way today!