hello and welcome to navigate autism with jane lan i'm your host to jane lynn brittany and we have a very fun show today with lots of guests that you're going to get to me we're talking about something that my son and i have learned a lot about lately and i call it a book therapy or therapy but we're going to learn what it's really called because you're going to love it and you're going to want to look into it a lot warmer so we have to fabulous women here and some of their friends we have who is the who was an occupational therapist but also the founding director of special strides and we have susie rare who was a physical therapist and she is the executive director for special strides so welcome ladies we're so glad to be asked absolutely but this one this one's easy to care for doesn't eat too much doesn't cost too much i love it i love it and i'm so excited that you're going to share with the in a few minutes about that connection and how important it occupational therapist how do you why did you create special stuff so in nineteen eighty six i was lucky enough to meet my husband and he happened to live on a farm and i when i met the farm i looked at the farm and i felt that i wanted to created a place for people to feel comfortable and accepted a peaceful place and the movement of the horse and the use of horse movement was just getting really big in the united states so that was an eighty's six eighty seven and i worked in the public school system and in hospitals and in private practice and i would do many field trips so a field trip a preschooler's came to the farm it was may so i knew the students for a year the speech pathologist was there the special educator the physical therapist parents and there was a little girl who did not speak she did not move all year she just observed and i put her on the horse during the field trip and i was not doing this work yet and she started to sing twinkle twinkle little star and we all like wanted to fall on the ground and we're like wow what just happened was there like magic but it's not magic there's actually a science to it the movement of the horse helps ignite the nervous system of individuals with special needs and so she was listening the whole year but she couldn't express up at once she got on the horse she was able to speak isn't that amazing it's amazing i mean the end you can't make that up in youth he and you would hit it that inspired you right i mean that what led you to say we're going to now create that they are guys and i said i must create this therapy so then i played with it a little bit over the but i needed to study and in one thousand nine hundred eight we started a program with four clients and now we're up to a hundred and fifty clients we started with occupational therapy and physical therapy and susie who you will meet shortly and she'll educate all of us and all of you viewers out there on the wonderful strategy of using the horse movement started in one thousand nine hundred eighty and now we're twenty years older and it takes place on congress so farm which is located in central new jersey it is a two hundred ten acre facility and it is an equestrian center that has a special strides a riding academy called horse play and the standard bred race horses so there is a track and a pool outdoor arena an indoor arena and we have these beautiful one hundred ten acres of trails that are so magical and enriching it's a wonderful sensory experience and in those words we have about one hundred fifty goats that are in the little pens that people witness and they wish to witness births of different animals baby horses baby clothes it really is a magical place and i've had the good fortune to go there few times we just started a few months ago but the feeling is is very welcoming there's still much to see and do but it's very confortable and like i said the woods i love that you use the woods for your trails because it's very inspiring to ride the horse but you know i more exciting when you get to see the tree and step over the branches or see the animals like you said it's very exciting if you start to talk about some of the programs what are some of the other things that you do and if you could explain also i guess and i call it a therapy i know that's not the right term so what what is it and what do you offer so i'm susie rare and i'm physical therapist but i also am very prominent in the american hypnotherapy association and part of our role is to educate so what a wonderful opportunity for me to to educate people so so often individuals use the words equine therapy or horse they're a pig or even the broad base of hypnotherapy but without really understanding what that means and the poorest human connection is so incredibly morissette so you know so magical but yet it's not magical it's scientific you know and so we have a medical model which physical therapists and occupational therapists and speech language pathologists use and they use they use the strategy of hippo therapy the word hippo therapy is not a spa not a separate entity it's a therapeutic tool a therapeutic strategy that we use which define is defined by how therapists regulate modulating manipulate the movement of the horse to make changes in the client ok and that could be by changing their motor patterns or it can be changing their sensory organization it could be changing just the neural connections so that somebody like laurie's little girl is able to make that connection that says oh wow i can use my language because now something inside of my brain has been ignited by that yes incredible movement and when you have that that rhythm underneath you it just opens everything up that's special strength we have the medical model p t and o t and we also have a recreational model which is what wm participates in and that's where we have and we call it adaptive riding other facilities might call it their pe criteria but it's when you have a certified instructor who is specialized in teaching individuals who have special needs so they have to adapt their methodology is to meet the needs of that individual whether they have varying needs due to alterations in how they move how they communicate how they feel the sensory world how they how they think how they how they're their emotions all of those elements have to be taken into account and adapted for and but the ultimate goal is is horsemanship and there are a lot of secondary benefits as i'm sure you know when a child is is learning a horsemanship skill like writing so in the medical model those are our primary focus is and in the end in adaptive riding the horsemanship skills come first and all of these other benefits such as balance and strength are secondary but they don't necessarily have to become an equestrian that's going to go to horse shows it's recreational it's fun it's exercise it's communicating with others it's being outside in the environment it's building self confidence in the recreational model and i think you actually have a really wonderful video that shows that or human connection to some of the things you're talking about so let's show a little bit of that right now so here's a video that you can find on your website they want to watch it again w w w dot special strides dot com and you go into the gallery the gallery and then click on videos he did ios so here's a short video for you to watch right how do you know what's possible what if our possibilities some call me a therapist song call me a teacher i worked with inner city children teaching them about horses and farm life now after some special training i help guide children and adults with disabilities to reach their full potential this is my true purpose i have a friend a name we have a lot in common both depend on people to take care of us both see the world to bit differently for most people use my legs and my body so she can improve her balance and coordination with me she's inspired to share her thoughts and has a greater sense of who she is her body challenges are in so many ways wasn't that a beautiful video and you could really see that connection with the poor and the little girl and as you were mentioning this this therapy does help all kids or ever any age group range with special needs how does is the difficulty help autism so i kind of like to think about one of the main ways that it helps is that if we were to be able to create sound by what we perceive as going on inside an individual's head with autism it would probably be very kocsis irregular you know whereas so disorganized right away many things vying for attention at the same time right where it's on the horse you get this really nice rhythm and that sets the  stage for so much else because they're not having all of these competing sounds and visual things and stuff interfering with with what they want to do all they feel is that rhythm and they kind of borrow the nervous system of the horse which for that period of time and they have this incredibly organizing influence makes a lot of fans and so sometimes every person is different every person who has autism is different but sometimes we see individuals seeking sensory information where they might be moving their arms a lot or putting their hands on their ears or rocking side to side and i likened it to them they need to do that and many of us have different sensory things that we do to help us function and help our brain function so they like him to do that to help them get them in the zone that they're able to receive information by temple grandin so aptly stated and she rode that the horse helped her so she didn't need to do whatever she needed to do with her body so because susie was talking about that could cough and this sound but this rhythm and rhythm and tempo literally we've scientifically know that in like a thirty minute period the individual sitting on the horse is getting all this in our hemisphere rick communication between the two sides of the brain from the horse moving in this plane and it's a very soothing the therapist is there or the therapeutic riding instructor to control the speed and pick the right horse to be able to match to the individual's nervous system so it's kind of like if you've ever walked with somebody who walks valuer than you and you're you're constantly trying to catch up in your brain actually feels like it's almost over liar it's on you know it's like oh my god i got cancer we got it and yet if we walk with somebody who walks slower than us it almost feels like we're moving through quicksand and we're very slow who ends and so when you match that tempo to the nervous system of the individual whether it's finding the right height horse to meet the right cadence and you know or the the might some horses have more rotation just like humans when we walk it's a three dimensional three dimensional aspect and some humans walk with more hip movement some you know walk with a real balance see right in thing with with the horse and that influence is the that i would only want to go we want the individual to be in the just right zone so that they're able to communicate whether it's through words or it's through touching the horse or it's through sounds so this helps them get to the just right zone and also to perform another function like let's say they're going to hold the reins where they're going to play with the toy depending on what their age is so the other aspect of the horse is i cannot reproduce this in any therapeutic situation every single some sation is being stimulated and we're able to increase or decrease the amount of the sensation and that helps them tremendously well i think her hand because i think i've told you that when william after writing it even during writing he does talk a little bit more he's more calm and focused and often has a better day at school because we come in the morning before school and many parents have expressed that over the years and have purposely like you scheduled it to the morning because we've created that just great zone for them and now they can use it you know so as laurie said we might be looking at them using it at this moment but the great thing is is that it carries over and they can use it for through the course of the day they could if it's not school it might be that the family can go out to dinner because the you know the child or young adult is now quiet and calm and i mean we've even had parents tell us that their child has tasted a new food well you know so they are slip and the other day i want to talk about or be able to use the bathroom more easily this many times people with autism not everyone but strengthen core musculature so that they would be better individuals or better with skills with their hands tool usage going up the stairs go being on a playground riding a bike so help independence in their world and i love all these techniques and i guess i know how much it really columns in the center of the body and i'm actually going to work i think a quick break and i'm going to show you another way that you can and you and your don't have access to a horse so ladies go ahead so we we've talked multiple times about the rhythm that that the horse provides and so to me that's one of the most powerful elements so how do you recreate that you could recreate it with having a child sitting on a therapy paul therapy ball while they're like yeah you know but so that their feet are on the ground like while they're doing something and then they can you know create their own rhythm or you could have music in the background that has a very nice rhythmic for beat rhythm and they're going to have any download on your phone metro there is free apps for metronome sounds which gives that ok i never thought about using that kind of found but when people use that obviously if your child can tolerate that noise you're not going to push it right if they do it can help with the rhythm in the brain to walk in the woods you know rocking chair in terms of fidget so we talked about like that some people with autism not all might be doing things with their hands or maybe with a sound so that's what helps their nervous system to work and we don't want to take that away from them but maybe we can make it's more socially acceptable so you see susie and i have these actually this is from home depot this is a fidget you have different lengths and sizes at home depot they're actually usually at the end of one of the aisles and just ask the individuals that work there where where do you have gear ties your ties and i love magnets because they give you so with for the viewers to come visit my beautiful farm congress a farm in monroe township you can go on our website either congress hill farm or a special stripes on july twentieth in the evening we have a concert to benefit special strides and it's outdoor if it's raining we have an indoor facility so we can do it inside it should be a great night and on october sixth we have our gali dance with it's in the barn and it's dressed down people love coming because it's in a i can't wait to see william strutting his stuff on his horse thank you for all that you do too for special needs and for autism it's really wonderful and thank you for joining us today and i look forward to seeing you next time we'll navigate