Change and uncertainty are difficult for most everyone. And 2020 has been a roller coaster of emotions, loss, change, and uncertainty.

Especially for kids.

As a parent, you want to protect your kids. You want to help them grow into resilient and confident adults.

Part of that is helping them process what can be difficult discussions and situations. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to talk about things like illness, or loss, or big transitions.

Things that can make adults anxious and feel overwhelmed.

Changes and uncertainty are part of life though. So how do we help our children process and deal with change, uncertainty and loss in a healthy way?

My guest on this episode is Susie Harder. Pulling from her background as a speech therapist and a mom, she created an innovative method to help parents guide their children in difficult discussions.

Susie is the founder of the Junior Author’s Program, a community project that engages students around the world in collaboratively writing a
children’s book.

Not only does it help students participate in a meaningful project, but the storyline of the book itself is written to help the children who lost their home in the California Creek fire.

The story centers around a dog who lost his doghouse. And it helps the children to heal and process their own experiences.

Proceeds from the sale of the book will be given to the families who lost their homes in the devastating fire.

If you’re looking for an uplifting conversation. One that will also spark your creativity and help you to be the guide for your children to process change and uncertainty, THIS is the conversation for you friend!

More About the Guest

Susie Harder, M.A., CCC-SLP is an experienced clinician who devotes much of her passion to working with children who stutter.

She’s the mom of two, a specialized speech-language pathologist, author, and consultant.  

She works in private practice and the school setting to help support children and provides workshops and consulting-based support to school districts across California.

Susie has a history of designing and building successful programs. During her time in Fresno Unified School District (2011-2015), Susie designed and piloted a framework for 100 elementary schools, where specialty services successfully reduced student speech therapy time up to 5 years.

Most recently (2020), when the Central California Creek Fire started and children from her hometown lost their homes, Susie started brainstorming
how to best support these kids. When she couldn’t find enough resources, she simply decided to create it.

Within a week, she had written a children’s book themed around what these kids had just experienced, found an editor, taken a course on children’s books, and started looking internationally to find the best illustrator. Her child-development skills guided her toward sharing this inspirational knowledge with kids.

She created a unique platform to reinvent how children connect with literacy and books. Through the Junior Authors Program, children across the world vote to decide the characters, setting, and story details of a book as it’s being created.

Children get to see behind-the-scenes and connect with her through fun video posts and “Ask The Author Live” events and are empowered by contributing to the content of the book from rough draft to published book on Amazon!

We talk about

• What a speech pathologist does to help kids
• How being a mom has affected being a speech pathologist
• The unexpected moment with her son that sparked her idea to create the innovative Junior Author’s Program
• What the Junior Author’s Program is all about and the bigger vision for it
• How she suggests navigating conversations with your kids around sensitive topics

Links & Resources

“How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen” by Joanna Faber & Julie King

Junior Author’s program website – www.juniorauthorsprogram.com

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/juniorauthorsprogram

More about the Gotcha Mama Podcast:

The Gotcha Mama Podcast is where we share honest stories of the joys and struggles of mom-life with young kids.

Each week host Amanda Bennett interviews a mom about topics ranging from awkwardly making mom friends, to chasing BIG dreams and finding purpose, to managing crippling anxiety and depression. You’ll hear stories from moms like you with the purpose to inspire, encourage, and entertain you.

We understand that motherhood can be lonely and make you doubt yourself. The Gotcha Mama Podcast exists to let you know that you are not alone as a busy mom of young kiddos, no matter what you’re dealing with.

The show is all about tearing down our insecurities as moms by honestly sharing our stories and a little of what we’ve learned along the way.

We believe it’s a whole lot better riding the rollercoaster of motherhood together!

Please follow on Apple Podcasts. Also, please take a second and leave your honest rating and review on Apple Podcasts.  Ratings and reviews are important and greatly appreciated!  And I do personally read each and every one of them.

You can also listen on Stitcher, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.