What is SCERTS?
SCERTS is a researched based model for helping children learn essential skills to reach a higher quality of life. The acronym stands for Social Communication, Emotional Regulation, and Transactional Supports. In short, the researchers identified life skills in how we talk with others, self regulate, and want engage with others. This has traditionally been know as the “null curriculum” for educators. Rising rates of autism and mental health needs caused the researchers to list out key areas that, when supported, increase quality of life for supporting others in need. Since these are skills all humans need, creating an awareness for caregivers of seniors is an urgent need.
Visual Schedules
A visual is a list that can be seen. We use these all the time: calendars and schedules are on our walls and phones because we don’t want to force our selves to try and remember all our responsibilities. As we age, we start to recall fewer responsibilities, including checking our to-do lists. This is a need to build supports for executive functioning: knowing what to do and when to do it. Creating a visual schedule, with or without picture supports, allows us to communicate what will be done during the day. It can allow a loved one to know what to plan for or find relief an important obligation was not forgotten.
Individuals with greater needs will appreciate a visual schedule. Often, our ability to use language will out pace our thought process (the tip of the tongue experience). By including visuals on a schedule, your significant other can process information visually rather than the symbolic language. Should they not be able to read, they may be able to recognize a picture of of a loved one or symbol of something to come.
Communication & Schedule Boards
Seniors with neurological needs, such as Alzheimer’s and dementia, will likely need support communicating and explicit directions on what needs to be done, even down to toileting. A visual prompt can help bridge the communication need between you and your loved one: by showing a picture of a toilet, you can help communicate the question “Do you need the bathroom?” It works in reverse: your loved one may point to the same picture to indicate they need to go to the bathroom. In either case, the communication supports helps respect everyone and may avoid an accident and its clean-up. That’s a win-win!
How Can We Help?
Communication Visuals
We’d love to help your family facilitate communication with your loved one with memory and cognitive needs! We’ll work with your family to determine what visuals are needed and the best way to present them (size, quantity, etc.). Development and delivery is $100 and can be done in office or teleconference.
Nutrition Services
Our staff nutrition coach has experience helping seniors and their care givers learn about changing metabolisms, medication / food interactions, and developing meal plans for individuals with dysphagia. Find out how simple diet changes can make quality of life changes! Consulting can be done in person in Santa Barbara or teleconference.
Our Story & Development
My mom, Diane, moved in with us during the pandemic, a few months after being diagnosed with dementia. Being a care giver was a difficult, non-stop experience of love, compassion, and grief. My biggest fear as a special education teacher, poop, soon became a daily need of support for my mom. Working in such a personal way, I quickly noticed how my trainings in working with children mirrored the supports she needed: executive functioning, language, and sensory-motor coping. The SCERTS model helped me identify what was in my control to improve so that my mom’s needs could be met.
My mom had a stroke twenty years before her cognitive impairment diagnosis, which was followed by the dementia diagnosis. She loved traveling up the central coast (The SLO Embassy Suites) and being with family. She didn’t want much but here needs did grow since her stroke: emotional ups and downs, getting all the ingredients for a recipe, and visual processing were the first that we noticed. As her needs increased, her anxiety grew. Developing visual supports provided a way for us to interact with her and help lower her anxiety.
No matter your age, you always need your mom.
~Diane Gush
After a complicated fall, my Diane passed away in July 2023 with loved ones near. A year after, I am convinced that there are only two groups of people in the world: those who have been through it and those who have not yet been through it. All we can do for others is support them, just as in education, and find ways to make life just a bit more manageable for all of us.
I’d like to take a moment to thank all of the individuals that helped my mom on her journey: Leona B. for her support as a mother and grandmother; Maritza M. for her care giving; William Carter for his nutritional planning and meal support; Dr. Mayer-Oakes (Santa Barbara) for her medical care; Dr. Ganguly (Whittier) for his neurology excellence, Glenwood Care Center (Oxnard), Globerman Physical Therapy (Ventura), and Matt Gush for his respite.