I’m a part of a group devoted to process art ideas for classrooms, daycares, homes, etc, called Process Art by Maryann Kohl. In that group, I saw a fantastic idea of dipping balloons in paint and then stamping it on a backdrop to make circular, marbled “planets”. Coincidentally, I have had a giant pile of … Read more
[Image descriptions: One shows the setup: on the floor, there is a blue-and-red gym mat. On the mat is a 10×10 foam pegboard. There are green, yellow, orange, red, and blue pegs sorted into different buckets and off on the side. To the left and right of the pegboard are two beanbags. There is an … Read more
Pro tip: Knee-sliding across the floor underneath an obstacle, in a footrace with a child, will just as surely split the knee of your pants when you’re an adult as it would have when you were a kid. 😉 I was laughing hysterically about it and said to the child, “I just can’t believe I … Read more
I have this great set of tents connected by a crawl-through tunnel, and the children who come to my therapy gym already love crawling through it. To add a bit of a game element to it, and also with a specific child in mind who loves numbers, I put a foam numbers puzzle in one … Read more
It is extremely common and normal for children to reverse or invert letters when they are learning to write, or confuse those letters when they are learning to read. It makes perfect sense when you think about it. Take any other image or object in the world, and flip it horizontally, or look at it … Read more
I shared a post about parents asking “How do I get my child to…” and trying to get away from that language, which isn’t helpful for understanding what is going on for the child that they *can’t* do whatever the expectation is. Someone in the comments wanted to know, “What about a situation like allowing … Read more
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
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
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