Therabytes

F-words: FUTURE. All the F-words lead up to Future - and this week it's a special video-cast look into the Future. And a sneak peak of the Healthy Strides Community Hub! "I am growing up every day, so please find ways for me to participate and be included in my community"

This week on TheraBytes! We catch up with Edward's mum Genevieve! It's all about Fitness - a parents perspective! Edward is incredibly funny, loving and very motivated to move! Genevieve joins us on the podcast this week to talk about how fitness works in their family. It's a beautiful and honest reflection of the joys and challenges of keeping our kids active. It is these shared ex...

A milestone episode with a trio of wonderful clinician's - adding their perspective on the latest F-word: Fitness!

This week we catch up with Nate!   An incredible eight-year-old boy who talks about his day, including his experiences at school....from recess being too short to playing with friends on the  playground , (note, he's too cool for games like chasey! 😉) From being a Telethon 2024 star to all his extra curricular activities, Nate is a busy boy - focused on high performance sports cars , he has...

We're joined this week by special guest, Taj and his mother, Danica! The conversation focuses on Taj's life, particularly his passion for footy (AFL) and whilst he is a big fan of the Geelong Cats, he is happy to support the West Coast Eagles if they're playing of course! 😉  Taj shares a recent highlight when he got the opportunity to play during halftime at Optus Stadium when the...

This week's F word is Fitness! Mobility is medicine and this week, we talk about what movement means for our bodies. This is relevant to all of us because long, uninterrupted sitting is not great for our health. Our goal is to break up long periods of sitting to move more and be physically active. Movement is great for our lungs, digestive system, bones, muscles with social, emotional and cog...

This week we continues the discussion on the topic of family , reflecting on our previous conversation with Jen Prior! It's important to emphasise that family isn't limited to blood relatives but includes the people you trust and do life with. It is integral to the "f-words" because it provides the why, how, and when for decisions, including pursuing therapy.  Key takeaways fro...

We catch up with Jen Prior - an incredible mother (to the one and only Emily Prior), an advocate and a founding member of the Healthy Strides Foundation! We get to speak with her about all things F-Words and FAMILY in particular!

We're back with a 2nd episode with the incredible Emily Prior! This time we discuss FUN - one of the very best F-words! 🥳

This week we catch up with Emma! An incredible advocate and parent, she describes herself as a big kid and a perfect example of this week's F-word, F.U.N, in action! Emma's thoughts on the importance of fun really hit home for me. It's so easy to get bogged down in appointments and therapies, especially in the beginning, and forget that the simple act of enjoying time together is cr...

Why FUN matters so much in therapy and everyday life! We kick things off by talking about how a lack of enjoyment can make therapy feel like a chore—limiting engagement, motivation, and progress. FUN doesn’t mean easy; it means finding joy in the journey and making therapy something kids want to come back to. We share our own experiences of how the idea of FUN changes as kids grow, and how we have...

Friends with Emily Prior! Model, Actor, Activist and friend (see what we did there! 😉) of the show - the returning Emily Prior. Emily has appeared on our sister podcast ResearchWorks and is here for a 2 episode stint with Dayna and Kate! An amazing conversation with an amazing young woman!

This week we catch up with Rynae to talk about FRIENDS - a parent's perspective! Kate's write-up to come!

As a parent, it can be easy to miss the importance of incorporating friendships and social-emotional development into your child's therapy goals much earlier.... In the beginning, there's such a strong focus on early intervention and neuroplasticity that it's easy to put friendships on the back burner.  Now I see that mobility and fitness are gateways to meaningful social interactio...

This week we're joined by Kellie! In this episode of TheraBytes, we get to speak with Kellie, the mother of Nate, a child with cerebral palsy, about function and the F-words. Kellie shares her experiences and insights on what function looked like for Nate in his early years, and what it looks like today. She emphasises the importance of adapting to his needs and making decisions whilst also b...

This week we welcome back Noraishah! Noraishah's back to discuss FUNction and its meaning in the context of therapy and child development. In this episode, Noraishah shares her personal experiences and insights as a parent, particularly focusing on her son's journey and the evolution of her understanding of FUNction.  Initially, her focus was simply on observing her son's capabiliti...

We introduce our first F word of the season, FUNCTION . The definition of function is what people do and luckily for children, play is what they do. What we want for our children is for them to be able to play.  We discuss that in the “old days” treatment looked different, the idea was to “fix” what was wrong in order for the person to function but it never did that. These days, the focus is on do...

We're back for a new season of TheraBytes! 🥳 We have an incredibly special guest in the studio this week - we catch up with Noraishah, co-host of the 1st season of the pod, joining Dayna and Kate for a brilliant look back at our past 2 seasons! If you're new to the pod, be sure to check out this episode, it's great place to start! 🎙️ As for Season 3 of the pod, we'll be coveri...

It can be so hard to figure out exactly what's going on with our kids, especially when they have cerebral palsy. It feels like everything gets put under that one umbrella, even when we know there might be more to the story.  It's really important to remember that cerebral palsy doesn't explain every challenge our children face. They might be struggling with things that aren't d...

What makes a therapy controversial? (Part 1) On our last podcast episode “how to ask for a second opinion” I mentioned a therapy we tried when our son was younger, saying I wished I had done more research and asked for second opinions from our medical team. This brought about more questions and conversation about all the therapies available and families wanting to know, what does the research say?...

This week's podcast episode focused on a question that I'm sure many parents have asked themselves: how to politely but confidently ask for a second opinion when unsure or unhappy with a medical diagnosis, outcome, or lack of outcome. If you have concerns about the care of your child or loved one, don't hesitate to voice them. You can politely ask for a second opinion by expressing...

As a parent of a child with a neurodisability, I'm always looking for ways to make therapy more effective and meaningful, and the concept of the "six Fs" really resonated with me.  What I loved most was how practical the F-words are. They remind us to consider the bigger picture when setting goals – not just focusing on physical achievements like walking, but also on things like fun...

In this episode, we explore some of the reasons why therapy can be put on hold and the view that therapy can be seasonal. It is simply not possible or healthy to have ongoing therapy.  The purpose of therapy is really to bridge the gap between where children are right now and where they want to be. So having periods of time to work on a goal is just as important as having times to let the skills s...

Trustworthy research and the latest news in the world of neurodisability Dayna and the whole Healthy Strides team recently attended the AusACPDM conference on the Gold Coast. I sat down with Dayna to ask the important questions and the key takeaways were: The content of the conference confirmed that Healthy Strides is sitting at the front end when it comes to providing the best interventions avail...