When you start to frame autism, ADHD, or other neurodivergences as really and truly just a difference instead of a disorder… It leaves space for realizing things like how the “social skills” that we teach to little neurodivergent kids aren’t actually, like, hard-and-fast rules of the universe so much as they are just societal norms. … Read more
I said this a few days ago as part of a larger post, and I liked it so much I decided it needed its own post. 😉 Some kids are interested in “writing” when they’re 2. They love letters and learn all the letter names and the letter song. If left to their own learning … Read more
It’s “trendy” to offer your kid choices. 😉 It’s one of the easy, catchy, go-to parenting “tips and tricks” that I guarantee you’d see on almost any advice article, book, or even just talking to another parent. “Your kid feels like they don’t have enough power, offer them choices!” (Sometimes this spirals into giving them … Read more
This made me laugh out loud. When kids love something, they’ll explore it in every facet of their play if you don’t get in their way! You don’t have to turn it into worksheets. (Yes, even for academic objective purposes. I have a kid with whom I’m working on fine motor control. It would theoretically … Read more
When I originally saw this posted on Flourishing Homes & Families, not with the original caption, but in the original comments, a lot of people seemed (to me) to have missed the point. They took it at face value, as if the meme were saying that this is actually true. I don’t think it is. … Read more
Young children repeat the same thing over and over and over (like the same joke, the same observation, reading the same book, playing the same game…) because they are strengthening the connections in their brain that are learning from that repeated experience! In addition to whatever they’re learning from the experience they’re repeating, they also … Read more
I noticed that I was struggling with eating the food that I had available for myself for lunch. When I thought about needing to get up and get my lunch, I would think of excuses why I couldn’t or shouldn’t. I should keep working on what I’m working on. I’ll eat later. I’m not hungry. … Read more
If you’re someone who would say “Oh, I can’t handle letting my kids make a mess! It stresses me out too much!” …Well, first step, let’s differentiate between “wet mess” and “dry mess”. These aren’t strictly liquids vs solids here. We’re using the words “wet” and “dry” in a more abstract way than that. But … Read more
On my recent post about children being developmentally ready for games with winning and losing, somebody asked me if the same information applied to video games, which was a great question. I think the umbrella term “video games” is pretty huge, and that sometimes makes it really hard to talk about what we’re talking about. … Read more
I can understand why some fidgets get labeled as “toys” — or worse, “distractions” — and taken away from kids who need them. It’s because they’re sold in bulk and trendy and seem like fun to all kids, not just kids who need a fidget to focus. Fidgets — sensory tools for tactile (touch) or … Read more