Touching Lives are Advanced, Specialized Continuing Education Courses created for infant massage instructors who have previously completed an infant massage instructor certification course and want more training in facilitating touch and massage for infants and children with special needs. Pediatric occupational, physical or speech therapists, developmental specialists, family therapists, social workers, nurses, physicians, psychologists, and others who work with children with special needs are encouraged to attend.

Touch & Massage for Families with
Infants & Children with Special Needs
Trainers: Maria Mathias and Wayne Mathias
Times: Saturday and Sundays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Tuition: $295.00
Dates Coming Soon!

Touch and Massage is especially effective for infants and children with special needs when incorporated with other therapeutic approaches. Participants will learn how to design new touch movements and massage techniques for children with special needs such as cerebral palsy, sensory reactivity, hypotonia, visial impairments, feeding, and gastro-intestinal difficulties. There will also be a practicum of facilitating infant-parent attachment and infant touch and massage while under the supervision of experienced trainers.

The curriculum will also include positioning, precautions, and strategies for facilitating touch within different family systems, and with regard to the diverse emotional states of parents.

An underlying premise of this workshop is that the family is the primary agent for change for their child. Thus, a consultative model of service delivery is emphasized where individualized strategies are embedded within family routines and activities. In this way, family competence and confidence are strengthened and positive family-child interactions and relationships are encouraged.

This seminar includes information and training for participants to:

• Understand precautions of applying touch to infants and children with medical and biological conditions
• Demonstrate effective ways of holding and supporting children with special needs for optimal success in touch and massage instruction.
• Recognize emotional stages/cycles of parents who have children with special needs.
• Demonstrate unique touch and massage strategies for children with special conditions such as cerebral palsy, sensory reactivity, hypotonia, visual impairments, feeding, and gastro-intestinal difficulties.
• Identify the essential components of parent interviews prior to initiating infant touch and massage instruction.
• Promote collaboration among individuals from multiple disciplines to integrate neurodevelopmental interventions with touch and massage.

All Touching Lives trainings are at the International Institute of Infant Massage in Albuquerque, NM.