Parents of two boys with sensory differences discuss the experience of diagnosis and their pathway to building a sensory lifestyle for their family. Episode Guests: Jerade and Maria Tipton The views expressed in the following presentation are those of the presenter(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of STAR Institute. Resources Mentioned In this episode: STAR Institute: https://sensoryhealth.org/ Occupational Therapist trained in sensory processing through the STAR Insititute: https://sensoryhealth.org/treatment-directory Episode transcript: Carrie Schmitt I'm joined today by Jerade and Maria Tipton. Jerade and Maria are the first couple and parents that we've had on the podcast. So I would invite you guys to tell us a little bit about yourselves, your meaningful occupations, who you are, what you do in the world and who your family is. Maria Tipton I'm Maria Tipton, and I am a military spouse. I am a mom of two amazing boys. They're seven and nine. And I am also a corporate attorney. I also volunteer as President of the Board of Directors at STAR Institute, which is a passion of mine. Jerade Tipton As you mentioned, my name is Jerade Tipton, but yeah, I'm a career military professional. And so you know, I guess ever since I left high school, I guess you could say in my life is a life of service, both our country as well as my family. And that's what my primary energies and devotion is to. Carrie Schmitt Well, thank you so much for your service. So Maria, you and I connected at the star symposium, we were connecting and talking a little bit about some of the ways that the presentations had resonated with us. And your perspective as the president of our board, but also apparent, to me was such a unique perspective. And so we decided to regroup and record a conversation where you could talk about maybe your journey to connecting the star and a little bit about your family and your personal experience with sensory processing. Okay, so we started our journey. In August of 2016, when my oldest son was I had a limited verbal vocabulary, I would say, and so we were seeking speech therapy. And in the course of that, we referred to occupational therapy as well. And so that kind of opened up a whole new world I had never heard, I've heard of occupational therapy, but never experienced it, especially on a pediatric level. And so Maria Tipton I think back in 2016, when we received diagnosis, you know, you hear it was very deficit language, you know, as development, significant developmental delay. And at that point, I saw myself as a mom and an attorney, by trade. And so to take him to therapy three times a week, we had amazing therapists, but it was an approach where I had the therapist take him and do the therapy, and then I came home, and I wasn't really involved. And we then subsequently had a military move, and had to set all that up again, and we had a lot of trouble finding a right fit for our family. And through that course, I found an amazing occupational therapist, I kind of call her like our family ot because she brought me in the sessions really empowered me as a mother. And the sales progression grew exponentially because of that, I started taking classes that were for occupational therapist, but as a mother and doing a lot of home carryover with him. And I came across the star Institute, and because of his sensory needs, and it was just always such a resource for me, because there were Facebook Lives and webinars that I could take. And so I kind of had taken those during that time. And then when we were stationed in Georgia, the symposium was there in 2018. And I was like, I really want to go, like, I want to go to the parents seminar, I want to go to the symposium and so I was able to attend. And that was really life changing for me, because it I learned so much from all of the sessions, you know, at that point, there was a session on interoception was something that I hadn't heard about before, and you know, just kind of tools in things that I could utilize with our own family. And from there, I think, you know, everything just kept what is called like a flow, I think like it continued with him and he is just, you know, just such a well put together nine year old little boy with, you know, just really enjoying life. And so that kind of along with it is is our journey there's there's more to it in terms of we have a second child to that. And because we had gone on this journey with our car. First we recognize some, some things where he may need some intervention. And so that has has helped him as well. Carrie Schmitt Jerade, from your perspective, you are taking your military service, you're probably a leader in your roles. And Maria is communicating to you that she's a little concerned about your first child. And then she's when you start down this path. Tell, tell me a little bit about that from your perspective. Jerade Tipton Um, so when we started this, you know, it's one of those things is that I guess, it's different perspectives. Maria picked on it. We had a discussion about it. And I said, I know you're, yeah, you're right. He's, I would think he would be using more words and speaking more than I thought, Okay. I'm not really, you know, at what age? Does he become more intelligible in terms of when he's talking to his parents and things of that nature? And, you know, I do remember I thought is interesting when he was, we were living here. And we were downtown, I think old Colorado City. And, you know, a lot of noises and stuff like that, that a motorcycle that went by and Samuels response to that, that really caught me off guard, because he was just totally distraught about it. You know? And then when we started piecing all this together, I really remember that situation, like, yeah, maybe there's something going on here. And the fact is that, this he's getting a lot of inputs, and he's just not knowing how to, to work with those. I do know, I'll be honest, as Father, I was like, Okay, this was nice, like, hey, we'll get him wedding season people and he'll be he'll be fine. And what I realize is, it's not a one and done deal here. With this, it takes persistence. It takes perseverance, and acceptance to understand like, hey, my son has is working through this issue. And this is not going to be a quick fix. This is not gonna say, Hey, sit down with this person for a couple of weeks and do that. No, he's been he's been working through this. And he's now nine. And so part of it is just understanding like, it takes work, okay, it takes work on a parent's part takes work on the child's part, and also trying to develop that support network for that child. You know, it's funny, as kids, we don't really, we're very, I guess, narrow viewed as children, okay, get my life, I'm a child, you know, it's all this stuff around me. And they don't really understand. I know, when he gets older, he'll understand about how much work he had to put in. Maria has done a great job of trying to explain to him as he you know, every year he gets older, hey, this is this is where you were, this is where you're at, where you're at. And this is the work you still need to put in. So that we can kind of like, I guess, normalize that with him. And also allow him to accept that, you know, my biggest fear is you always your biggest fear is your child struggling. And that was my biggest concern. When she first we first started talking about it. Nobody wants to challenge struggle. You know, I'll be honest, my first responses by a broken heart. And I was worried and about him, and fearful. I was like, How are how are we gonna get through all this stuff, and I had to give it to my wife. I'll be honest, you know, what's military is very demanding. She put all her time and effort into chasing everything down. Carrie Schmitt First, I'm gonna say thank you for sharing that. Because I think from a parent's perspective, the last thing you want is for your child to struggle, a little bit about how you carry that forward, like Maria was telling me Jared that like as a leader, now, you have given a hand up to people behind you to say like, it's okay, if your child struggles, you can set up these services. And it sounds like Maria, you also have modeled that for other moms, maybe in your situation like, this is how you set up services in the context of the military or in the context of a military move. Jerade Tipton Yeah, I've, you know, been in positions with, with co workers and, you know, a military very tight community and share things. And, you know, I've had members share things and like, the struggles and stuff like that, and like, I was better able to relate to that situation was those those members that come and talk to me about that, and I was me, unfortunately, as always, I Hey, we have been through this. And I would always recommend them recommend they talk to my wife. So you know, and we had one situation in which we were able to help someone. And that means a lot. Even if you just help one person it means a lot that we're able to because we've experienced it we will share your experiences with this individual. And then this is how we move down the path. Okay, in support and hope and hopefully providing a better life for your child. Carrie Schmitt But what I hear is that you as parents said, This is who he is, I mean, love, and we accept Him, and we're gonna just do whatever it is to make a great life for him. Jerade Tipton Yes, Maria Tipton Yes, I think, absolutely. And, you know, when I hear Virginia speak, like, it's just like, I wish that I had these words when this first came on, because I still revert back to, you know, you're gonna revert back to the language that you heard at diagnosis. And so sometimes I go back to that, but you know, I, in talks, you know, she calls it asynchronous development, you know,