Engage

April is Occupational Therapy Month where we recognize the amazing OTs that we are lucky to get to work alongside in improving quality of life for our patients and their families. 🖤

We are blessed to share clients and our lives with the amazing OT team at Engage of Jonesboro. Happy OT Month to you all, and to all of the other OT and COTAs that we work alongside each day!

We are excited for this next chapter in our lives!

Organization provides housing and jobs to young adults with autism Engage will soon open a new facility allowing graduating seniors somewhere to live, work, and grow as functioning members of society.

Engage will be celebrating Easter by staying open on Friday 3/29 and Monday 4/1 to support the working families that count on us to care for their children. In lien of candy or plastic egg shells, please donate human food or pet food for those in need. We will be collecting donated human and pet food starting on Friday 3/29 through the first week of April. Happy Easter!

This is our spring cleaning alert for our Engage families! We have several items of clothing (kids through young adults sizes) that have been left throughout the winter. Please check in with us if you are missing clothing items.

We are incredibly fortunate to celebrate love this month with our amazing learners and their parents. It is through our commitment and determination to support their health, education and social development that we find ourselves discovering our own growth as individuals and professionals. We will be opening our new facility in the next few months, and we cannot be more excited to be a part of the next chapters with so many amazing people! ~Tracy

"Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us." ~Maya Angelou

(Book: Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now https://amzn.to/466uHtj)

Art Credit: Andrew Wyeth

Powerful reminder! 🙌
Learn more: https://teachergoals.com/pd/the-discipline-book

Here we go! After a wonderful summer, our learners are settling into a new school year.

From Kindergarten, to those preparing for their first semester of college, and every student in between - we believe in you!

(One of our teachers crafted this awesome photo frame to help make those first day photos a bit more fun! Thanks Mrs. Katy!)

Engage may be adopting a new motto! Our friend and learner "red Liam" came up with this concept! He is one suave.. and smart kid! 🧠

We can't express our gratitude enough for the families who take the time to share their experiences with Engage. If you haven't yet, we would love to hear from you. You never know the impact your story can have!

Engage Highly skilled team focused on pairing academic achievement with advanced health & social development

We encourage many methods of self expression. Ella chose painting last week! Good work Ella!

Indoor basketball is one of our favorite ways to stay active during the hot summer months! Team sports are not just great exercise for the physical body but for our mental muscles as well. They engage (no pun intended) key problem solving skills, communication & even respect for authority.

That's our motto! We hope everyone has had a wonderful summer so far.

Our kids have been busy tapping into what motivates them & figuring out what it means to be their best selves. We are so proud to share this time with them!

Today, my nephew Quinn found a fawn curled up sleeping next to its mother. The mother had been hit and killed. The little fawn was nestled up waiting for care. Yet, it urgently needed food and warmth. It did not want to leave all of the comforts of the mother's smell. It was a painful thing to witness, and yet my nephew, Quinn, understood what needed to be done. He took the fawn and brought it to our farm. I put the goat's milk on my neck to help the fawn eat and I used my fingers to groom the youngster. Much to my surprise the fawn licked the milk and demonstrated a need to survive. I recognized that if we could find a host mom the fawn may survive. Luckily, our neighbor has goats and the fawn is quickly learning to feed and to partake in another species and their ways. Survival is beautiful and brutal all at once. Survival in children is such a primitive and strong sense, and today I was reminded of the unbelievable survival skills of young children with special needs, and that includes losing their biological mothers. Our mothers at Engage wrap their love around ALL of our children. Our children at Engage do not judge their many sources of mother love by their skill levels. They simply love them because they are the adults charged with caring for them, and yes that mother smell and love goes into all of that. Remember that love is not as judgmental as other human emotions and enjoy the moments that your child looks at you with complete love regardless of skill. Life is precious.

Dr. Morrison here, I have the great privilege of being a part of many lives, and almost all of the parents that I know feel anxious when they think about the upcoming summer vacation most youth in the US experience. Many parents have to juggle work with their child's lack of structure at home. Some parents wishful think summer, some parents just slide through the summer and hope for the best, some parents get serious and plan out summer experiences. Let us help you create your summer plans. Remember, structure, routine and responsibilities are critically important to childhood brain development, and childhood brain development continues throughout the second decade of life (20's!). Isolation, and yes this includes solitary play on a device, and lazing around throughout the day reduces the brain chemicals that promote healthy brain development. As adults, we often view unstructured time as a privilege, but most of us as youth were not allowed to sleep off an entire summer. Rest and relaxation are lovely, but too much is harmful. Think about your child's summer plans; do you have a plan? Consult with us if you need ideas or suggestions. Attached is a link from the Harvard Child Development Center, which is a wonderful resource for the parent that seeks guidance promoting their child's optimal brain development. That's right parents, your child's brain has to be developed through enriched activities and this continues all the way through their 20's!!!!

8 Things to Remember about Child Development - Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University Building on a well-established knowledge base more than half a century in the making, recent advances in the science of early childhood development and its underlying biology provide a deeper understanding that can inform and improve existing policy and practice, as well as help generate new ways of...

Our teaching staff at Engage is made up of intelligent, encouraging individuals that are handpicked for a unique purpose within our facility. They are dedicated to learning the interworking of your child to better support their intellectual growth and self confidence. We are celebrating them this week and encourage you to do so as well!

We will be spotlighting our teaching staff over the next few days. Keep watch and leave a comment of support to let them know how appreciated they are!

What does it say when 100% of our 11th graders score a 30 and 27 on their ACT exam?!!! It tells us that our learners can be exceptional people and exceptional scholars. We are fairly sure that our ACT Aspire learners rocked their exam too!