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  • How to Start Makaton at Home (Start With Just Five Signs)

    How to Start Makaton at Home (Start With Just Five Signs)
    2026/08/31
    SIGN UP FOR THE REGULATED HOME WORKSHOP! TOTALLY FREE WITH REPLAY. Her son signed his first word back after a full year of her signing to him. One year. At a fridge. Asking for milk. If you have ever been told "have you looked into Makaton?" and then felt your stomach drop because that sounds like one more thing to learn, this conversation is going to feel like a big exhale. I'm sitting down with Kaley, a Makaton tutor and the mum behind @sign_possible. Her son Rui was diagnosed with low muscle tone and global developmental delay at one, and autism at four. He wasn't hitting milestones, wasn't babbling, wasn't pointing. A speech and language therapist suggested Makaton as a bridge to communication when he was two, and Kaley went all in: she and her husband did the Level 1 and 2 course, then got the nanny, granddad, and both of his nursery key workers on it too. She is honest about the middle part, the year where nothing came back and she nearly gave up. She is honest about how overwhelming it felt to be handed what looked like a whole new language while everything else in life was still happening. And she is honest about the thing that made it click: she stopped trying to learn all of it and picked five signs. Rui is seven and a half now. He said his first word at five and a half. It was "me." Then "mummy." Then "yes." I'll be honest, I learned a huge amount in this one. I know a little ASL but I really didn't know much about Makaton, and Kaley breaks down what it actually is, how it's different from British Sign Language, and exactly where to start if you're sitting there thinking "okay, I think this is us." ⁠Check out her resources Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    34 分
  • The Hidden Stressors Behind Your Child's ADHD Symptoms

    The Hidden Stressors Behind Your Child's ADHD Symptoms
    2026/08/27
    If your child's meltdowns, big feelings, and constant motion have ever left you wondering what is really going on underneath it all, this episode is going to give you a whole new lens. This week I'm joined by Dana Kay, founder of the ADHD Thrive Institute, who has worked with more than 1,600 families and walked this road with her own son, who was diagnosed at four and is now 16 and thriving. After years of trial-and-error with medication, Dana went back to school, dug into the science, and started looking at ADHD symptoms in a completely different way. Her big idea is one I keep thinking about: behavior is communication. Instead of asking “why is my child behaving like this,” she invites us to ask “what might be stressing his system.” We talk about the hidden stressors she sees come up again and again in her work, from gut health and food sensitivities to nutrient depletion and that cumulative “trash can” load on the body. She shares the simple, doable first step she gives overwhelmed families (hint: it starts at breakfast and involves zero perfection), plus her no naked carb rule that any tired mama can actually pull off. We also get real about what thriving truly looks like, and spoiler, it is not a perfect home with zero meltdowns. It is calmer, more connected, more ordinary in the very best way. A gentle note before you dive in: everything Dana shares here comes from her own experience and her work with families, and every child is different. Think of this as food for thought, not a prescription. Please loop in your own doctor or care team before making changes to food, supplements, or anything else for your kiddo. If you've been stuck in survival mode and quietly wondering if there's more to the story, come listen. There's so much hope in this one. Check out her website and resources here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    31 分
  • How to Walk Into an IEP Meeting Feeling Ready

    How to Walk Into an IEP Meeting Feeling Ready
    2026/08/20
    If you've ever stared at a 40-page IEP and thought “I know what all these words mean, but I have no idea what they mean together,” this episode is for you. This week I'm joined by Vicki Christensen, a parent advocate of about a decade and mom to two boys who both have IEPs and are wonderfully different from each other. Vicki has sat on both sides of these meetings, as the professional in the room and as the mum who once walked in with an empty binder and just hoped everyone was doing the right thing for her son. She's so good at making this stuff make sense. We get really practical in this one. Vicki shares how to prepare before you ever walk in, like requesting the draft documents a few days ahead so you actually have time to read them, sending your questions and concerns in advance, and making sure the right people are at the table. She talks about leading with curiosity instead of defensiveness when you disagree, and why protecting that long-term relationship with the school matters even on the days you'd love to go in guns blazing. I also share the one thing I make every person in the room do at the start of my son's meetings, and how it shifted everything. But this isn't only logistics. We talk about how lonely those early years can feel, even when you have a supportive family around you, and Vicki's beautiful reminder that if it feels like you're the only one, that feeling is real, and you're still not actually alone. Her chapter on finding your village is a favorite for a reason. Your village can be small, it can be online, it can look like whatever you need. Vicki's book, Uniquely Fully Enough: The Neurodivergent Parenting Journey, weaves her family's story together with a “love lesson from a mom” at the end of each chapter, plus quick handbook highlights you can actually use. You can also find her sharing advocacy tips on Instagram. Come sit with us. Whether you're prepping for a big meeting or just need to feel a little less alone today, this one delivers on both. Check out her book here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    36 分
  • Same Spectrum, Different Kids: Raising Two Autistic Boys

    Same Spectrum, Different Kids: Raising Two Autistic Boys
    2026/08/13
    If you're raising more than one neurodivergent kid and quietly wondering why what works for one does absolutely nothing for the other, this conversation is going to feel like such a relief. This week I'm joined by Dalisse Sequeiros, mom to two autistic boys who could not be more different, and a children's book author who turned her family's real life into stories that help other kids feel seen. Along the way, Dalisse was also diagnosed as autistic herself, so she's parenting and understanding her own brain at the same time, something she beautifully calls rewriting her own history while staying present and building her boys' future. We talk about how one son melts down in a quiet, dim room while the other needs to move and throw and be held in a safe space, and why that old saying rings so true: when you know one autistic kid, you know one autistic kid. Dalisse shares how her books started as a simple birthday social story in PowerPoint and grew into a whole series on meltdowns, masking, bullying, and confidence. And if you're in the thick of the hard days right now, exhausted and carrying that heavy dark cloud of guilt and grief, her words for you near the end are so tender. The cloud lifts. It might not get easier exactly, but it gets easier to carry. Trust your gut, let your kid just be, and remember they're moving at their own perfect pace. Come sit with us for this one. You'll walk away feeling a little lighter and a lot less alone. GUEST LINKS: Follow Dalisse Grab her books here GET THE LINKS ⁠⁠⁠The Unfinished Idea Website Join the Unfinished Community Exhausted to Empowered Course Follow me on socials: ⁠⁠⁠INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠FACEBOOK⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    29 分
  • Routines vs rhythms: building a calmer home for your neurodivergent family

    Routines vs rhythms: building a calmer home for your neurodivergent family
    2026/08/06
    Join the After Christmas in July Sale- MAJOR SAVINGS!! If you have ever built the perfect color-coded chart, laminated it, felt so proud of it, and then watched it fall apart by Tuesday, this episode is for you. Greer opens with a picture you might recognize: 7:42 in the morning, cold coffee, a child on the kitchen floor over socks before shoes, and that sinking thought, "I did everything right. Why is the system not working?" Here is the gentle truth she landed on. The system was not broken. The expectation was. This whole episode is about one quiet shift that can change the feel of your home: trading rigid routines for simple rhythms. A routine runs on the clock. A rhythm runs on the flow. A routine shatters when the day goes sideways. A rhythm just bends, and then it comes right back. Greer walks through why rhythms work so well for neurodivergent brains. Underneath everything, our nervous systems are asking one quiet question, "Am I safe? Do I know what is coming next?" A rhythm answers that with the predictability of "this comes after that," minus the pressure of the exact minute that sets so many of our kids off. You will also hear the after-school example so many of us know by heart. That 3pm crash where your kid walks in the door and melts down ten minutes later. It is not bad behavior. It is a nervous system finally letting go in the one place it feels safe enough to. Greer shares the simple, no-clock flow that softened it in her own home: shoes off, a snack already waiting, the lights down a little, and no questions about their day for the first twenty minutes. And because real life is not tidy, she talks honestly about the days it all falls apart, why missing the rhythm is not the same as failing it, and why you get to be the thermostat in your home, not the thermometer. If you walk away with one thing, let it be this. You do not need a better chart. You do not need to overhaul everything by Sunday. You just need one small rhythm, anchored to the part of the day that hurts the most. Start there. You are not doing it wrong. And you are not doing it alone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    19 分
  • Why talking it out doesn’t always work for neurodivergent kids

    Why talking it out doesn’t always work for neurodivergent kids
    2026/07/30
    Have you ever tried to talk your neurodivergent child through a big feeling and just hit a wall? Same. In this episode I sat down with Katherine, a neuro-affirming counsellor and craniosacral therapist, to talk about why words are not always the way in, and what to reach for instead. We start somewhere that might gently rearrange how you think about feelings. You know the “name it to tame it” idea? Katherine reminds us that naming a feeling is actually the last step, not the first. For so many neurodivergent and highly sensitive kids, the felt experience in the body comes long before the words, and honestly our language is too small to hold all of it. She also says something I have been shouting about for years: we are not meant to tell our kids how they feel. Instead of “I see you’re sad,” we can get down on their level and ask, what is happening in your body? What do you notice in your heart, your tummy, your feet? Is there a colour for this? An animal? A character? For the kids who love to get into character, this can open a door that “use your words” never could. We get into the vagus nerve too (yes, I am obsessed, and no, you are not crazy for finding it fascinating). Katherine breaks down how our nervous system is constantly scanning for safety, why co-regulation matters so much, and why she is not a fan of the word “regulation” at all. A lot of what gets called regulation, she says, is really just asking our kids to keep their feelings in and perform calm for the world. And then there is the part for you, mama. Because you are co-regulating everyone in your house, often while running on empty. Katherine shares simple ways to come back to your own body so you can respond instead of react, and she even guides us through a short somatic exercise called the salamander (from Stanley Rosenberg’s book Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve). It takes a couple of minutes, and I felt the shift in real time. A gentle note before you listen: Katherine is sharing from her own training and experience as a counsellor and craniosacral therapist, so think of everything here as encouragement and ideas rather than a prescription. You know your family best, so take what fits and loop in your own care team or practitioner for anything specific to you or your child. If you have ever felt like the talk-it-out approach just is not landing, this one is for you. Come listen, take a breath, and remember you are not doing any of this alone. GUEST LINKS: Grab some great resources by Katherine here GET THE LINKS The Unfinished Idea Website Join the Unfinished Community Exhasuted to Empowered Follow me on socials: INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    30 分
  • Morning Chaos to Morning Wins: How Movement and Mindset Help ADHD Families Break the Loop

    Morning Chaos to Morning Wins: How Movement and Mindset Help ADHD Families Break the Loop
    2026/07/23
    If mornings in your house feel like a pressure cooker that goes off before you've even had your coffee — this episode is for you. Greer sits down with Rob Edmonds, co-founder of MindShift Mentors and a strategic psychotherapist and clinical hypnotherapist, and Carl (Col), a movement coach who has worked with over 3,000 families. Together, they've created a program called Morning Wars — a dual approach that combines intentional movement with cognitive pattern reprogramming to help ADHD kids (and their whole families) actually change the morning experience. What they share in this conversation is both validating and genuinely hopeful. Because the message isn't "your kid needs to be fixed." It's that nobody is the problem — the patterns are. And patterns can change. You'll hear them talk about why ADHD brains respond so powerfully to movement, how building a "bank of morning victories" can reduce meltdowns later in the day, and why what happens in your household before the school run is often less about your child's behavior and more about the loop the whole family is running together. There's something really grounding in this conversation about the idea that regulation is contagious — in both directions. When mum or dad wakes up already braced for a hard morning, that stress transfers. But when kids start the day doing something that builds their confidence, something shifts for the whole household. They also get practical: one instruction at a time, preparing the night before, specific guided audios and nighttime stories designed for little ones aged 3–10, and movement exercises that get the brain and body actually talking to each other. If you've been doing the same thing every morning and wondering why it isn't working, this episode offers a genuinely different way in — without blame, without pressure, and with a lot of warmth. GUEST LINKS: Mindshift Mentors Download the App & get the sleepy hallow story FREE GET THE LINKS ⁠⁠⁠The Unfinished Idea Website Join the Unfinished Community Exhausted to Empowered Course Follow me on socials: ⁠⁠⁠INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠FACEBOOK⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    32 分
  • Why Your Child Can't Hear You During a Meltdown and What Actually Helps

    Why Your Child Can't Hear You During a Meltdown and What Actually Helps
    2026/07/16
    JOIN CHRISTMAS IN JULY- Come connect, have fun, and get free gifts/resources all month long! If you've ever crouched next to your child mid-meltdown, saying all the right things, and watched it make zero difference — this episode will finally explain why. And more importantly, it will make you feel a whole lot less like you're doing it wrong. Greer sits down with Nikki, founder of HushAway — a gentle, sound-based platform built specifically for neurodivergent children aged four to ten — for a conversation that is equal parts science and soul. Nikki has spent years in early education, coaching, and neurodivergent-inclusive mentoring, and she created HushAway after noticing the same gap everywhere she looked: the tools we hand children in moments of overwhelm require the exact part of the brain that's already gone offline. In this episode, Nikki walks through what's actually happening in a child's body during a meltdown — from the prefrontal cortex going offline, to cortisol flooding the system, to the amygdala firing as if there's genuine danger. And she explains, so clearly and so kindly, why "calm down," "take a breath," or "imagine a peaceful beach" simply can't land in those moments. It's not that they won't. It's that they can't. Then she talks about sound — and why it's different. Sound travels through the ear, through the cochlea, directly into the brainstem and the autonomic nervous system in milliseconds. Before a child has a single conscious thought, their body is already responding. No language required. No cooperation needed. Just softness, doing its quiet work. They also get into the 3:30pm wall — that moment when a child who has been holding it together all day at school walks through your front door and falls completely apart. Nikki reframes it in a way that will genuinely stay with you: that isn't bad behaviour. That is a child who trusts you enough to finally let go. HushAway uses soundscapes, gentle frequencies, somatic storytelling, and ASMR-inspired sounds — all curated to help a child's nervous system find its way back to safe. And it's currently heading into formal EEG research at the University of East London, which means the science is catching up with what a lot of parents are already experiencing at home. This one is for every mum who has felt helpless in the middle of the storm — and needed someone to hand her something that actually works. GUEST LINKS: Follow Hush Away Check out Hush Away more GET THE LINKS ⁠⁠⁠The Unfinished Idea Website Join the Unfinished Community Exhausted to Empowered Course Follow me on socials: ⁠⁠⁠INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠FACEBOOK⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    32 分