Month: May 2016

Out Of The Swaddle And Into The Frying Pan

Those first 2 weeks of life are pretty simple:  feed, sleep, diaper.  Lather, rinse and repeat.  From about 2 weeks until 12-14 weeks, the Happiest Baby strategies for getting a baby calm and sleeping soundly really do work to keep newborns (and parents) happy.  I am a certified Happiest Baby educator, and it is relatively…… Continue reading Out Of The Swaddle And Into The Frying Pan

Teach ASD and Sensory Kids How to Manage Aggression

Little boys as young as 2 use play fighting, crashing, and even pretend killing in their play, without anger or intentional destruction or injury. Is this a very bad thing?   I was challenged this week three separate times to explain why I would initiate physical play that can look aggressive (think crashing cars or our…… Continue reading Teach ASD and Sensory Kids How to Manage Aggression

How To Pick The Best Potty Seat For Toilet Training A Child With Low Tone

Kids with low tone benefit significantly from supportive seating for eating, playing, and yes, toileting.  Picking the right training potty can make all the difference for them, and their parents. My new favorites for smaller children (smaller than the average 3-4 year-old) are the Little Colorado Potty Chair and the Fisher Price Custom Comfort Potty… Continue reading How To Pick The Best Potty Seat For Toilet Training A Child With Low Tone

Great Mechanical Pencils Can Improve Your Child’s Handwriting Skills

These pencils help students with the following handwriting issues: They use too much force while writing, and the pencil tips break frequently. They need more tactile information to achieve and keep a mature pencil grasp. They rarely notice that they need to sharpen their pencil to improve legibility. Getting up to sharpen a pencil distracts…… Continue reading Great Mechanical Pencils Can Improve Your Child’s Handwriting Skills

Easy Ways To Build Bilateral Hand Coordination for Writing

Why do we need to use two hands for writing?  After all, you only need one hand to hold a pencil.  Well, did you ever injure your non-dominant shoulder or wrist? Without a hand to steady the paper and move it accurately as you write across a page, an adult will write like a preschooler…… Continue reading Easy Ways To Build Bilateral Hand Coordination for Writing

Build Pre-Writing Skills With A Focus on Scribbling

The greatest criticism an older sibling can level at a young child’s drawing is to call it “scribble scrabble”.  But wait!  If you want to develop finger control for future handwriting success, then you want more scribbling and coloring!  Random strokes aren’t going to move the needle forward for a child older than 3 years…… Continue reading Build Pre-Writing Skills With A Focus on Scribbling

Best Preemie Toy? Try An O-Ball Toy For Easy Grasping And Playing

  Preemies often wait a long time to start playing.  NICU life isn’t about fun, it is about survival.  Once your preemie is home, you will want to get the party started.  If she has a weak grasp or isn’t coordinated enough to easily hold every rattle and toy that you got for your shower,…… Continue reading Best Preemie Toy? Try An O-Ball Toy For Easy Grasping And Playing

Working Parents, Weekends, and Toddlers: Have a Better Weekend With These Strategies

I have been asking my colleagues about why so many working couples seem to be struggling with toddler behavior issues.  Initially, I was thinking that the shift between nanny/daycare routines and parent routines was creating inconsistencies.  But I found too many situations where that wasn’t the case.  There is a common speed bump for dual-career…… Continue reading Working Parents, Weekends, and Toddlers: Have a Better Weekend With These Strategies

Sleep Training at 2 Months? Beyond Cry-It-Out

The Wall Street Journal’s writers are known for great reporting, but they clearly didn’t do a lot of research when they wrote today’s article Can You Sleep Train Your Baby at 2 Months?  Lots of agonizing parent reports of the cry-it-out method, and professional agreement that babies 8 weeks old don’t sleep through the night…… Continue reading Sleep Training at 2 Months? Beyond Cry-It-Out

10 Easy Ways to Prepare Preschoolers to Write

Standardized testing has pushed the demand for handwriting down, down, down into preschool.  The great majority of preschool children by the end of the 4’s will not have the physical control of a pencil to write lowercase letters correctly, but some teachers tell me that their administrations require them to teach kids to write their…… Continue reading 10 Easy Ways to Prepare Preschoolers to Write

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