I went to get dressed yesterday. We were going to be out walking outdoors for a few hours of the day. I put on some socks that I haven’t worn in a few months, since getting a bunch of new socks for Christmas. They didn’t feel comfortable to me, immediately. There was a seam on … Read more
Low attention is not a moral failure. The picture I got from talking to the teacher about the boy was very different from the picture I got when I worked with him. “He leaves things blank on worksheets,” his teacher, a stern “old-school” older gentleman, told me. “No matter how many times I tell him … Read more
Welcome to this week’s edition of “The Occuplaytional Therapist takes a funny image/meme/tweet and way overthinks it…” I’m always dependable for that 😉 First of all, this is absolutely true. Second of all, it’s for good reason: because kids feel connected when they are physically close to you, and because even in the best of … Read more
A recent little activity option from the schools: I set out this “car mat” for our littlest kids (3-4yo) to roll cars on while waiting for their turn in the therapy gym. It was mostly set up for purposes of keeping them safely occupied while waiting, but of course there’s an element of letter recognition … Read more
[Image descriptions: The first image has a title, “The Challenge with Teaching Self-Advocacy…It’s not them, it’s us.” over the top of an image of a child playing in a pink play tent filled with colorful balls while wearing bright green noise cancelling headphones. The second image reads, “Teaching self-advocacy to autistic students can look like: … Read more
A really common sensory question that I get is “How can I stop my kid from biting/picking their nails or skin around their nails?” or sometimes even, “How can I stop doing it?” Ever since I was small I have bitten and picked at my nails and the skin around them. My parents tried everything … Read more
A story of mediating conflict between young siblings, rather than solving it for them. My then-2yo “Summer” was lying on the ground in the middle of the living room floor, playing with toys underneath her blanket like a tent. My then-4yo “Apollo” was driving toy cars around. I was in the kitchen, which is adjacent … Read more
If you haven’t picked up on it by now, I really love it when activities can span across multiple weeks and have multiple steps and goals that shift and change each week. I feel like it helps kids recall their prior OT sessions as one overarching goal-oriented thing instead of only a handful of little disparate … Read more
In January, in my therapy gym, we decided to have a glow stick party. Technically there was no “reason” for this other than that it was fun and changed up the pace a little bit, but there is also clinically an argument to be made for lots of things that the kids experienced via the … Read more
At home… “I want Dad.” “I know.” But Dad needed to take a break for a little while, so I’m going to play with you for right now. “I need a Band-Aid.” “I hear you, it hurts!” But a Band-Aid doesn’t actually do anything for your eyeball being itchy. “I want to go downstairs.” “Yeah, … Read more