Autism Parenting Magazine

The reason I decided to interview Beverly Saddler was because I was interested in learning about Hippotherapy as a means of therapeutic services for Autism related therapy. I wanted to learn about the differences between Hippotherapy and equestrian therapy and it all seemed very confusing to me. So, I decided to go the horse’s mouth (sorry for the Pun) and went straight to a therapy centre here in Connecticut where I live to find out more.   This article is featured in Issue 5 of Autism Parenting Magazine on Hippotherapy   Leslie: I am here with Bev Saddler in Ellington, Connecticut on March 30th, 2013. And Bev runs the Ellington Therapy Center. Beverly Sadler: Ellington Therapy Riding Center Leslie: Would you mind telling us, how you came to start the center? Beverly Sadler: Yes, my sister in-law who is the owner and manager of the barn about four years ago and called me and said “Bev, I have couple of girls who want to come ride. They have ADHD. What’s that?” and I explained to her what it was and so she and I worked together with this kids and we found some pretty amazing things for them and so I drove out here saying to myself, this is what I want to do. So I did the research. I found out what I had to do to become certified in what’s called hippotherapy, hippo is Greek for horse and hippotherapy is often used as one of the tools used by occupational therapists, physical therapists or speech language pathologists and that’s one of their tools and its part of their plan of care and that is what I do. As an occupational therapist, I do occupational therapy and it just so happens that the horse is one of my main modes of intervention for the children. I also have a small clinic here and sometimes we start there. We work on anything from strengthening, range of motion, to expressive language that comes just naturally. I am not a language pathologist but I have worked enough with them where I know how to prompt the children. If they want the horse to go they have to say that little word of “GO” and then we start expanding from that. I think one of the major differences to point out is that therapeutic riding is different and  that people who go into that are “horse people” and they have to learn how to work with people and kids with special needs. So, it could be anyone as long as they can walk, trot and canter and teach the kid how to ride, they can be certified as a therapeutic riding instructor. They often do multiple children or adults in a group so it can be anywhere from three to eight people in their sessions whereas most of us [hippo-] therapists do one on one. Leslie: With hippotherapy? Beverly Sadler: Yes. And I would just like to point out that most of us [hippo] therapists would say we’re doing occupational or physical or speech therapy and were using hippotherapy as our intervention because insurance  companies do not cover the whole therapy. They cover OT, PT and speech, so the delineation between therapeutic riding instruction and a therapist doing a therapy is the number of kids, (group versus one on one), and our perspective. When I have a child stand up on stirrups, I am looking at their balance, their coordination and their endurance to be able to sustain that position whereas a therapeutic riding instructor would say, “Maybe they are ready for posting because they are thinking what can I teach this kid on a horse to be a more independent rider, [whereas a hippotherapist is focusing on the child gaining balance, coordination, endurance, etc. to achieve the highest level of independence and functioning]. Leslie:  And how do you become certified in hippotherapy? Do you have to be a certified occupational therapist, first? Beverly Sadler: Yes Leslie: And then, do you have a program to go through for hippotherapy? Beverly Sadler: It was quite a great experience, I went to Rahobeth, Massachusetts to Greenlock Therapeutic Riding Center (http://www.greenlock.org/#!

Hi, I am Leslie Burby, the Editor in Chief of Autism Parenting Magazine. Thanks for checking out our first podcast. I thought I would give some background information about why I interviewed Dr. John Pagano about the Autism Massage. Dr John was introduced to me through a receptionist at my daughter’s previous occupational physical therapy centre in Watertown Connecticut. We had moved away from there to a different location in Connecticut and had cancelled the therapy services there while we were waiting to be seen at a different therapy centre closer to our new home. Unfortunately, the insurance wouldn’t allow us to continue services in Watertown while we were on a waiting list in another town. So my daughter was not getting any services until her name was up on the list. So while we waited for services, we had to learn some coping mechanisms to handle the 3 to 5 major meltdowns everyday not to mention the fact that she was nearly impossible to get her to go to sleep and when she was asleep she wouldn’t stay asleep and the only foods that she was able to eat were soft and mushy because she has hypotonia which means that she has such slow muscle tone that she couldn’t even chew her food. Though all she ate was apple sauce, pudding and yogurt and we have to give her chocolate pediasure mixed with whole milk to help fill those nutritional gaps in her diet, so when the old receptionist called me and asked me if I would be willing to let a doctor come to my home and practice this autism massage on my daughter with me being present. I of course was very open to the idea, however, I was so very cautious as a parent, I had many questions so I invited him over and he gave us tons of information, even watch the video with us explaining everything that was going to go on and even showing our daughter what was going to happen so she wouldn’t have any fear when he reached out to first touch her. So Basically, it’s very simple, he let me taps on her head and the tapping of the hand outward of the body and its very common he receiving at first she was very unsure of what he was doing, wasn’t really sure she didn’t want anybody to touch her unless me rubbing her back or giving her squeezes, which is deep compression big bear hugs and so eventually he round and it was very helpful, she eventually would ask for him on a daily basis, she is 6 years old now and still asks to see him although he does not come anymore. She will still ask for what she affectionately calls the Autism Massage which is “PATPAT” because he pats his hands against her head. So she will still ask her “PATPAT” when she’s feeling overwhelmed or had a bad day and it’s a very helpful thing I think as a parent because my husband and I were finally able to do something at home that helped our daughter, we want it so desperately to help her with those sensory overloads that she was having that just didn’t have any way to do so. So, John gave us that tool to help her and it was very, very helpful. So, I was very excited when he agreed to be interviewed and I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did. I encourage you to check out John’s website and he also does public speaking engagement so if you’re looking for that as well, you can contact him. Thank you for checking our podcast and feel free to go to www.autismparentingmagazine.com and enter your email to get 1 free subscription of our magazine. Leslie: So today is January 27, 2013 and were talking with Dr. John Pagano. Hi John! Dr. John Pagano: Hi! Leslie: So, can you give us a little background of you and your qualifications? Dr. John Pagano: I started volunteering when I was 13, because I had a sister with Down Syndrome and what I noticed was that when I saw people with Down Syndrome -  they scared me. I felt really bad about that. So I walked into this mental retardation facility and they just put children in my lap and I started to work with them as a volunteer and when I was 16 they hired me,