gwunspoken - Beyond the Plan
gwunspoken: Beyond the Plan
Hear the person beyond the plan.
This podcast is where NDIS participants, families, and supporters reclaim their narrative. We dive into life beyond the diagnosis, beyond the reports, and beyond the plans—exploring identity, strength, and voice.
Whether you're a parent seeking connection, a support worker craving understanding, or someone walking their own NDIS journey, this space is for you.
Because labels don’t define people—stories do.
gwunspoken - Beyond the Plan
RC Cars, Friendship, and Mindfulness: A Schoolboy's Journey
Have you ever wondered what the world looks like through the eyes of a schoolchild? Our conversation with Arie offers a rare, unfiltered glimpse into the mind of a young boy navigating the everyday adventures, challenges, and triumphs that make up his world.
The magic of this episode lies in Arie's refreshing honesty as he shares everything from his weekend RC car mishap (complete with a balcony plunge that resulted in "pieces falling off" but thankfully a still-functional Lamborghini-like vehicle) to his thoughtful reflections on managing emotions at school. When Arie acknowledges having "bumpy" moments where he became angry, we explore the practical mindfulness techniques he's learning to implement—box breathing, sensory awareness exercises, and muscle relaxation.
What stands out most is how Arie processes his experiences across different environments. Whether discussing his lunchtime adventures with friends Levi, Sienna and Lachlan at the ILC, or sharing stories about life between his parents' homes (complete with three cats and two dogs at mum's place), his perspective reminds us of the complex emotional landscape children navigate daily. There's even a touching moment when he considers his future, imagining himself as a father of two boys named Alex and Milan.
The conversation takes delightful turns through topics as diverse as his unexpected toad encounter, his uncle's temporary stay, and his clever solution of placing boxes to prevent future RC car accidents. Throughout it all, Arie demonstrates the remarkable resilience, problem-solving abilities, and emotional intelligence that children often possess when given space to express themselves.
Join us for this heartwarming episode that will leave you with a renewed appreciation for the wisdom of young minds and perhaps a few practical strategies for helping the children in your life navigate their own emotional journeys.
Welcome to an edition of Beyond the Plan on behalf of EngageU. And I've got Ari here. How are you, mate?
Speaker 2:Good.
Speaker 1:Now listen, we're at school again. What's this like? Week six, I think. Week seven, seven, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:How come you look cooler than me on this podcast?
Speaker 2:I don't know.
Speaker 1:You do, don't you? No, I think you look cool and you just said it all by yourself. You did the intro music, you plugged it all in, except there was one mistake my headset wasn't working. Why is that?
Speaker 2:Because mistake, my headset wasn't working.
Speaker 1:Why is that? Because you didn't plug the thing in. Oh no, now everyone can hear that. Oh no, they know how bad I am. You should have set me up, shouldn't you? Yeah, oh, my God. Well, you're like the professional podcaster now. You set it all up. You got a laptop. I got a laptop out, but then you knew where the program was. You set the microphones up. What are you looking forward to the most about school this week?
Speaker 2:Doing some fun things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, what's something fun that you like doing at school?
Speaker 2:Having fun with my friends.
Speaker 1:Lunchtime yeah, yeah, cool. What do you do at lunchtime?
Speaker 2:I go with my friends at the ILC, oh, okay nice.
Speaker 1:Do you do like board games or card games, or do you build stuff? What do you do there?
Speaker 2:I play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, play with what.
Speaker 2:Cars.
Speaker 1:Oh, now let's talk about cars. You just told me, before we came on the podcast, something about a car on the weekend. What was that about? What are you smiling for? You're happy about that, weren't you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what happened? Rc car.
Speaker 1:Now I know what an RC car was, so explain to people who are listening to this podcast what's an RC car?
Speaker 2:It's where you have a motor control and then you have a car and when you pull it up, it goes forwards. When it turns sideways, it goes sideways.
Speaker 1:Does it go very fast? Yes, does it bump into things?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it fell on my balcony, oh no, at Dad's place, and what?
Speaker 1:did it hit the ground? Yeah, it fell on my balcony, oh no, at Dad's place. And what did it hit the ground? Yeah, did it smash your, scratch it made like a little scratch. But it still goes. Yeah, well, that's good, were you worried, and it has a little bit of damage, but it still works okay.
Speaker 2:There's pieces off.
Speaker 1:Pieces fell off. Does it still works okay? The pieces fell off. The pieces fell off. Does it still go fast? Yeah, it still works okay. Yeah. And what happened when it fell off the ACG? No, what happened?
Speaker 2:I just go, like I better go check.
Speaker 1:Were you worried on the way down? Yeah, the poor little car. And then what happened then? Did you take it back upstairs and play again? Yeah, now does this car, does it go like on the road? Will it work on the road or on the grass or anything, or does it have to go on a certain surface?
Speaker 2:It'll go on surface and grass.
Speaker 1:It does go on grass too. Okay now, what colour is this car? I can't know you don't know what colour it is.
Speaker 2:Orange and aqua.
Speaker 1:Oh nice, I like how you took your time to think of that. That's good. And what about? What style of car is it? Is it like a racing car? Is it a four wheel drive? Do you know if it's a Porsche? Is it a Lamborghini? What kind of car is it? Is it like a racing car? Is it a full drive? Do you know if it's a Porsche?
Speaker 2:Is it a Lamborghini? What kind of car is it? It kind of looks like a Lamborghini.
Speaker 1:Oh, I wonder if it goes fast. So is it for you and your brother Oscar to share, or is it just yours?
Speaker 2:Oscar and me to share.
Speaker 1:Is Oscar a good driver.
Speaker 2:No, you're laughing. That's why he made it go through underneath the balcony.
Speaker 1:Oh, so Oscar's driving went down. Yeah, oh no. What did he say when it went off the balcony?
Speaker 2:I accidentally did that when he did it on purpose.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he did it on purpose, accidentally on purpose? Oh my gosh, and did Dad see it?
Speaker 2:No, he was in the kitchen.
Speaker 1:So did he know about it.
Speaker 2:Yes, he does.
Speaker 1:Okay, was he going, uh-oh.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Are they very expensive? Are they expensive to buy?
Speaker 2:$29.
Speaker 1:That's not too bad, that's good.
Speaker 2:And it's a camera. It works properly.
Speaker 1:And does it just use a little battery to start it and go?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have to charge it.
Speaker 1:A bit like us. We have to charge our batteries when we have a sleep in the night time. Oh, Do you know that?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:When we have a sleep, a good night's sleep, we wake up. It recharges our brain, so we're ready to go the next day. If you have breakfast, it gives you a supercharge, so you're ready for the day. So some people, some kids and adults, go to work or school and they're Half asleep all the time Because they haven't had enough sleep or they haven't had enough breakfast to get them supercharged.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So yeah, How's school been going?
Speaker 2:Good.
Speaker 1:Are we having an honest chat today? It's been pretty good. Any speed bumps, any problems? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Kind of.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you're being honest. Let's go through that. What happened?
Speaker 2:I just got a little bit bumpy and then I just Decided to get angry and then calm down. Okay Now, can you remember any of the?
Speaker 1:strategies we used we talked about last week decided to get angry and then calm down. Okay, now can you remember any of the strategies we used?
Speaker 2:we talked about last week, box breathing, see three things, hear two things and smell one thing.
Speaker 1:Very good. So we're looking at our senses, very good. And there's another one. What else Was there? Another one we did. What was the other one?
Speaker 2:we did.
Speaker 1:Um, I love how you're taking your time to think. It means you're going to work your brain as well Squeeze your Very good, squeeze your arms and then let go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, relaxation. So it's called muscle tense and relax. You tense all your muscles up and then you let it go. Do you want to hear something really strange? You're not going to believe this, but this is the truth. This is truth. One time I was asked to go to a school to do that kind of stuff. It's called mindfulness, to help your brain to stop getting angry and, you know, have bad behavior. And I had to do it with 120 boys and only four teachers to help me on the oval. So how do you think that went? And I had no megaphone Crazy. I had no microphone like we've got today Nothing. I just used my voice and so I got all the boys Because they're in sports uniform, like you're wearing shorts and shirt Going to lie down on the oval, oh this is.
Speaker 2:I think this is formal.
Speaker 1:Oh, is it? Yeah, okay, because it's still got button up shirt. Yeah, so they lie down on the ground. I've got to look up at the sky, you know, sometimes you look at clouds and time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then I said tense up your feet, let them go like your toes. Yeah, tense up your calves. Let it go Tense up your thighs we're doing this now, by the way, that's it. That's it again. Tense up your thighs. Let them go suck your belly in and suck up your stomach. Good, let it go tighten your chest, bring your shoulders in a bit, let it go. Tense your arms and your fingers curled up too. Let them go bring your shoulders up to your ears, tense really hard I wish we could see this is really good yet and down we go, and then we're going to scrub our face like this. And there we go, and now we're going to do them all together. So we're going to do toes, calves, thighs, stomach, chest, shoulders, neck, face, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and then let it go and breathe out and you feel relaxed. Yeah, feel good. And so that's what you can do, too, to help you feel relaxed. That one actually helps you get to sleep too, when you can't sleep at nighttime.
Speaker 1:Harry's doing it now. Very good, which one out of all those ones do you like the best? Do you like the Brock's breathing or do you like the 3-2-1 sensors, or do you like the muscle relaxation, muscle relaxation, muscle relaxation yeah, that's cool, that's cool. Oh well, I'm glad you're honest today about that, about the behavior also. You must have done some good stuff, though, because you're not suspended or anything, no, so you're mostly pretty good, mostly working well. Yeah, now how's your friends going? Good?
Speaker 2:You. Yeah. Now how's your friends going? Good, you still got your favourite friend, You've got three Levi, sienna and Lachlan.
Speaker 1:Yes, who do you hang around the most at the moment? Lachlan, all right, was that Lachlan at the front when he's in the line? Yeah, he's incendiating. You can tell he likes you. Actually, people don't notice about you. We have to talk about this very quickly. Last week I was here, I was about to go in the library and some girl gave you a cuddle.
Speaker 2:Sienna.
Speaker 1:Was that Sienna? I didn't know that. I thought it might have been a girlfriend or something. Was she your girlfriend? She gave you a lovely cuddle and I thought isn't that beautiful? And then she gave your teacher, miss Speedy, a cuddle too. That was good too. Now, what do you think about Miss Speedy? You were on a podcast last week, did a good job.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:She was good, wasn't she? Yeah, who do you think we should get on a podcast next time?
Speaker 2:Miss Billings said she can, just we have to sort it out.
Speaker 1:Is that your main teacher? Yeah, the one who's having a baby? Yeah, has she had a baby yet?
Speaker 2:She's right now at the doctor's.
Speaker 1:Oh, can you check that again? Oh, that's good. I hope it's all healthy. Do you know when she's having a baby, when it's due?
Speaker 2:Probably September, oh no December.
Speaker 1:End of the year. Oh so you might have a new teacher. Oh, you'll be year four next year anyway. I wonder who your year four teacher will be.
Speaker 2:And she won't be there for a year.
Speaker 1:She's having a year off with her baby. Yeah, yeah, a lot of people do that. I had some time off with my baby About a month. Guess what I did every day? What? I took them for a jog in the pram there's two of them and then I went and got sushi. It was in the pram, oh, so I don't know if the girls enjoyed that better. I did, because it was pretty cool, fun. How many children are you going to have? 16?, 20?
Speaker 2:Two.
Speaker 1:Two Boy, girl, boys, girls. What would you like to have, boy, two boys Like you and your brother. Would their names be Ari and Oscar? No, that would be a bit weird, wouldn't it? You'd be like the dad, ari, and then you'd have a son, ari. People get confused, I don't know. That'd be funny, wouldn't it? You've got a bit of time to worry about that, haven't you? I'll probably call it Alex. Oh, that's a nice name, that Alex. Oh, that's a nice name. That's Lachlan's brother's name. Oh, is it? That's okay. There's plenty of Alex's in the world, yeah.
Speaker 2:What about the other one? I would call him Milan.
Speaker 1:Milan, milan.
Speaker 2:Where did you get that name from my?
Speaker 1:two family. Oh okay, you wouldn't call them like Alex 1 and Alex 2? Like Bananas 1 and Bananas 2? B1 and B2? No, that'd be a bit weird. All right, what's the plan for the rest of the day? What time do?
Speaker 2:you get picked up today 1.30.
Speaker 1:1.30. All right.
Speaker 2:And going back to Dad's house.
Speaker 1:No, I go to Mum's. Go back to mum's this week.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Will you take the car, or does the car stay at dad's? Stay at dad's. Do you wish you could take it to mum's? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Because she has a big port with a ground.
Speaker 1:Oh, a big area to drive it. That's cool. I wish I could bring it. How's your mum's animals going? Good, good, they're getting older dogs, aren't they?
Speaker 2:Did you say she's got a cat too? Yeah, Nala. Nala how many dogs do you have at mums?
Speaker 1:Two Two dogs and one cat.
Speaker 2:Now three.
Speaker 1:Three cats or three dogs.
Speaker 2:Three Two dogs, three cats.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, there's like a jungle in there. There's like a zoo.
Speaker 2:It's because I haven't told you about this.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, I'm interested. Now, cool, tell me about this, because I love't told you about this. Oh yes, I'm interested. Now, cool, tell me about this. I love animals, my uncle's pet cat Sticks.
Speaker 2:He lives with us, for he's going to live with us for two weeks and with our uncle in it.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, nice. So the house is a bit more full now. And do you like your uncle? Yeah, he's kind, he's kind. I love that word. Imagine if the whole world was kind. Yeah, we wouldn't have to have wars or fights or bullies, we'd just get along with each other. Yeah, we don't have to have wars or fights or bullies, we just get along with each other. Yeah, would that be good. Is your friend's kind? Yeah, is your?
Speaker 2:teacher's kind. Next up on Miss Farewell.
Speaker 1:Oh, was that in grade one? You remember that one, don't you? You had a bit of an altercation there.
Speaker 2:That was two years since I've been there. Yeah, two years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but your teacher's kind now. Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 2:My father left.
Speaker 1:Oh, did she? Okay, well, you've got some kind people in your life, that's good. And what's happening this weekend? It's only Monday, but do you know what's happening this weekend? No, it's too far away, isn't it? We've got a whole week to go yet. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Hmm.
Speaker 1:I have to ask you this now because we've talked about this before, but still happy with Dad's new house. Yeah, you are Smiling your face, apart from cars jumping off the landing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had to put boxes.
Speaker 1:Oh, that was. Was that your idea? Or whose idea? Was that Mine? That's very clever. So the boxes were down, so the car couldn't go off the landing. Yeah, wow, that's smart. What made you think of that?
Speaker 2:Because I did? Because there's boxes outside, so I decided, oh yeah, I should put boxes down.
Speaker 1:I love how you're thinking. And then it stopped the car racing down, falling off. It stopped you having to run all the way down going. I hope you're okay. There's stairs, stairs, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:There's two stairs, and when I tried to leave the place and guess what, what? I saw a toad. Oh yuck I just got scared and screamed I don't like toads.
Speaker 1:They look ugly too, don't they? Yeah, I found one in my shed. I went to get some camping gear and there was one shed. I don't know how he lived in there, like you know, when you bolt up. I don't know how he lived in there, like you know, when you bolt up. I don't know how he got in there. He must have squeezed in there and I thought, oh, I'm going to keep him in here. Oh, I can't keep him in here because he'll wee and poo and hide and we'll get freaked out again. So I tried to get him out. It was annoying. You see those really big cane toads, the big ones. Yeah, yuck, yeah, what's your least favourite creature?
Speaker 2:I think it is Snakes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm with you. Fist pump. I hate snakes. Do you know what? I was looking after a young boy last weekend on the Sunshine Coast and guess what? What? This is true. Two people walked past. They were probably about 60 years old, each a male and a female, I think they were married. They had snakes around their necks and what so I was sitting there having a burger with him at Malula Bar and these two people walked past and they had carpet snakes around their heads like real ones. Past and they had carpet snakes around their heads like real ones. And then what happened? Well, they were just putting their heads up and making noises and people would come up and say can we pat them? And some people were scared of them and some people wanted to pat them. Oh, it was like their pet. It was like you know, you walk a dog. They carry their snakes around. Yeah, this boy didn't want to touch the snakes either. Need to die. Do you have a favourite pet or reptile or animal? What would be your favourite?
Speaker 2:I think it is.
Speaker 1:Cats. You like cats. You're a cat person. Why do you like cats? Why don't they just sleep all the time and purr yeah and scratch at you? Do you just like how they're a cat person? Why do you like cats? Why don't they just like sleep all the time and purr yeah and scratch at you? Do you just like how they're nice and comfy? They're a nice, relaxed creature. My nephews and niece had a cat. Once you go to pat it it'll bite you. I didn't like that. It was frightening. All right, is there anything else on the podcast you'd like to talk about? No, we haven't spoken about. No. Well, I'm glad you've got your three strategies to calm down. Yeah, I'm glad you're going to have a good week this week. Yeah, I'm glad you've got your three close friends. Still, that's good. Yeah, sounds like you've got some fun stuff to do with dads and mums. I'm glad you got some hanging out with your uncle too. That's cool. Should we start the music? Yeah, thanks for coming on the show.