Continuing my series about the apps I use in my everyday life: FINCH This is my current app obsession. Finch is a little virtual bird. You set goals in the app for taking care of yourself, and as you complete the goals, your little bird goes on adventures and unlocks clothes, furniture for their house, … Read more
(From the archives of my own personal FB page, a story from when I was an early therapist. I would do some things differently now, but I still appreciated the story.) *** I have a kid who I see every week at the same time. He’s usually working on the same in-class spelling worksheet, and … Read more
“Stop crying” was one of the most repeated things I heard in my childhood — definitely the most repeated “correction” I ever heard. I was constantly crying too much. And constantly in trouble for it. All parent/teacher conferences were like, “She’s doing great at x, y, and z…but she cries all the time…” The only … Read more
You may have heard the advice to tell your kids what they CAN do, and not what they CAN’T do. Or, to say your POSITIVE expectations, not your NEGATIVE expectations. An example of this might be that your child goes running around the edge of the pool, and you remind them, “We need to walk … Read more
When I was ten years old, my family was helping start a new church. This is something we did often when I was a kid. The church had a pastor and many of the other staff members needed to run a church, but it had no building. We were renting or borrowing a building from … Read more
I think there are most likely exactly zero of us who received explicit, overt, interoceptive (inner body sense) instruction growing up. Maybe there are a few of us who did actually receive good instruction, but with different language — like, “here’s how to listen to yourself and tell when you are hungry vs full”, or, … Read more
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 were a kid. 😉 I was laughing hysterically about it and said to the child, “I just can’t believe I … Read more
(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 our goals, we’re working on learning the school laptops and software, as well as adapting or modifying when necessary, for … Read more
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 getting a bunch of new socks for Christmas. They didn’t feel comfortable to me, immediately. There was a seam on … Read more
A really common sensory question that I get is “How can I stop my kid from biting/picking their nails or skin around their nails?” or sometimes even, “How can I stop doing it?” Ever since I was small I have bitten and picked at my nails and the skin around them. My parents tried everything … Read more