Young children move at their own speed. For a child with autism, mornings can feel even slower because the routine is packed with transitions: stop playing, get dressed, eat, brush teeth, shoes, leave. Why is that friction so common?
Why kids stall in the morning
“They just really want to play,” saysDr. Jannel Phillips, pediatric neuropsychologist atHenry Ford Health. For some young kids, leaving the house is stressful for another reason too. “Some of our young kids have separation anxiety.”
Make the routine feel safe, not rushed
Instead of pushing harder, Phillips suggests leaning into a warm tone and playful energy. “Meet them with as much fun and positive energy that you can muster in the morning,” she says. Music or a favorite toy can help. Some families even “walk” a toy through the routine so the child stays engaged from step to step.
Use choices to reduce power struggles
Toddlers crave independence. Keep choices tight and concrete: two outfits, two breakfast options, two acceptable shoes. This gives your child control without turning mornings into negotiations.
Dr. Phillips’ tips to remember:
Keep the order of steps the same each day so your child knows what’s next
Build in extra time so you are not rushing and escalating the tone
Move screens out of the morning routine if they create meltdowns or delays
This content is sponsored byHenry Ford Health. Learn more about TheGROWCenter for Autism and Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities and The Henry Ford Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities (CADD).
Are you ready to celebrate National Pi Day (March 14)? Detroit knows how to go all out, and the pie scene is one of the best in the country. Whether you’re looking for a sweet, savory, or taco pie, there are plenty of delicious ways to honor everyone’s favorite mathematical constant.
Salted Maple is Sister Pie’s signature pie, featuring golden custard made with maple syrup tucked into flaky, all-butter crust. It’s finished with a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt, creating a perfect salty-sweet balance. This pie is so iconic that it remains a permanent fixture on their menu, even as other seasonal flavors rotate.
This pot pie is a bold, zesty twist on comfort food. It packs chunks of white-meat chicken and a spicy buffalo sauce into their signature handmade crust. It’s the ultimate savory choice for those who want their Pi Day celebration to have a bit of heat, and pies are priced at $3.14 for Pi Day.
The top-selling pie at Grand Traverse, made with tart Michigan Montmorency cherries and a toasty crumb topping. It’s the signature pie of the National Cherry Festival held in July.
This pot pie is a flavor-packed mashup with ground beef, black beans, corn and melted cheese, tucked in a signature golden crust. This is the perfect choice for a comforting yet spicy twist on the classic pot pie.
For all the sweet potato lovers, this pie balances a silky, spiced yam filling with a melt-in-your-mouth crust. Whether you choose the classic version or the sweet potato pecan topping, these pies offer a soul-warming sweetness on PI Day.
Lemon Butta Pie is a family masterpiece, featuring a creamy citrus filling. Its texture and buttery crust earned its spot on Oprah’s “Favorite Things” list, cementing itself as a Detroit legend.
The Detroit Style Pizza at Buddy’s is the original pizza pie, featuring a square crust that’s double-stretched and baked in forged steel pans. This iconic pie has defined the city’s pizza identity and remains a must-have for a savory Pi Day celebration.
The Traditional Scottish Meat Pies are hand-held savory classics with a succulent beef filling inside a hot-water crust. These double-crust pies are designed to be eaten by hand, offering a comforting bite. They are the ultimate choice for a hearty Pi Day experience.
Young children move at their own speed. For a child with autism, mornings can feel even slower because the routine is packed with transitions: stop playing, get dressed, eat, brush teeth, shoes, leave. Why is that friction so common?
Why kids stall in the morning
“They just really want to play,” saysDr. Jannel Phillips, pediatric neuropsychologist atHenry Ford Health. For some young kids, leaving the house is stressful for another reason too. “Some of our young kids have separation anxiety.”
Make the routine feel safe, not rushed
Instead of pushing harder, Phillips suggests leaning into a warm tone and playful energy. “Meet them with as much fun and positive energy that you can muster in the morning,” she says. Music or a favorite toy can help. Some families even “walk” a toy through the routine so the child stays engaged from step to step.
Use choices to reduce power struggles
Toddlers crave independence. Keep choices tight and concrete: two outfits, two breakfast options, two acceptable shoes. This gives your child control without turning mornings into negotiations.
Dr. Phillips’ tips to remember:
Keep the order of steps the same each day so your child knows what’s next
Build in extra time so you are not rushing and escalating the tone
Move screens out of the morning routine if they create meltdowns or delays
This content is sponsored byHenry Ford Health. Learn more about TheGROWCenter for Autism and Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities and The Henry Ford Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities (CADD).
This story was originally published by BridgeDetroit, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from BridgeDetroit, sign up for a free BridgeDetroit newsletter here.
On a Tuesday afternoon in early June, with tools and products at the ready, Niesha Lee primped and pampered women at her makeshift salon in the basement of a family shelter on Detroit’s west side.
She carefully combed and straightened their hair. She curled the ends and arched eyebrows and applied wispy lashes as a finishing touch.
Lee offered these services throughInspiring Hair LLC, her mobile salon that provides free hairstyles, makeup and grooming at Detroit homeless shelters to prepare residents for job interviews, court dates or to just help them feel good about themselves.
As Terri Motley, a resident of Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries Genesis House II shelter, left her chair with a silk press, fresh curls and a smile on her face, she embraced a teary-eyed Lee.
“I love it,” said Motley, 51, before she even saw the final results.She’d been staying at the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries shelter after coming out of rehab.
Neisha Lee and Terri Motley embrace after her hair appointment with Lee at the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries Genesis II shelter. Lee stayed in the same shelter when she was a child and considers it her duty to give back to the community that helped her family. Valaurian Waller for Bridge Detroit
For Lee, the work is personal.
The 39-year-old Detroiter and mom of five said she knows what it’s like to come face-to-face with homelessness, to be overlooked and left behind. She knows what it’s like to not be able to afford clean clothes or get her hair done.
“A lot of people who face homelessness are looked over because of their outer appearance and that’s my goal — to change that,” she said.
Lee has dealt with homelessness at various points throughout her life, starting at childhood.She battled substance abuse in her adulthood before she said she decided to turn her life around in 2018.
Now, she’s giving back to the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, a nonprofit providing food and housing to those facing homelessness and substance addiction. It’s the same organization that housed her.
Stepping up
At a very early age, Lee said she faced adversity head-on.
Starting at about seven years old, Lee helped raise her siblings. Her mom suffered from mental illnesses and would sometimes leave the home — prompting Lee to step up.
“It wasn’t pretty,” she said. “I didn’t have a normal childhood that all my other friends had. … I wanted to step up and help my mom and dad because I just loved them so much.”
Lee said she stayed out of school for months at a time.
“My mom and dad, they had mental disabilities, and also they struggled with drugs. … and the shelters in Detroit received us with so much love,” she said. Sometimes family would takethem in, but they’d end up back at the shelter, to the point where residents knew them personally, she said.
Writing, music and poetry served as an escape.
“I found peace creating things,” she said.
In 2000, her mom was diagnosed with cancer. She died two years later, when Lee was 16. Lee and her younger sister cared for their mom while she was sick. After the death, Lee and her siblings were placed in child protective custody and into the care of family members.
Once she graduated high school, Lee went to court to get custody of her five younger siblings and took care of them, staying in shelters a couple times because she didn’t have money, she recalled.
Giving back
Her own experience with homelessness and mental health challenges led Lee to create Inspiring Hair.
“I found myself in the biggest fight with depression of my life, to the point where it almost consumed me, and I promised myself that I would not let no one feel that if I can help it,” she said.
Her services are important, she said, because homeless shelters are often forgotten.
“There are so many things going on when you’re homeless, you don’t have time to get yourself in order, and that’s the thing that is looked over the most. You have to be able to handle your mental health as best as you can, and when you don’t feel good, sometimes you tend to not want to look good, and I’m trying to reverse that,” she said.
Lee at work. Valaurian Waller for Bridge Detroit
Her services are paid for by sales from her online lipstick brand,Inspiring Cosmetics. The CEO of Inspiring Hair LLC began volunteering her services under the business in 2016. She wants to take a van equipped with shampoo bowls straight to shelter residents, and is seeking a donated vehicle or money to make that vision a reality.
“This is a way for her to do something, to offer a service to women who are in a situation that she’s been in, and been very familiar with, and that’s kind of the testament of anyone who chooses to come back and give back to our clients because they’ve experienced it. They understand what it means to be in a shelter, and it’s a way to kind of pay it forward,” said Chiara Clayton, director of communications for Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries.
More than 1,700 people experienced homelessness — both sheltered and unsheltered —on one nightlast year in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park. Among them were 728 adults and children in families.
Lee continues to face housing insecurity. Lately, it’s been difficult keeping up with the cost of rent, groceries and utilities, she said.
She has been waiting more than three months for a rental home while she said the landlord completes repairs, and is looking at other properties to potentially move into. In the meantime, she doesn’t have stable housing and is living between several places, including with her sister in Ypsilanti and a friend in Detroit.
Before that, Lee had been living in a home without a working furnace and heat. She said she was trying to negotiate with her landlord to lower the rent for those months when she didn’t have heat, but her landlord moved to evict her.
The COTS shelter has seen the number of families experiencing homelessness increase in the past few years, Nikki Carbonari, director of impact at the Detroit-based nonprofit, said in June.The shelter, Peggy’s Place, is always at capacity, and that’s still the case in August. Families are also staying longer — more than four to six months on average.
“It really creates this backup and this cycle where people can’t get into shelter because those who are in shelter are staying longer because they cannot find affordable housing,” she said.
And so, hair care is a small act of dignity that uplifts people, Carbonari said. At COTS’ emergency shelter, partners and volunteers provide a variety of services, including haircuts and braiding.
“Even such a simple act as getting your hair done can really make you feel so much better, give you confidence,” she said.
‘If you look good, you feel good’
Lee was a former student at theP&A Scholars Beauty Schoolin Detroit and guided students experiencing housing insecurity to shelters, CEO Anna Jackson-Pajardo said in June. Lee helped plan the school’s annual “Hair for the Homeless” event, becoming a senior advisor for the initiative and working with shelters. She still collaborates with the school to put on the event.
“She not only had the experience of being in the shelter, but she also had the experience of being able to pick herself up and to go back and help other people,” Jackson-Pajardo said.
Homelessness is one of the biggest problems in Detroit, she said. She’s had students who were sleeping in their cars.
“Niesha was the one that would come and say, ‘Listen, I can get them placed,’” she said.
Lee said she finished P&A Beauty Schoolin 2012 and is a licensed cosmetologist.
She received her high school diploma from Catherine Ferguson Academy, a place she remembers with fondness. She participated in the Detroit Recovery Project, completing the rehab program in 2019, and then became a peer recovery specialist, she said.
Lee is also a writer, spoken word artist and poet — an art form she said helped release the hurt and burdens she’s held onto over the years. She’s the volunteer community engagement director for WJZZ, Detroit Jazz Radio.
Jalisa Walker, 24, consults with Lee about which hairstyle she’ll choose. Valaurian Waller for Bridge Detroit
Roderick Dickerson hired Lee to perform a poem for his upcoming documentary, “Noize of Joy the Movie,” about Detroit’s independent gospel artists. He’s known Lee for about four years.
“Despite her own personal challenges, she’s always reaching out. … She has a great heart and a great desire to see people win,” said Dickerson, CEO of Eyebox Films LLC, a Detroit-based video and film production company, in a June interview.
He said he was shocked and amazed to hear about Lee’s mobile salon initiative. Dickerson applauded her perseverance despite facing housing insecurity.
“If you look good, you feel good. There’s a lot of truth in that. And not only that, someone’s taking care of you, someone’s pampering you, someone’s spending time with you, someone’s adding value to who you are as a person and that goes a long way and that builds a person’s morale,” he said.
After getting her hair done by Lee in June, 24-year-old Jalisa Walker — another woman who had been staying at the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries shelter — looked in the mirror and admired her slicked-back look with a bouncy ponytail.
“I can go out in the world,” she said.
How to help:To contribute to Inspiring Hair, email Lee at eshalee80@gmail.com or call 313-946-6778.
Finding quality preschools in Detroit that won’t overwhelm the family budget can feel daunting, especially with average childcare costs rising in metro areas nationwide. But Michigan families have several options that can make early learning more affordable, from state-funded preschool programs to community-based Head Start centers that support young learners.
Some programs are free for eligible families, while others work with federal or state assistance to reduce out-of-pocket costs. Knowing where to look and how these options differ can help parents make informed decisions about care and early education.
Here’s a roundup of affordable preschool options in and around Detroit that offer quality care with a focus on accessibility and early learning success.
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Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP) is a state-funded preschool initiative that offers free, high-quality preschool for eligible 4-year-old children. Priority is given to families based on income, but all families may apply and benefit from this program, which focuses on kindergarten readiness skills like social development, math and early literacy through fun, hands-on activities.
Why it’s a good option:GSRP is free for many families and helps children develop foundational school skills before kindergarten. It’s administered locally through school districts and early childhood partners in Wayne County.
Address:Multiple sites through Detroit and Wayne County
Ages:4 year olds (state eligibility)
Phone:(616) 855-9622
Standouts:High-quality preschool curriculum at no cost
Matrix Head Start is a federally funded early learning program serving children ages birth to 5. It provides free educational care, health and nutrition support, and family services to eligible families in Detroit through multiple locations across the city.
Why it’s a good option:Matrix Head Start is comprehensive and supports development for infants through preschool age, including kindergarten preparation and family engagement services that go beyond child care.
Address:Multiple Detroit sites
Ages: 0-5 years old
Phone:(313) 285-1905
Standouts:Free program with educational, health and family support
United Children & Family Head Start offers income-based early education in Detroit, including blended Head Start and GSRP slots that give children access to free or reduced tuition preschool and early learning services.
Why it’s a good option:Combines early Head Start with state preschool funding to maximize free care opportunities for eligible infants, toddlers and preschool-aged children.
Address:9641 Harper Ave., Detroit
Ages:0-5 years old
Phone:(313) 432-1000
Standouts:Early learning blend options to cover more of the day
Starfish Family Services operates several early childhood education centers in Detroit and neighboring suburbs, offering infant, toddler and preschool programs. Many family support and early learning options are available and income-eligible families can access funded care.
Why it’s a good option:Starfish is accessible across communities, and the centers combine learning with care in a supportive environment.
Address:32765 Lyndon, Livonia
Ages:6 weeks-4 years old
Phone:(734) 237-5810
Standouts:Infant-through-preschool programs available in several neighborhoods
Annie’s Childcare Center is a locally trusted Detroit provider offering weekday care with early learning activities for infants through preschool ages at a moderate weekly rate. Families appreciate the center’s warm, home-like environment and focus on social, emotional and academic development. It’s a solid option for parents looking for dependable care without premium pricing.
Why it’s a good option:On a private pay basis, this center provides structured care with early childhood routines and long weekday hours that support working families.
Address:5350 Park Road, Ann Arbor
Ages:6 weeks-12 years old
Phone:(734) 663-8081
Standouts:Extended hours and affordable weekly rate compared with some centers
Early Start Childcare in Detroit provides 24-hour childcare with programs for infants, toddlers, preschool and school-age children. The center is especially helpful for families with nontraditional work schedules who need flexible, around-the-clock care. With a focus on safety, routine and early learning, it offers a dependable option for working parents across the city.
Why it’s a good option:Extended-hour care and inclusion of early learning alongside daycare make it a flexible choice for families needing schedule support and developmental opportunities.
Garden of Eve Learning Circle is a licensed in-home daycare in Detroit with personalized care and a creative, nurturing environment for children up to age 12.
Why it’s a good option:Smaller setting can mean more individualized attention and flexibility, and licensing ensures standards of safety and care.
Address:18426 Edinborough Road, Detroit
Ages:0-12 years old
Phone:(313) 576-7436
Standouts:In-home feel in a licensed childcare setting
Choosing what’s right for your family
Affordable daycare and preschool in Detroit can range from free, income-based programs like Head Start and GSRP to moderate-cost local centers that support early learning alongside working families’ schedules. Parents should explore eligibility and application windows early, especially for free programs that fill fast each year. Resources likeConnect4Care Kidscan help families navigate options and enroll in subsidy programs.
