The Expanding Worlds Podcast

Accepting ourselves and being more kind to ourselves are the themes in this episode. Anna Pinkerton from Kindness Incorporated talks about her personal and professional journeys and how she has combined them to help her daughter build the life she wants. Anna shares not only the journey she has been on with her daughter but also how that has crossed over into her professional life. She shares her...

Any journey is made easier by walking with others. That is the focus of this episode - the impact of collaboration with, in this case, the theater as the space where the collaboration starts. In this episode, Katie Sweeney, a parent and board member of the CO/LAB Theater Group in New York, talks about her individual journey and the role musical theater has played not only in her life but also her...

Days out and going on holiday are an important part of family life, but when a young person has additional needs they can be much more of a challenge. How to make the process easier is the focus of this podcast episode with Lizzie Murphy, from A Curious Journey, offers some tips and ideas on traveling with children who have additional needs. Lizzie talks about the importance of preparation and mak...

What might be the future uses of virtual reality, and how do we need to manage this to stop potential dependence on technology? These are the main themes of this episode. In part 2 of this interview Dr. Nigel Newbutt, who is researching the uses of virtual reality and virtual worlds, talks about what the future uses of virtual reality might be and how it could be used to help young people with add...

The use of virtual reality and virtual worlds can be used to change the future for our young people and just how this is happening is the topic of this episode. My guest this week is Dr. Nigel Newbutt who is researching how virtual reality and virtual worlds can be used to help young people with additional needs access and manage real-world situations that they often find overwhelming. Nigel expla...

All around us are people working in their local communities to make the lives of young people with additional needs better.  This week's podcast guest Sue Clark is one of these people. Sue talks about her work with   Pegasus Playscheme which is located on the south coast of England. Pegasus Playscheme provides activities for young people with additional needs in the summer over a 3 week period. Th...

Getting to know any young person is the essential first step in understanding what they need when it comes to helping them achieve greater independence. This is the core ethos of this week's podcast guests Trudy and Darren Dzirasa-Payne from Impacting Lives. Impacting Lives provides housing and associated support services for young people with additional needs.  What they focus on is providing ser...

Rather than waiting until we have to act the better option is to start exploring what is already out there and start actively working towards creating solutions. This is exactly what this week's podcast guest Mike Sweeney is doing. Mike talks about the various projects that he has become involved in as he looks towards finding a community for his son Dustin to live in when he is ready for independ...

At some point in all of our journeys, we need support. Some of us find it in family and friends, others look to support groups. In this week's podcast, Elaine Kelly, who runs a support group, talks about how support groups can help when maybe others around you simply don't get it. Elaine explains how her support group is run and what she believes is important to consider to provide a supportive an...

This is a celebration episode, celebrating reaching 50 episodes, celebrating all the amazing guests who have been on the podcast and are out there changing the lives of young people and helping ensure that they will have the kind of independent lives they want. In this episode, rather than talk to a guest as I usually do, I share my own key takeaways around Purpose, Relationship, and Daily Living....

Job carving can help create sustainable employment opportunities according to this week's podcast guest Neil Willows from Pure Innovations Neil is the Assistant Internship Contract Manager at Pure Innovations which is based in Manchester in the UK. His role is focused on using supported internships to help young people gain work skills and find long-term employment. Neil explains how their support...

Tennis, because of its repetitive nature, is an excellent therapeutic tool which can develop not only physical skills but also builds language and social skills, according to this week's podcast guest Lisa Pugliese, from Love Serving Autism. Lisa is the founder and CEO of Lover Serving Autism and has combined her skills as an ex-professional tennis player and Speech-Language Pathologist to develop...

The job of a parent is to be there whatever and whenever for your child – those are the rules! That certainly applies to Claire Sutton, this week's podcast guest. Claire shares her truly inspiring, but sometimes heart-breaking, story. Her daughter Jade, who is now 14 years old, has ADHD. The road to getting Jade diagnosed was drawn out. As Claire put it, Jade "slipped through the cracks of the edu...

What happens to young people with additional needs when they finish full-time education? How will they find employment? How will they cope on their own throughout adulthood?. One organization helping to provide some of the answers to these questions is Invictus Enterprises based in New York. In this week's podcast, we hear from Alison Berkely co-founder of Invictus Enterprises about how they are h...

Successful sustainable employment opportunities for young people with additional needs comes when support is provided for not just the young person but also for their employer too. This is the message in this week's podcast with Lisa Campbell-Squires from Team Domenica. Team Domenica is a social enterprise charity with a vision to help people with additional needs reach their full potential in the...

To truly learn, it has to be caught rather than taught is the mantra of this week's podcast with Diane King, author and special needs teacher. One way to do this and at the same time develop childrens' self-worth is through storytelling and creativity. We start with Diane's own journey which has been an interesting one. As a child Diane was a selective mute and struggled to communicate with the wo...

"Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right," according to Henry Ford: this week's podcast guest Marjorie Madfis clearly believes this to be true. With Yes She Can Inc., Marjorie has not only created employment opportunities for her own daughter, but she has also created a training process which other parents can use to help their children develop better employability s...

Do you need more sleep because your child needs more sleep? Maybe this weeks guest can help. Vicki Dawson is the CEO of The Children's Sleep Charity and helped write the Children and Young People's Sleep Manifesto presented to the UK government, which argued among other things for quality sleep support to be available for all families and for sleep to be recognised as a vital component of mental h...

What is Dyspraxia? If you don't know or if you do and want to know more this week's podcast is for you My guest Christine Draper has written a book called  My Friend Josh has Dyspraxia to help more people understand dyspraxia and, more importantly, help more people understand what it means for her son Luke who has dyspraxia. Christine strives to spread awareness about the condition to help people...

Everyone needs a Shed – a place to go, to be. But this Shed is much more than that, it is a space for people with additional needs to build independence and work skills and engage with their local community.  On this week's Podcast, we hear from Clive Harris, the founder of The Shed. The Shed provides a community-based education and training service to help adults with additional needs develop the...

Work is central to most of our lives. It not only provides a purpose to our day but also makes us feel an integral part of the society we live in. In this week's podcast we hear about the Project Search program, being run at the Marriott Hotel in Heathrow UK, which provides an innovative approach to help young people with additional needs find paid employment. The people responsible for running th...

Friendships and purpose are two of the most important things to have in our lives. For young people with additional needs finding these can sometimes be a challenge. In part 2 of Stepping back Milla Johnson, an Occupational Therapist, and Lisa Campbell, a Speech and Language Therapist, discuss how to manage friendships and access work opportunities. When it comes to friendships Lisa and Milla reco...

The challenge of stepping back and letting our children take risks and make mistakes is never easy.   How to deal with this challenge is the theme of this week's podcast where I speak to Lisa Campbell, a Speech and Language Therapist, and Milla Johnson, an Occupational Therapist. Lisa and Milla discuss why parents/carers should try to step back more to enable their children to develop the skills t...

Planning ahead helps us reach our goals, and although we can't prepare for everything, a plan gives us a general direction to travel   and can even help us identify a final destination. In this week's episode, we hear from Laura who has helped her son Jonathon plan ahead. This planning has enabled him to create a vision for his independent future, as well as prepare for the unexpected. We start La...

A social enterprise must first achieve success as an enterprise before they can deliver on any of their social objectives, that is the message from this week's podcast guest David Hunter. David is the CEO of Acceptable Enterprises Ltd (AEL) who are based in Larne, Northern Ireland and provide employment opportunities for young people with additional needs. AEL do this across a diverse range of ind...