How To Help Sensory and Autistic Kids Cope With Haircuts

Most toddlers getting their first haircut are known to fidget and squirm around.   Some cry.  But they grow up, and out, of their fear and distress. If your child has sensory sensitivities or sensory modulation issues, haircuts stay difficult-to-torturous for a much longer time! Confusion, fear of strangers, and stubbornness don’t elicit the same…… Continue reading How To Help Sensory and Autistic Kids Cope With Haircuts

Potty Training Your Child With CP

Author’s note:  These strategies will be most successful for children with a cognitive age of at least 36 months, and receptive language skills of at least 30 months. Children with severe quadriplegic CP most likely will always need physical assistance for toileting, even if they can direct their caregiver’s actions.  That will be another blog…… Continue reading Potty Training Your Child With CP

When Your Child Refuses To “Go Potty”(but is fully trained)

“I don’t need to” “I won’t” “You can’t make me” or the tried-and-true response:  ignoring you. When a child doesn’t respond to your instruction to use the toilet, and it is clearly evident that they need to (crossing legs, holding their penis, wiggling madly, etc.) you know that there are only a few explanations:  The…… Continue reading When Your Child Refuses To “Go Potty”(but is fully trained)

What Happens When Adults Don’t Teach Handwriting

This is not a post about the developing world, where getting a full meal supersedes writing a full sentence. It is about allowing errors to go ignored because a child “tried their best, and we don’t want them to get discouraged”. Handwriting is not intuitive.  Walking appears to be a skill that we are programmed…… Continue reading What Happens When Adults Don’t Teach Handwriting

How To Start Toilet Training..Today

Many parents believe that their special needs child isn’t ready to train, and might not be for years. They have doctors and teachers who agree. That is a shame, because they can begin the process right away. Today. Regardless of whether a child has the neurological maturation or the receptive language to do “boot camp”…… Continue reading How To Start Toilet Training..Today

The Easiest Way To Trigger Interoceptive Calming In Your Child

Interoception.  The eighth?? sense?  The key to calming? If there was a way to produce therapist catnip, it has to be by mentioning “interoception”!    We are all buzzing about this.  But understanding how the ability to sense internal homeostasis (that is what interoception is) makes kids happier is harder to convey in practical, non-medical…… Continue reading The Easiest Way To Trigger Interoceptive Calming In Your Child

3 Hidden Causes of Handwriting Errors

Lined paper.  Pencil grips.  Easels.  Tutoring. All of these solutions can help a child who has illegible handwriting.  There are more handwriting devices and strategies than pencils in my desk drawer.  But three contributors to poorly legible writing are often easily forgotten:   Room temperature.  Children that are chilly or too toasty will be fidgety.…… Continue reading 3 Hidden Causes of Handwriting Errors

Puberty and the Hypermobile Child

Puberty. Yup, it happens. Earlier than most adults expect, too. The earliest stages of puberty begin around age 9 for girls and 10 or 11 for boys. Hormone activity is changing, and with it can come some changes in hypermobility. For boys, increased testosterone can increase muscle bulk around joints, making them a bit more…… Continue reading Puberty and the Hypermobile Child

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