Most people — not all, but most — find rhythmic vestibular sensory input to be soothing. Rhythmic: regular, repeated, predictable. Vestibular: having to do with your inner ear, your sense of balance and movement. It is based on the motion, or lack of motion, of fluid inside of your inner ears. You can imagine human … Read more
I think early childhood education has misunderstood what is behind the concept of “using the right pencil grasp”. For example, in my child’s reception class (the UK equivalent of preschool/kindergarten — it’s not exactly 1:1 with US standards), they had the four stages of pencil grasp posted on the wall, and they had little stickers … Read more
Sometimes when I tell parents that it’s okay to wear earplugs in order to cope with their own sensory sensitivity/avoidance, they worry that they’re going to hurt their children or implicitly be telling their children that they’re too loud, too much, etc. My children have been around me wearing earplugs since they were 2 and … Read more
I was very surprised how difficult I found OT school. I am the type of person for whom school has always come easily, at least in terms of getting decent grades easily and so on. I have a brain that takes tests well. The information just makes sense to me. Some of the more rigorous … Read more
Have you been trying to offer your child coping strategies when they’re in the middle of a meltdown and not been having a lot of success? If so, I have a couple of questions for you. 1. What coping strategies are you choosing to use yourself when *you* are in the middle of a meltdown? … Read more
I had an unusual moment recently that reminded me of a sensory feeling from my childhood that I’d completely forgotten about. For me, it was a good illustration of the way that interoception — or inner body senses — work. Your inner body sense sort of describes 2 types of internal feelings (at least the … 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 have a memory from very young in my childhood, that I can’t remember whether it was all just a thought process I … Read more
In the infamous “Duck Cake” episode of Bluey (season 2, ep 44), it’s little sister Bingo’s birthday and she is looking through a cake book for which cake she would like to have for her birthday. She chooses a duck cake because, when she looks at it, her tail starts wagging, which she knows means … Read more
From when I was fifteen onwards, my job in the family was to cook dinner for us either five or six nights a week depending on if we were going out to eat, picked up takeout/takeaway, etc. I was pleased with this job, because my previous job had been washing the dishes and I really … Read more
Today’s post needs a content warning for religious trauma and triggery religious language as well as a description of lots of big childhood fears. I also feel like I want to re-emphasize the disclaimer that I made on Wednesday and say again, as emphatically as humanly possible, that this is entirely intended as a personal … Read more