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
When I get a kid on my caseload who has been forced, from too early, to trace and write — for whom it is HARD to trace and write, who quickly learns to HATE tracing and writing and learns that they are BAD AT tracing and writing — It snowballs from there. Sometimes compounded by … Read more
Before a child is ever able to write, and before they learn to control the small muscles of their hands, they need to have full-body strength. This comes mainly in the form of strength in their core and trunk — where you might call your abs, your back muscles, etc — and strength in their … Read more
Since people were into my “spy code” activity in its extremely simplified form, I thought I’d share a few printable ones along with the whole “code” that I usually use. (Eagle-eyed readers may notice that this code is not identical to the one I shared yesterday. It’s something that I use as an activity because … Read more
I have a “secret spy code” activity that I do with lots of kids at different times. I love it for lots and lots of reasons: it’s a fun writing and reasoning activity that doesn’t feel like “handwriting practice”. I make the “code” something with lots of foundational pre-writing shapes, so that kids who struggle … Read more
“My child won’t play without being destructive. He is extremely smart, but he bounces off the walls and is destructive. We try redirecting him. We try positive reinforcement. We try using incentives. We use time-outs. We’ve tried everything,” a parent asked me recently. First off — this is a great example of how using precision … 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