At School
First, Then
Imagine that you sit down to watch a movie. You pop yourself a bowl of popcorn to go with it…maybe your favorite toppings, whether salt and butter or marshmallow or Parmesan cheese or something else…you […]
Preteens
At School
Old School/Baby Steps
At the top of the poster is a sentence describing “old school expectations”. It reads like this: “Kids at desks / sit silently / (without sensory supports) / while adult teaches / on adult’s […]
Child Development
Lawyer Phase
I’ve written a few posts about things kids do at certain ages. There is always an element of variance in things like that; if something typically happens at 4, some kids will do it when […]
Child Development
Snowball Time
Have you ever done the thing where you find yourself thinking, “okay, it’s 10:55 and I have an appointment at 2. So i need to leave at 1:30 and that’s basically right after lunch and […]
Babies
Feeling All The Feelings Webinar (Hosted by Neurodiversity Ireland)
As more and more parents, caregivers, and adults start undertaking the work of helping the next generation of children feel safe to express their feelings rather than repeat unhealthy habits from the past, it can […]
At Home
What is Modeling?
Somebody asked me the other day if I’ve ever written a post defining what modeling is. I haven’t, but it’s a good idea since I suggest modeling things for children basically constantly. 🙂 I think […]
At Home
You Don’t Have Any Blocks
“I want you to build a tower,” I say. You agree, and you stand up to go get the bucket of blocks off the shelf. I shake my head sternly. “No. Did I tell you […]
At School
When You Don’t Agree With the Behavior Program
Sometimes parents are uncomfortable with the behaviorist strategies used by their schools. (ABA strategies, PBIS/PBL strategies, rewards charts, clip charts, smiley face charts, ClassDojo, etc.) I think it would be outright impossible for me to […]
At School
Caution Around Language
I have noticed some of my language shifting when I write notes, evaluations, progress notes, etc, in an ongoing effort to be more true when I describe what children are doing—since it’s so easy for […]
Autism
New Space in Your Brain
I want you to imagine for a moment that…everything is really good right now. Imagine that all the things on your to-do list that feel like “have to”s (instead of “get to”s) are taken care […]