Over the weekend, I had the privilege of sharing not just the Barefoot Autism Challenge with kids and parents at the Little Book in Des Moines, but also a section of the Hear Me Speak book. Every second Saturday of the month, The Little Book hosts a Family Read Aloud put on by the Des Moines Therapy Neighborhood.
Des Moines Therapy Neighborhood is actually a group of three speech and play therapy businesses rolled into one organization. They consist of 143 Speech Therapy LLC ran by Megan, Forest Road Speech and Language Therapy LLC ran by Dani, and TalkPlay Junction, LLC, ran by Alicia. Fun fact, Megan discovered my challenge page on Instagram first, and I followed her back and then Dani and Alicia and the rest was history.
They were nice enough to talk to the Autism Society of Iowa about their event and my friend Erin Enyart helped with getting things together. The event consists of Megan, Dani, and Alicia playing with the kids and reading to them. For this particular event, they had the kids take off their shoes and socks, and Alicia led everyone in a song that she came up with herself the morning of. They shared a bunch of different things that are different textures such as crinkly like cardboard paper, soft like a blanket, bubble wrap, and some cool water platforms that when you touch them, the water moves around
I got in on the action after everyone went to the back and experienced the different feelings on their feet. Speaking of feelings, there are over 20,000 never endings on the foot. Megan even pointed out that being barefoot is beneficial to development of kids feet. I'll share more on that another time.
Meanwhile I read part of the first chapter of my story as they would only let me do 15 minutes due to time constraints.
I chose the first chapter of my book because I thought that part would be the best one for parents and kids to hear together. The group enjoyed hearing me read and they asked me a bit about my challenge and what they can do to get involved. Luckily, Erin printed copies of the QR codes for my Facebook, Zazzle, and Instagram pages as well as copies of a flyer for a walk the Autism Society of Iowa is hosting April 27th. The link for the event will be down below. After the event wrapped up, Dani told me she and the others would have copies of the Hear Me Speak book for people to pick up if they wanted to. I was so happy to be a part of this and I look forward to being involved in other events with them in the future.
To quote part of Alicia's song, "They're so brave!" Being such great advocates for autism, and for taking part in my challenge. To find out more about Des Moines Therapy Neighborhood, check them out on Instagram and Facebook and check out their websites.
And here's the link to the Autism Society of Iowa's walk:
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