The transition to adulthood for teens with disabilities can be extremely challenging.
The providers at Courage Kenny Kids see kids of all ages that have a range of physical and cognitive disabilities like cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury or disorders, traumatic brain injury, autism spectrum and other sensory disorders, developmental delay, communication disorders, and stroke among others.
They also work with kids who have short-term health conditions like concussions or an orthopedic injury. When parents are raising teens with disabilities or mental health challenges, it can feel impossible to get through the teen years.
LeeAnn Mateffy, lead pediatric occupational therapist is here to assist you in aiding your special needs child's transition into adulthood.
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Helping Teens With Disabilities Transition To Adulthood
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Learn more about LeeAnn Mateffy
LeeAnn Mateffy, -Lead Pediatric Occupational Therapist, MS, OTR/L, Courage Kenny Kids
LeeAnn Mateffy, lead pediatric occupational therapist, Courage Kenny Kids. LeeAnn is a pediatric occupational therapist with professional interests in sensory integration, therapeutic listening, interactive metronome (IM), teens, pre-driving skills, SOS and feeding. She says the best part of her job is working with families and their children. At a young age she became interested in occupational therapy because she saw OTs making cookies and doing crafts which looked like way more fun than what they were doing in physical therapy.Learn more about LeeAnn Mateffy
Transcription:
Helping Teens With Disabilities Transition To Adulthood
Melanie Cole (Host): Helping kids with disabilities transition to adulthood can be challenging but it can be so rewarding. My guest today is LeeAnn Mateffy. She’s the Lead Pediatric Occupational Therapist at Courage Kenny Kids. Welcome to the show, LeeAnn. Let’s talk about what type of disabilities or challenges do you typically treat when you work with teens.
LeeAnn Mateffy (Guest): Sure. At Courage Kenny Kids we see kids of all ages who have all sorts of physical and cognitive disabilities. Some of the diagnoses are cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injuries, kids on THE autism spectrum, and kids with sensory disorders, developmental delays, communication disorders and strokes. We also work with kids who have short term health conditions like a sports injury or an orthopedic injury. We don’t work with just kids who have long-term disabilities.
Melanie: When we’re talking about these kids, what do their parents ask you every single day about their ability to transition to adulthood and manage some things on their own?
Ms. Mateffy: Some of the things that we can do – I’m an occupational therapist and I can assess and develop teens pre-driving skills. If you’re a driver, you probably kind of take these skills for granted but it’s really challenging for a teen to be able to scan the environment quickly, pay attention to what they’re doing, use their hands, use their feet and it’s really challenging and sometimes even anxiety producing for kids on the spectrum. At an OT I can reinforce some of those scanning skills using kind of a fun piece of equipment called a Dynavision. It’s a big screen and kids will look up at it and it blinks lights in all the quadrants--on the left, the right, the top, the bottom--so it really kind of looks at their reaction time and their peripheral vision. If kids need more help, I can refer them to our driver’s program and training. They are the group that recommends modifications or adaptations. Maybe a teen can only drive within a five mile radius of their home, only when it’s light. Another great example is speech therapy. They help kids practice social scripts. That’s kind of like role playing. It’s used to help lessen a teen’s anxiety when they’re maybe trying something new. Maybe they are trying to talk to a new friend or practice for a first job interview. So, the speech therapist and the teen role play until the teen feels more comfortable using the script like in a real life situation.
Melanie: When you’re working with them to transition, give us a few more examples of things that you might do. You’ve talked about driving skills and social scripts but there are other things, even transitioning to go to college or any of these other things. How do you work with these teens?
Ms. Mateffy: Transition for teens can be a tough thing. It depends on the child’s developmental stage. Maybe you have 16-year-old who physically or mentally is like a 16-year-old but some 16-year-olds might be a bit delayed so it’s like we’re working with a child who is 10 or 12. At Courage Kenny Kids, we specialize in working with kids with transition so they’re not little kids anymore where they go to a pediatric clinic but they aren’t adults. As therapists, we need a good mix of skills – pediatric skills and the adult skills--to make sure that we can appropriately treat those teens. Traditionally, we’re called the pediatric therapists or pediatric rehab but we need to make sure that we are able to work with adult tools and equipment. A lot of the things that we face with teens with disabilities is just what any parent faces with a teen. The disability just kinds of put a little extra spin on how the child transitions to adulthood.
Melanie: What about building soft employment skills or social skills so that they can transition and do some of these things on their own?
Ms. Mateffy: Just like any kid, a teen with a disability can benefit from playing recreational sports or teen sports. The Courage Kenny kid therapists, we often recommend that teens connect with our sports and rec department and they offer a really wide range of adaptive and competitive sports. Some of them are downhill skiing, they’ve got all sort of great skis on spikes or skis on tethers so kids can ski safely. They do snowboarding and they do archery, rock climbing, wheelchair softball, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, and track and field. I’ve seen kids do kayaking and power soccer.
Melanie: When they’re doing these things, that not only helps them adapt to a team sport but gives them some of those social skills as well, yes?
Ms. Mateffy: Yes, it does. Oftentimes, as a therapist when I’m working with a child, I’ll consult our SHARE Program—that stands for Sports, Health, Activity, Recreation and Exercise. Our SHARE experts will come and talk to a family about maybe what types of things they’re looking for. Maybe a teen is looking for a yoga class or a karate class. If you have a disability, our SHARE specialist will help the family figure out what are community resources that would be appropriate for that teen. We also have something called Allina Health Chance to Chill website. It’s called chancetochill.org. That’s a free, pretty to use information to help teens manage stress in a healthy way.
Melanie: Do you encourage teens to possibly volunteer to learn to use some of those pre-employment skills we mentioned before or some vocational skills? How do you do that with them, LeeAnn?
Ms. Mateffy: I’m going to talk about behavior services a little bit, too. Sometimes teens can have some challenging behaviors that sometimes get in the way of their ability to participate in family or school settings. We’ve got behavior services that can help the teen better manage their behavior so they’re more successful at home and at school and whatever kind of community services they might be involved in. Remember, when it’s a time of transition or change it can be really tough on a family. We can refer the teen and their family to counseling. You talked about some of the volunteer services. Teens also benefit from volunteering to learn how to use pre-employment skills in a safer volunteer setting. Sometimes a vocational counselor can help a teen and the parent figure out what are the teen’s special skillsets and how to match those up in an employment setting.
Melanie: Do young adults with disabilities need to or want to begin managing some of their own healthcare?
Ms. Mateffy: That might be something that we do in occupational therapy – have teens start working on some of the strategies they might need to use to pay attention and speech might work on that. Speech could help teens use their smart phones for things more than just texting and snapchat. Maybe they help the teen figure out how can they make lists kind of like to-do lists so that the parents don’t have to hear anymore, “Oh, gosh. I forgot about doing the chores” or “I forgot my homework” because they’ve already worked on figuring out how to make a list with a speech therapist.
Melanie: That’s fascinating work that you do. In just the last few minutes here, what else do you offer kids to help develop social skills and physical skills to help them transition to adulthood?
Ms. Mateffy: I don’t think I’ve talked about kids who’ve had concussions. So, we have a teen that will come in and a physical therapist would help them work on maybe some higher-functioning gait activities. Maybe this is a kid who played soccer so the physical therapist and the teen will work on that. Most other kids who’ve had brain injuries might have some balance issues and they would benefit from working in the pool with a physical therapist. Lots of times we’ll show teens how to safely use our fitness center. Maybe they need a little bit of help at first so they can safely use the equipment but eventually most of them can progress to being more independent and maybe they even get to transition to their local Y or their fitness center so they can continue with those skills. I think I’ve talked about occupational therapy. Maybe I would work with that teen who has had a concussion on some of the visual scanning that they need to do so that they don’t walk into walls and so they can progress to some safe pre-driving skills.
Melanie: It’s wonderful work that you do and certainly so interesting for parents to hear. Thank you so much, LeeAnn, for being with us today. You’re listening to The WELLcast with Allina Health. For more information, you can go to allinahealth.org. That’s allinahealth.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
Helping Teens With Disabilities Transition To Adulthood
Melanie Cole (Host): Helping kids with disabilities transition to adulthood can be challenging but it can be so rewarding. My guest today is LeeAnn Mateffy. She’s the Lead Pediatric Occupational Therapist at Courage Kenny Kids. Welcome to the show, LeeAnn. Let’s talk about what type of disabilities or challenges do you typically treat when you work with teens.
LeeAnn Mateffy (Guest): Sure. At Courage Kenny Kids we see kids of all ages who have all sorts of physical and cognitive disabilities. Some of the diagnoses are cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injuries, kids on THE autism spectrum, and kids with sensory disorders, developmental delays, communication disorders and strokes. We also work with kids who have short term health conditions like a sports injury or an orthopedic injury. We don’t work with just kids who have long-term disabilities.
Melanie: When we’re talking about these kids, what do their parents ask you every single day about their ability to transition to adulthood and manage some things on their own?
Ms. Mateffy: Some of the things that we can do – I’m an occupational therapist and I can assess and develop teens pre-driving skills. If you’re a driver, you probably kind of take these skills for granted but it’s really challenging for a teen to be able to scan the environment quickly, pay attention to what they’re doing, use their hands, use their feet and it’s really challenging and sometimes even anxiety producing for kids on the spectrum. At an OT I can reinforce some of those scanning skills using kind of a fun piece of equipment called a Dynavision. It’s a big screen and kids will look up at it and it blinks lights in all the quadrants--on the left, the right, the top, the bottom--so it really kind of looks at their reaction time and their peripheral vision. If kids need more help, I can refer them to our driver’s program and training. They are the group that recommends modifications or adaptations. Maybe a teen can only drive within a five mile radius of their home, only when it’s light. Another great example is speech therapy. They help kids practice social scripts. That’s kind of like role playing. It’s used to help lessen a teen’s anxiety when they’re maybe trying something new. Maybe they are trying to talk to a new friend or practice for a first job interview. So, the speech therapist and the teen role play until the teen feels more comfortable using the script like in a real life situation.
Melanie: When you’re working with them to transition, give us a few more examples of things that you might do. You’ve talked about driving skills and social scripts but there are other things, even transitioning to go to college or any of these other things. How do you work with these teens?
Ms. Mateffy: Transition for teens can be a tough thing. It depends on the child’s developmental stage. Maybe you have 16-year-old who physically or mentally is like a 16-year-old but some 16-year-olds might be a bit delayed so it’s like we’re working with a child who is 10 or 12. At Courage Kenny Kids, we specialize in working with kids with transition so they’re not little kids anymore where they go to a pediatric clinic but they aren’t adults. As therapists, we need a good mix of skills – pediatric skills and the adult skills--to make sure that we can appropriately treat those teens. Traditionally, we’re called the pediatric therapists or pediatric rehab but we need to make sure that we are able to work with adult tools and equipment. A lot of the things that we face with teens with disabilities is just what any parent faces with a teen. The disability just kinds of put a little extra spin on how the child transitions to adulthood.
Melanie: What about building soft employment skills or social skills so that they can transition and do some of these things on their own?
Ms. Mateffy: Just like any kid, a teen with a disability can benefit from playing recreational sports or teen sports. The Courage Kenny kid therapists, we often recommend that teens connect with our sports and rec department and they offer a really wide range of adaptive and competitive sports. Some of them are downhill skiing, they’ve got all sort of great skis on spikes or skis on tethers so kids can ski safely. They do snowboarding and they do archery, rock climbing, wheelchair softball, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, and track and field. I’ve seen kids do kayaking and power soccer.
Melanie: When they’re doing these things, that not only helps them adapt to a team sport but gives them some of those social skills as well, yes?
Ms. Mateffy: Yes, it does. Oftentimes, as a therapist when I’m working with a child, I’ll consult our SHARE Program—that stands for Sports, Health, Activity, Recreation and Exercise. Our SHARE experts will come and talk to a family about maybe what types of things they’re looking for. Maybe a teen is looking for a yoga class or a karate class. If you have a disability, our SHARE specialist will help the family figure out what are community resources that would be appropriate for that teen. We also have something called Allina Health Chance to Chill website. It’s called chancetochill.org. That’s a free, pretty to use information to help teens manage stress in a healthy way.
Melanie: Do you encourage teens to possibly volunteer to learn to use some of those pre-employment skills we mentioned before or some vocational skills? How do you do that with them, LeeAnn?
Ms. Mateffy: I’m going to talk about behavior services a little bit, too. Sometimes teens can have some challenging behaviors that sometimes get in the way of their ability to participate in family or school settings. We’ve got behavior services that can help the teen better manage their behavior so they’re more successful at home and at school and whatever kind of community services they might be involved in. Remember, when it’s a time of transition or change it can be really tough on a family. We can refer the teen and their family to counseling. You talked about some of the volunteer services. Teens also benefit from volunteering to learn how to use pre-employment skills in a safer volunteer setting. Sometimes a vocational counselor can help a teen and the parent figure out what are the teen’s special skillsets and how to match those up in an employment setting.
Melanie: Do young adults with disabilities need to or want to begin managing some of their own healthcare?
Ms. Mateffy: That might be something that we do in occupational therapy – have teens start working on some of the strategies they might need to use to pay attention and speech might work on that. Speech could help teens use their smart phones for things more than just texting and snapchat. Maybe they help the teen figure out how can they make lists kind of like to-do lists so that the parents don’t have to hear anymore, “Oh, gosh. I forgot about doing the chores” or “I forgot my homework” because they’ve already worked on figuring out how to make a list with a speech therapist.
Melanie: That’s fascinating work that you do. In just the last few minutes here, what else do you offer kids to help develop social skills and physical skills to help them transition to adulthood?
Ms. Mateffy: I don’t think I’ve talked about kids who’ve had concussions. So, we have a teen that will come in and a physical therapist would help them work on maybe some higher-functioning gait activities. Maybe this is a kid who played soccer so the physical therapist and the teen will work on that. Most other kids who’ve had brain injuries might have some balance issues and they would benefit from working in the pool with a physical therapist. Lots of times we’ll show teens how to safely use our fitness center. Maybe they need a little bit of help at first so they can safely use the equipment but eventually most of them can progress to being more independent and maybe they even get to transition to their local Y or their fitness center so they can continue with those skills. I think I’ve talked about occupational therapy. Maybe I would work with that teen who has had a concussion on some of the visual scanning that they need to do so that they don’t walk into walls and so they can progress to some safe pre-driving skills.
Melanie: It’s wonderful work that you do and certainly so interesting for parents to hear. Thank you so much, LeeAnn, for being with us today. You’re listening to The WELLcast with Allina Health. For more information, you can go to allinahealth.org. That’s allinahealth.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.