Personal
Offering Grace
My friend Jessica, who runs the page Once Upon an Upset, once wrote: “So many of us are afraid of getting taken advantage of that we forget the option of offering grace.” It’s strange that […]
Other
Autism
Communicating =/= Speaking
Communicating is not always speaking. It can be easy to write off neurodivergent people’s voices because they don’t always sound like neurotypical people’s voices. Imagine finally taking the effort and time to explain something that […]
Personal
Maladaptive Coping
I had a kid recently who is not on my caseload. Their teacher asked me offhandedly about something they do, what I would call a stim. In their case, they pick at the skin on […]
Activities
Following A Child’s Interest…
Sometimes “following a child’s interest” means taking 5 minutes before the session starts to use the beanbag animals that they’re extremely passionate about and set up a diorama of bunnies participating in fine motor activities. […]
Autism
Autism & Disability
Let’s talk about euphemisms. When non-disabled people dodge around the word “disabled” because they think it’s an uncomfortable word, that’s a euphemism. When they say someone has “special needs” or is “differently-abled” or is “challenged”, […]
Humor
Insult to Injury
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 […]
Humor
Totally Legit OT Work
(as with any time I tell a story from work, some details are changed for privacy reasons) I have a teenager on my caseload with physical disabilities that make writing prohibitively hard. As part of […]
Personal
If The Sock Fits
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 […]
At Home
Independent vs Alone
Welcome to this week’s edition of “The Occuplaytional Therapist takes a funny image/meme/tweet and way overthinks it…” I’m always dependable for that 😉 First of all, this is absolutely true. Second of all, it’s for […]
Autism
Self-Advocacy
[Image descriptions: The first image has a title, “The Challenge with Teaching Self-Advocacy…It’s not them, it’s us.” over the top of an image of a child playing in a pink play tent filled with colorful […]