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How did you come to be mentored personally by Dr. Ayres?
By Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, OTR
Founder and Executive Director
I first learned about Dr. A. Jean Ayres when I was recovering from a serious eye disorder as a college student. The occupational therapist who gave me endless kindnesses and understood my personal needs during that difficult period inspired me to become an OT. (You‘ll find the whole story in the introduction to Sensational Kids). In 1972, I started graduate school in occupational therapy at Boston University just as Dr. Ayres‘ latest book was published. Sharon Cermak was teaching a course on Ayres work, and I enrolled.
Well, fast-forward to the summer after my first year of graduate school. I desperately wanted to study with Dr. Ayres at her clinic in Torrance, California. So I called her. She said she didn‘t have a student training or shadowing program. I replied that I didn‘t need one, I was happy to be a fly on the wall; I wouldn‘t even open my mouth. She said she‘d "talk to her board," which I knew meant no.
After four or five weeks, I called her back and said, "Dr. Ayres! I‘ve found an educational grant that will pay you $100 a week if you work with me!" She said, "Oh, well, hmmm. I am working on this test, and $100 a week would help.... I‘ll talk to my board and call you back." This time talking to her board meant yes. There was only one problem: I had no educational grant.
I called my parents. I hadn‘t even talked to them about any of this, and now I had this golden opportunity and no money. When I told my parents about the situation, they immediately said they would be my "educational grant." "But how will I ever pay you back?" I asked my dad. "You don‘t have to," he said. "You have to pass it on."
And that‘s how I came to be mentored by Dr. Ayres.
There‘s a postscript to this story. After my summer with Dr. Ayres, I finished grad school and moved back to my hometown of Denver. I finished writing the MAP manual and incorporated the Foundation to pass on my parents‘ gift through its work on behalf of children with sensory issues. Eventually, I needed to make some money to pay back all the loans I‘d taken to develop the MAP, and I began teaching workshops on the MAP nationwide. Since I was pretty young at the time, I thought that having a series of videotapes featuring my mentors would be an excellent adjunct to my lectures.
So, in 1981, I produced a series of 13 video tapes to show during the MAP training seminars and, of course, one featured Dr. Ayres. I flew to Hollywood, hired a professional Hollywood film crew, and went to her clinic where we made broadcast-quality full-color videotapes of Dr. Ayres treating children and discussing her theories. At the time (and possibly now?) there were no professional films of her at work - nothing but home videos in black and white. So we made this amazing video of Dr. Ayres that I showed at all my seminars and sold for a period of time, using the funds to support Dr. Ayres‘ research on the SIPT and mine on my subsequent tests. After about a decade I put it away and moved on to other projects.
Now, nearly 30 years later, because of that long-ago project, the Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation is able to bring the groundbreaking work Dr. Ayres did in her clinic back to life for a whole new generation of therapists, parents, students, and others. It has been remastered along with relevant research and clinical practice information from today‘s world. Take a look at the e-Learning class we just opened to take you "into the clinic with Dr. A. Jean Ayres." I was in the clinic with her, and it changed my life; other leaders in OT were also there later and it changed theirs, too. Thanks to her, we‘re still changing the lives of sensational kids and families everywhere.
Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, OTR
Founder and Executive Director
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