“Sensory” is one of those buzzwords these days in parenting groups, on Pinterest, and in relation to different diagnoses. I’ve seen people use it to mean pretty much everything. When I talk about sensory processing, I am not talking about kids playing with rice or shaving cream in a bin. 😊 There are a few … Read more
I still catch myself in these ways of thinking. I still catch myself thinking old thoughts with my kids. “If I get playful right now, he’s going to learn to be ‘difficult’ whenever he wants me to play with him.” “If I don’t make her regret doing that, then she’s going to end up doing … Read more
I walk into the classroom and sit down beside the child who’s on my caseload. She has OT services “push-in”, meaning that I don’t pull her out to my therapy room, but just go see her in her classroom and work alongside her there. We’re only supposed to work on handwriting, but it’s really hard … Read more
More creative treatment ideas… I really wanted to get a specific child to draw or write on a lateral surface or even on a vertical surface above their head! Writing and drawing in these creative ways work out a child’s shoulder, elbow, and core, all of which are super important for being able to support … Read more
There are a lot of ideas that are popular right now, many of which get lumped under the header of “attachment parenting”, which suggest (either directly or indirectly) that babies and toddlers and children are, or ought to be, fragile and clingy and needy and desperate for your attention every second of every day. And … Read more
Two people have asked me questions about reward charts in the last week or so, so that seemed like a reasonable question to answer next. The reason for both of them asking it was because I put “reward charts” — i.e., you do x, you get a sticker on your chart (and often when you … Read more
In my recent experiment with consulting with a few people via email, I received this lovely question! The asker was asking about their child specifically, and their child is a young adult. However, the specifics of this question could apply to any child who is learning to use AAC to talk! Q: My child uses … Read more
If I could get everybody in the world to learn one concept about the way they interact with children…well, actually, I have about a bazillion that I might choose from. I’m pretty bad at choosing. But if I could get everybody to learn, like, 15 concepts…I think one of my top choices would have to … Read more
A multi-week activity: a student and I have been working on making “wizard scrolls”. First we used teabags, coffee grounds, and brown markers to test which would make the best “aged paper” by staining them brown and crumpling them up, then letting them dry. Next, we looked at our dried experiments and picked our favorite … Read more
One of the stations in my therapy gym right now is a dinosaur dig. I have had this idea in my mind for a long time and finally had time to construct it during the winter school break! The end result is a bin of sand with “dino bones” to hunt for, and their skeletons’ … Read more