A Walk Through Dysregulation, Together

My son was feeling a little bit “out of whack” (that’s usually the least-jargony way I can describe the word “dysregulated”). He was picking at everyone in the family, emotionally, verbally. He pushed his sister, who was watching a show, far enough for her to lash out at him physically, to hit him and push … Read more

Poop

The librarian was like, “…so…are you potty training, or…?” And I was like, nah I just have a four-year-old who thinks poop is the actual funniest thing ever, so we’re leaning into it. 😁 I’m here to tell you right now, if you’ve heard the advice “don’t make a big deal out of it and … Read more

Hair Washing

My kids are 6 and 4. Both of them have gorgeous tight-coily-textured hair and both of them have (different) sensory processing sensitivities. For the first time in our family’s entire life I successfully washed and cared for everybody’s hair thoroughly in one weekend — even less than that, it only took a few hours! Using … Read more

“Why Did You…?”

It’s really understandable why adults ask children “Why did you do that?” After all, children are constantly doing things that seem honestly incomprehensible if not outright bonkers. An interesting side note is that in my job role, I am often assigned to stand in a set place and watch a particular child for a long … Read more

Yelling, from a Sensory Side of View

Did you know that yelling is, from a sensory perspective, a very regulating thing to do? That might sound weird and it might make your brain jump to conclusions that aren’t the same as exactly what I’m saying. But think about it for a moment, from a mental perspective of thinking of the mechanics of … Read more

Perfection

Age 5 (and 6) is extremely concerned with perfection. It’s a normal developmental phase. (Yes, this might also mean that your 4 year old or 4.5 year old or 7 year old are like this. I am describing the peak age at which this phase is typically, generalised across a population, at its most intense.) … Read more

When One Sibling is “Right” and One Sibling is “Playing”

I wrote a post about myself, an adult, not freaking out when my children said things that were factually incorrect because I knew they were playing at having that skill. Like pretending to read a sign, or drawing scribbles and then “reading” them to me. The point of my post was that I don’t need … Read more

Turn Arguing into Play

A little moment from my life: The kids (5 and 4) ran to get in the car. They began arguing: Apollo: I got here first! Summer: No, I got here first! Apollo: No, I got here first! Summer: No, I got here first! I was a solid 45 seconds behind either of them. As I … Read more

Naming the Subtext

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. You know, one thing that I notice is a pattern with most adults (me included) is that they might notice patterns with their … Read more

Learning To Fight

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 wish I could let my kids learn to work out their own fights, but it turns from verbal to physical in the … Read more