A Toolkit for Children with FASD, Other Drug Effects, & Neurodiversity
by Antonia Rathbun Lindsey, Deb Evensen, Patricia Kasper, and Jodee Kulp
If we could clone the author on a massive scale and make her services accessible to all children with diverse nervous systems, this book would be unnecessary, and the world would be a healthier, happier, more loving place. Until then, "Parenting Your Porcupine" can get us closer.
For over 25 years I have taught providers and parents the importance of relationships, brain function, and stress reduction, and always emphasize the difference between willful misconduct and brain-based glitches. I realize I've only skated on the surface of the understanding needed. This book will help me shed much further light on the realities of our children and what can help make things better.
Drawing from her vast knowledge, clinical experience, and research, Antonia Rathbun Lindsey brings us into the actual workings of the body and lets us see what might be causing the resistance, rage, or shutdowns that so plague our neurodiverse kids and the families doing their best to raise them. She shows us compassionate and creative ways to calm and relieve these little nervous systems, always
keeping an eye on the caregiver's well-being.
The journey through this admittedly intense book is graced with beams of light, humorous writing ("the neurotypical infant molds to the caregivers embrace like a little sack of lentils, versus stiffening and arching (Moro reflex) or the other extreme, going limp and completely falling asleep with the floppiness of a stewing chicken (hypotonic). Either extreme disrupts an infant's ability to feed
successfully").
The author also goes beyond recognizing and respecting cultural differences to a fierce advocacy for healing historical wounds and their neurobehavioral effects. Most early childhood clinicians do not have this profound and complex knowledge, nor the creativity and compassion that drive the author of this book. But for all of us parents of neurodiverse children and professionals serving them, Parenting Your Porcupine can infuse us with enormously helpful, at times delightful, and always, at the bottom, loving perspective.
- Dr. Kathryn Page
Antonia Rathbun Lindsey is an art therapist, child and family therapist, and credentialed disabilities specialist whose professional and lived expertise informs her new guidebook, Parenting Your Porcupine: A Toolkit for Children with FASD, Other Drug Effects & Neurodiversity. Drawing on decades of work with families and children impacted by FASD and other neurodiversity, Antonia offers practical, compassionate tools that bridge the gap between science and daily life. Her book empowers parents and professionals with concepts and skills for improving collaboration around the "can't, not won't" moments, while enhancing strengths through use of creative strategies and workarounds within environments to improve family resilience and success across the developmental span.
Antonia Rathbun Lindsey, M.A., A.T.R., LMHC, BCPC (retired), is an internationally recognized art therapist, child and family therapist, disabilities specialist and program developer whose work with neurodiversity, trauma, and the effects of prenatal substance exposure in community intervention and clinical research & demonstration programs spanned 40 years of experience. She specialized in promising practices and quality clinical services for children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), other drug effects, the autism spectrum, TBI, communication disorders, and other neurodevelopmental and genetic conditions. Antonia’s passion and practices reflect her professional expertise, experience as a caregiver and living experience of neurodiversity from a rare genetic condition. She developed innovative programs such as SNAP (Special Needs Adoption Program), the first U.S. research and demonstration project aimed at reducing failed adoptions/placement for special needs adoptive, foster and kinship families affected by FASD, and COACHES (Calming Over Aroused Children for Healthy Early Starts), a groundbreaking regional intervention program for methamphetamine-endangered children in Washington state. Her diathesis-stress concepts and practices informed key clinical training protocols including SAMHSA’s FAS Centers for Excellence, Canada’s British Columbia Ministry of Education, the State of Alaska’s Drug & Alcohol Services and many others. Antonia has written Parenting Your Porcupine: A Toolkit for Children with FASD, Other Drug Effects & Neurodiversity, as an in-depth practical guidebook to improve collaboration between parents and professionals. Drawing on her years of direct clinical work, technical skill and teamwork on behalf of multicultural and functionally diverse families, Antonia specializes in “knowledge transfer” bridging the gap between brain science and the lived realities of children and families with neurological conditions. Her book offers actionable tools, communication interventions and sensory-based strategies for improving symptom management and success, through heartfelt stories to help caregivers and professionals align in support of children’s unique needs with efficacy, empathy, and creativity. Her contributions have been published in foundational resources such as Fantastic Antone Succeeds, Hazelden Foundation’s FAS: Stories of Help & Hope, and the British Columbia Ministry of Education’s Guide to Educating Students with FASD, and other resources. Her community art therapy outreach project, StarChild Quilt Project for FASD, empowered communities across North America to address transgenerational trauma and recovery by focusing on resilience factors. Now a permanent resident of France, Antonia paints, writes, and consults on neurodiversity in English, German, French, American Sign Language, and Dutch. Late Deafened by Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, she is active in the Deaf and Hearing communities, advocating for art, accessibility and inclusion in all areas of life.