It seems so simple: if a child can write all of her uppercase and lowercase letters independently, she should be able to use paper with only a baseline as an anchor. I see too many kids in kindergarten and first grade go from proud writers to discouraged writers when the “training wheels” of extra…… Continue reading Why The Switch to Single-Line Paper Creates Handwriting Problems
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When Sensory Seeking Becomes Attention Seeking
As an occupational therapist, I see sensory-seeking kids every week who crash, jump, wiggle and hug their way through their days. If a couch is available, it is either a launching pad or a landing pad. Adults are for hanging on, landing on, or giving full-body hugs. Seeking unsafe or inappropriate movement and touch for…… Continue reading When Sensory Seeking Becomes Attention Seeking
Low Tone and Toilet Training: Transition to Using The Adult Toilet
Once the potty seat has been mastered, the question soon becomes: How is she going to use a regular toilet? Most younger children use a step stool and an insert to sit securely on an adult toilet. Kids with low tone often need a little more assistance to get up there and stay stable. Here…… Continue reading Low Tone and Toilet Training: Transition to Using The Adult Toilet
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
Give (Some of) Your Power Away To Your Defiant Toddler And Create Calmness
One of my favorite strategies to develop a warm but equitable relationship with toddlers is to share the power. Yes, I said it. Adults have power in the relationship and toddlers know it. In order for you to succeed in using this strategy with your toddler, you have to accept the fact that children long…… Continue reading Give (Some of) Your Power Away To Your Defiant Toddler And Create Calmness
The Informed Parent and Happiest Baby on the Block
I read The Informed Parent recently to decide whether it would be a good resource for my clients, and found that the chapters on The Art and Science of Baby Soothing, SIDS, and Sleep Training were worth reading. This book distills a lot, a whole lot, of research that can confuse those parents who want…… Continue reading The Informed Parent and Happiest Baby on the Block
Toe Walker? Why The Problem Usually Isn’t Touch Sensitivity
Kids that toe-walk after they have fully mastered walking and running (usually 24-30 months) are often accused of avoiding the feeling of their feet on the floor. It certainly looks that way. The truth is usually not so simple, and the solution not so easy to achieve. Getting a toe-walker to use a heel-toe gait…… Continue reading Toe Walker? Why The Problem Usually Isn’t Touch Sensitivity
The Tally Sheet, Updated For End of Preschool
Fans of my simple and fun pre-writing activity Preschool Handwriting Activity: The Tally Sheet, come on back into the pool for more! The tally sheet is a great way to keep score during a fast and fun game such as Pop-Up Pirate or Crocodile Dentist. As this year’s group or preschoolers are approaching the stage…… Continue reading The Tally Sheet, Updated For End of Preschool
Use The Fast Food Rule to Help ASD Toddlers Handle Change
Kids With ASD can react strongly to changes in their routines or environments. Even changing the location of furniture they don’t even use can create screaming and aggression. Why? Often they use their external concept of home and environment to provide internal consistency, structure, and spatial comprehension. We all do, in reality. Ask anyone who…… Continue reading Use The Fast Food Rule to Help ASD Toddlers Handle Change
Is Low Muscle Tone A Sensory Processing Issue?
Only if you think that sensing your body’s position and being able to perceive the degree/quality of your movement is sensory-based. I’m being silly; of course low tone creates sensory processing issues. It isn’t the same sensory profile as the child who can’t pay attention when long sleeves brush his skin, nor the child who cannot…… Continue reading Is Low Muscle Tone A Sensory Processing Issue?
Active Baby? Active Mom? It May Be Epigenetics Again….
This week’s New York Times ran a story Does Exercise During Pregnancy Lead to Exercise-Loving Offspring? that echoes what I told a mom last month during a Happiest Baby consult about how her behavior during pregnancy “taught” her son to love movement. She is an athletic woman, a pediatric physical therapist, and her baby really didn’t…… Continue reading Active Baby? Active Mom? It May Be Epigenetics Again….