Drawing Music

Throwback to one of the activities I did in the past… I brought this giant keyboard mat, set it on different instrumental settings and we drew all over it with dry erase markers while it played music! This gave us the chance to practice drawing/writing while lying in prone on the floor, and drawing and … Read more

Is it sensory, or is it behavior?

I had the opportunity to speak to a group at one of the schools where I work on the topic of discerning whether kids’ “behavior” could be motivated by sensory processing, or whether it’s just “acting out”. (If you’ve been following this page for any amount of time, you might guess the spoiler alert that … Read more

Sensory Processing “Case Studies”

After my post about the very basics of the 4-quadrant sensory processing model, a lot of people asked me more questions about “sensory missers” (in specific) and just the “passive” side of the axis in general. I ended up writing a lot about it in the comments section and thought it was a helpful post … Read more

Too Touchy for School

I spoke to a parent recently whose child was getting in trouble at school for being too “touchy” with other children—wanting to hug, touch, wrestle, tickle, etc more than was school-appropriate or allowed. I know these types of kids, too, and my heart really goes out to them! Rough-and-tumble play is a powerful and important … Read more

3-Step Problem Solving

[Though I don’t currently have the bandwidth to accept any new consultation requests by email, I am still working through the backlog of consults that I did with people a couple of months ago when I was able to accept those. Here’s another of those questions.] *** A parent wanted to know about ways to … Read more

Sensory Processing, Explained (AA23)

“Sensory” is one of those buzzwords these days in parenting groups, on Pinterest, and in relation to different diagnoses. I’ve seen people use it to mean pretty much everything. When I talk about sensory processing, I am not talking about kids playing with rice or shaving cream in a bin. 😊 There are a few … Read more

Sensory Processing (Simplified) (AA23)

“Sensory” can be a real buzzword these days, and can be a little bit tough to understand! There are a few different ways of understanding sensory processing, but Winnie Dunn’s “four-quadrant” model is a very helpful one. It describes how everybody in the world (not just kids, and not just people who have difficulties with … Read more

“Touched-Out” Roughhousing

Here’s an unconventional tip for parents who are sensory-sensitive or get “touched out”. First of all — there’s nothing wrong with you if your preferred level of touching, snuggling, hugging, wrestling etc in a day is less than your child’s. There’s nothing wrong with them, either. It’s just a normal need for them to have … Read more

Sensory Profiles

“Sensory” is one of those buzzwords these days in parenting groups, on Pinterest, and in relation to different diagnoses. I’ve seen people use it to mean pretty much everything. When I talk about sensory processing, I am not talking about kids playing with rice or shaving cream in a bin. 😊 There are a few … Read more