When I was a kid, I really loved marshmallow cereal (like Lucky Charms or Marshmallow Mateys, the knockoff brand that we actually usually ate). I really wanted to pick out all the oatmeal pieces and eat them first, so that I could have a big bowl of marshmallows left at the end and try eating … Read more
Here’s my third tool for dealing with sensory mismatch in your family, home, school, or work environment. If you’ve missed the first two posts (one, two), check those out first — it may help you understand what’s being discussed in this one. Adults should raise their awareness of their own sensory needs. This can be … Read more
In my last post, I shared the first tool for dealing with sensory mismatch. Today I’ll share another tool. Just like in the last post, some of the things I say in this post may be tricky to understand if you haven’t read any of my past posts about sensory processing or some of the … Read more
I have had lots of questions from people about “sensory mismatch” lately. Sensory mismatch is my phrase for it when two (or more) people in the same environment (like home, a classroom, etc) have different sensory processing styles, AND those different processing styles are causing a clash of some kind. I recently gave a whole … Read more
The phrase “behavior is communication” was invented in response to a set of ideas, a counter to them. One of these ideas is that children’s inconvenient or strange or annoying behavior is a sign of some character flaw in the child. That they’re doing it to defy or annoy or enrage the adult. Another idea … Read more
When I try to define the word “proprioception” I usually refer to it as “deep body sense”. The sensing part of it also has to do with your sense of body in space and your body in relation to itself and other objects. Proprioception is sometimes called the “universal regulator” in that nearly everybody in … Read more
I mentioned this idea almost offhandedly in a training recently and it was profoundly exciting to the people in the training— so I’m making it into its own post! Here’s the idea in brief: ask kids to plan ahead, and write their idea down. And then reference your written note about it at a later … Read more
A lot of public schools in the US, and at least some in the UK near where I live, have begun figuring out how they can teach social-emotional skills and things like self-regulation and coping skills to children. I need to say outright at the beginning of this that I am not *against* that. I … Read more
It’s really understandable why adults ask children “Why did you do that?” After all, children are constantly doing things that seem honestly incomprehensible if not outright bonkers. An interesting side note is that in my job role, I am often assigned to stand in a set place and watch a particular child for a long … Read more
Did you know that yelling is, from a sensory perspective, a very regulating thing to do? That might sound weird and it might make your brain jump to conclusions that aren’t the same as exactly what I’m saying. But think about it for a moment, from a mental perspective of thinking of the mechanics of … Read more