Note: I don’t mean literal boxes. Although they might do that too. 😉 Four-year-olds (and five- and six- and even seven-year-olds, and maybe three-year-olds, and yes maybe even older depending on your unique child — but here I’m talking about averages and norms) are very black-and-white. They do not understand intricacies and nuances. They are … Read more
A challenging thing about having children with vastly different sensory processing styles, or about having a very different sensory processing style yourself than your child, can be finding solutions in your family that meet both needs. I get requests to write about this “sensory mismatch” a lot—for good reason! It’s a complicated topic. It’s a … Read more
(Another post where I just walk you through my thought processes during a particular day.) I pull up in the driveway expecting an evening at home, but my son is already in the driveway asking me to take him to the park. We throw some things together and head to the park instead. He has … Read more
It started with a sticky note on a book that someone sold to my husband. My son got really interested in it. I was unaware of this, and when he came asking me for “paper that’s a little paper but it’s sticky but you can take it off and on again” I’ll admit it took … Read more
This post needs a content warning. I am talking about violence against children—not in the present tense, thankfully, but in the past tense. I am also talking about defusing anger responses against children instead of giving in to them. I understand that this is a really fraught topic. I have times in my life where … Read more
This post has an audio and video recorded version for those who prefer to learn by hearing rather than by reading. Scroll to the bottom for the video of me reading it. I think we would actually all be fine if we would drop the word “consequences” from our vocabularies entirely. I’d certainly prefer it … Read more
A post originally from two years ago, of a time when I “got it right” with playfulness, and with seeing “misbehavior” as a plea for playfulness. *** My 2yo and I were sitting at the kids’ dinner table. My 3.5yo always has a hard time with dinner. He’s groggy from his nap and his blood … Read more
I had the opportunity to speak to a group at one of the schools where I work on the topic of discerning whether kids’ “behavior” could be motivated by sensory processing, or whether it’s just “acting out”. (If you’ve been following this page for any amount of time, you might guess the spoiler alert that … Read more
I posted last week about the overuse of the word “listen” to mean “obey” in adult/child relationships — i.e., “you’re not listening to me” when what the adult really means is “you’re not complying with what I told you”, not, “your ears are not processing the language I’m saying.” A lot of people in the … Read more
Earlier this year, I bought my 5yo “Apollo” new shoes. Apollo’s approach to clothing has always been pretty much functional. He’s gotta wear clothing to go out in public so whatever goes on his body works just fine. He’s occasionally been enthusiastic about a cool airplane shirt or whatever but mostly unconcerned with what he’s … Read more