Therapists and teachers go in and out of our children’s lives… almost like a revolving door. I can remember at one time we were juggling 3 doctors, 5 ABA therapist, 1 speech therapist, and 1 physical therapist. I remember getting tired of repeating the same things over and over again every time someone new came into our lives. What does he like? What motivates him? What are the best strategies to have a successful session.

So in order to help with these transitions I finally made a one page introduction that I use to introduce my child to new people in his life.

Jo Donofrio presented this idea to the Pilot Parenting class I was in and we were all blown away by it.

This one page introduction is broken up into 4 different sections

1. Strengths- In this section you write down your child’s strengths and what others say positively about your child. Is your child smart, observant, highly energetic, caring, affectionate? Start out by bragging about your child and talk about how amazing they are.
2. Photo of your child.
3. What is important to them- Is it important for them to be successful in what they are doing? Is it important for them to be around others? It is important to play with puzzles? Is it important to read their favorite books?
4. How can the worker properly support your child? What does the new therapist or teacher need to know about your child to help them be successful in working with him/her? Does your child need a lot of prompting before you change tasks? Does you child need hand over hand help to write his name? Does your child work best when he is working for rewards? Does your child us the token system to earn rewards. Think of this section as building a roadmap for successful relationship building between your child and this new therapist.