Tourette's Syndrome

I think that this article about tourette's syndrome is fascinating. I would love to read about research studies of hippotherapy helping these children.
Helping Children with Tourette's Syndrome 

My 4 year old client is tolerating more and more movement that challenges her balance and postural control. Here she is shown pulling pins off the reins but she was also able to reach forward to remove pins high up on the mane. She is learning how to  bear weight on her hands over the withers while going uphill and leaning back while going downhill. She was a bit leery but more tolerant of faceing sideways while the pony made numerous sharp turns and circles around the outdoor arena's jumps and was very brave while trotting facing backwards.  I love doing therapy at Stone Ridge Farm in Haverhill. Everything there is so pretty and Charmer is such a good therapy pony.

The Temple Grandin Movie

I loved the Temple Grandin HBO movie starring Claire Danes. The acting was incredible and Claire Danes had the voice and body movements down perfectly. The plot was based on the book "Emergence: Labeled Autistic" so focuses on the childhood challenges including confrontations with school bullies, a doctor who wanted to institutionalize her and sexist ranchers who didn't want a woman around taking data for graduate school. The movie ends with her realization that the public is eager to learn about autism from the perspective of a person who can articulate the experience. I think that Temple Grandin's success can be summed up with one word- Persistence.

Is this horse real or fake?

I loved the visual perception/illusion exhibit at the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachsuetts. This was one of several images viewers had to guess as to whether it was a real or fake. Nice paint job on this pony!

Its quite flattering when a 2 year old who has a limited vocabulary (in my presence) of "more", "go", "dog", "bye" and "mom" can also say "Barbara".

Barbara Smith, M.S., OTR/L author of, The Recycling Occupational Therapist

I really enjoyed this book:
The Best Kind of Different

Quadruped while facing backwards

I seldom position children in quadruped while they face backwards because so many kids find it difficult enough to maintain this position while facing forwards.(which feels more natural)  with the assistancet of the handle to grasp. The child in this video is doing a pretty good job maintaining balance even though she has to work hard  against gravity to hold her head up.