Remote learning isn’t easy. Helping a special needs student navigate it isn’t easy either. Here are some strategies to improve outcomes and reduce everyone’s stress about it: If your child’s OT has created a sensory diet for them, this is the time to use it. A sensory diet is a series of activities and actions…… Continue reading Remote Learning Strategies for Special Needs Students
Category: autism
How To Help Your Toddler Hold a Spoon
Holding a spoon or fork isn’t an intuitive skill for children. Neither is assisting another person, of any age, to self-feed. Parents really have struggled with this issue, and there must be many more out there who are struggling still. This post is intended to help both parties be more successful. Young children use a…… Continue reading How To Help Your Toddler Hold a Spoon
Sensory Processing, Allergies, and Colds: Nothing to Sneeze At!
Here in the US, it is cold and flu season. Most of my day is spend with kids recovering from some upper respiratory virus. A few seem to have a continuous runny nose and cough. They also have an increase in their sensory processing issues. Is this connected, and if so, what can be done?…… Continue reading Sensory Processing, Allergies, and Colds: Nothing to Sneeze At!
How Using Dr. Karp’s Fast Food Rule Transforms Kids With Special Needs
Yes, I said the word transform. I know that hyperbole isn’t always appropriate when you are a therapist (we try to hedge our bets with predictions), but I am willing to go out on a limb in this instance and say that learning this single Happiest Toddler on the Block technique will make a difference with…… Continue reading How Using Dr. Karp’s Fast Food Rule Transforms Kids With Special Needs
How an Occupational Therapist Can Help The Siblings of Special Needs Children
The parent of one of my clients recently returned from a conference related to her youngest child’s genetic disorder, and she told me that the presentation on helping the siblings of special needs kids really only offered one niblet of advice: “Try to give each sibling 10 minutes a day of “just us” time.”…… Continue reading How an Occupational Therapist Can Help The Siblings of Special Needs Children
Binaural Beats and Regulation: More Than Music Therapy
Binaural beat technology isn’t new. But it is powerful. This post is designed to answer some questions about how it works, why it works, and how I use it effectively in the treatment of sensory processing issues. For people who have read about or tried Quickshifts Quickshifts: A Simple, Successful, and Easy to Use Treatment…… Continue reading Binaural Beats and Regulation: More Than Music Therapy
Does Your Child Hate Big Spaces? There is a Sensory-Based Explanation for all That Complaining
When you see it, it looks like Helen Keller crossed with a Roomba. A child enters a space, even a familiar space, and runs the perimeter without stopping to play or examine things. They may trace the room with their fingers, or repeat this process many times before they “land” and engage in some kind…… Continue reading Does Your Child Hate Big Spaces? There is a Sensory-Based Explanation for all That Complaining
Quickshifts: A Simple, Successful, and Easy to Use Treatment For Regulation, Attention, and Postural Activation
What if you could add a sensory-based treatment that targets specific sensory, motor, and behavioral goals? What if it doesn’t require expensive equipment or a large therapy space, and you could see the effects within a very short time? Since adding Quickshifts to my therapy sessions, I have been able to successfully address some of…… Continue reading Quickshifts: A Simple, Successful, and Easy to Use Treatment For Regulation, Attention, and Postural Activation
Does Your Special Needs Child Have a “Two-tude”? Its Not Just the Age; Its Cumulative Frustration Minus Skills
I spend a lot of my work week with toddlers, and they can be a challenge. One minute sunny, the next screaming because their cookie broke. Special needs toddlers can have a ‘tude as well, but many professionals sweep it under the rug. They tell parents that this is normal, and that they should…… Continue reading Does Your Special Needs Child Have a “Two-tude”? Its Not Just the Age; Its Cumulative Frustration Minus Skills
Why Is The Wilbarger Protocol So Hard To Get Right?
The Wilbarger Protocol has been a staple of therapeutic treatment of sensory processing disorder for decades. I will reveal my age, and admit that I learned directly from Pat Wilbarger. She was an amazing teacher and a highly skilled clinician to see in action. But I have lost count of the number of times…… Continue reading Why Is The Wilbarger Protocol So Hard To Get Right?
Stop Your Child From Chewing on Clothes or Toys
Babies love to munch on their toys. They nibble at book bindings, chew the heck out of their loveys, and some little ones really love to chew their pacifiers. As they grow, most children let go of this behavior. Chewing and biting for sensory exploration and state modulation diminishes and a child’s behavior evolves into…… Continue reading Stop Your Child From Chewing on Clothes or Toys
Sensitive Child? Be Careful How You Deliver Praise
Sensitive kids need encouragement as much as the next child, but they can have a paradoxical reaction when you praise them. What do I mean? You compliment your child by saying “GREAT job! I knew you could do it!”, and they react by becoming angry or even arguing with you. They may even try to…… Continue reading Sensitive Child? Be Careful How You Deliver Praise
Is Your Kid With ADHD Also Gifted, or is Your Team Missing Their Giftedness?
Are you hearing that your child is a management problem at school, but is a joy at home? Do you see them thrive when your older child’s friends include them in play? Does your child sustain their attention and manage their behavior well when the class goes on field trips or has speakers come…… Continue reading Is Your Kid With ADHD Also Gifted, or is Your Team Missing Their Giftedness?
Universal Design For Parents of Special Needs Kids: It’s Important for You Too!
I just finished the coursework for my CAPS certification (certified aging-in-place specialist)! Amazing instructor and loads of valuable information about construction and renovation that only the National Association of Home Builders could impart. And not just for aging-in-place; the concepts of accessibility make homes more visitable for family and friends, and more livable and…… Continue reading Universal Design For Parents of Special Needs Kids: It’s Important for You Too!
Teach Your Child To Catch and Throw a Gertie Ball
These balls aren’t new, but they don’t get the recognition that they should. The ability to catch a ball is a developmental milestone. For kids with low muscle tone, sensory processing disorder (SPD) or ASD, it can be a difficult goal to achieve. The Gertie ball is often the easiest for them to handle.…… Continue reading Teach Your Child To Catch and Throw a Gertie Ball
Halloween is Coming: For Sensory Sensitive Children, It’s No Celebration
I love Halloween, but not everyone does. Kids with sensory sensitivity top THAT list! The strange transformation of their classrooms, homes and yards aren’t exciting; they are disorienting. The masks and loose costumes? Pure Hell. But at least here in America, it often seems like it is almost unpatriotic to shun this holiday unless you…… Continue reading Halloween is Coming: For Sensory Sensitive Children, It’s No Celebration
Tub Safety For Special Needs Children
Bathtime is usually a fun experience for young children. Toys, splashing, bubbles. But it’s not always fun for parents. If your child has issues with sensory sensitivity, sensory seeking or hypermobility, you can feel like a one-armed paperhanger; juggling toys, washcloth and child! One solution is to use a bath seat. A word of common…… Continue reading Tub Safety For Special Needs Children
Not Making It To the Potty In Time? Three Reasons Why Special Needs Kids Have Accidents
If your special needs child isn’t experiencing a medical reason for incontinence (infection, blockage, neurological impairment) then you might be facing one of these three common roadblocks to total training success: Your child has limited or incomplete interoceptive awareness. What is interoception? It is the ability to sense and interpret internal cues. The distention of…… Continue reading Not Making It To the Potty In Time? Three Reasons Why Special Needs Kids Have Accidents
Spatial Awareness and Sound: “Hearing” The Space Around You
I hear a lot about kids who aren’t comfortable in big spaces: cafeterias, churches, gyms. Many parents, and even some therapists, attribute it to lack of familiarity: these are places they use inconsistently and are filled with more strangers. Or they mention noise intolerance: to music, to shouting, and to sounds like balls bouncing or…… Continue reading Spatial Awareness and Sound: “Hearing” The Space Around You
Teaching Safety Awareness To Special Needs Toddlers
Parents anxiously wait for their special needs infants to sit up, crawl and walk. That last skill can take extra months or years. Everyone, and I mean everyone, uses walking as a benchmark for maturity and independence. They shouldn’t. A child with poor safety awareness isn’t safer when they acquire mobility skills. Sometimes they are…… Continue reading Teaching Safety Awareness To Special Needs Toddlers