The WHO has recently classified compulsive gaming a mental illness. I am not so sure. What I do believe is that doing anything compulsively is a big problem for developing brains. Is your child heading in the direction of using gaming or web surfing to deal with issues such as social anxiety or poor executive…… Continue reading Is Compulsive Gaming A Disorder…Or A Symptom?
Category: behavior issues
Why Pediatric Occupational Therapists Need The Happiest Toddler On The Block Techniques: Neurobiological Regulation
Pediatric occupational therapists are usually all-in when it comes to using physical methods to help children achieve affective modulation. We use the Wilbarger Protocol, Astronaut Training, Therapeutic Listening, and more. But are we using Dr. Harvey Karp’s Happiest Toddler on the Block techniques? Not so much. All that talking seems like something a teacher…… Continue reading Why Pediatric Occupational Therapists Need The Happiest Toddler On The Block Techniques: Neurobiological Regulation
Help Your Child Develop Self-Regulation With Happiest Toddler On The Block
Children start learning self-regulation early. Most kids eventually become reasonably skilled at it, given some help from loving adults. The problem is they don’t learn it quickly. Self-regulation takes a long time to become established in the slowly-developing brain of a young child. While you are scooping up the puddle of Jell-O that used…… Continue reading Help Your Child Develop Self-Regulation With Happiest Toddler On The Block
Use The Fast Food Rule For Better Attunement With Your Child
What’s attunement? The physical and emotional connection that a healthy parent makes with their upset child that brings them both back into a calm and balanced state. Why is it important? Because without attunement you don’t have healthy attachment, and attachment is the foundation for a healthy emotional and interpersonal life. Attunement and attachment are…… Continue reading Use The Fast Food Rule For Better Attunement With Your Child
For Kids With Sensory Issues and Low Tone, Add Resistance Instead of Hand-Over-Hand Assistance
One of my most popular posts, Why “Hand-Over-Hand” Assistance Works Poorly With So Many Special Needs Children , explains how this common method of assisting children to hold and manipulate objects often results in rejection or even aversion. This post tells you about my most successful strategy for kids with low muscle tone and limited sensory…… Continue reading For Kids With Sensory Issues and Low Tone, Add Resistance Instead of Hand-Over-Hand Assistance
How Hypermobility Affects Self-Image, Behavior and Activity Levels in Children
As rehabilitation therapists, OTs and PTs are focused on skill building and reaching functional goals with our clients. But feelings influence behavior, and so therapists have to be aware of more than joints and muscles when looking at function. In this post, I would like to address the many ways that hypermobility can create social…… Continue reading How Hypermobility Affects Self-Image, Behavior and Activity Levels in Children
Why Telling Your Child “It’s OK” Doesn’t Calm Him Down (And What To Do Instead)
In a few months I will be doing another lecture on managing difficult toddler behaviors, and I can’t wait. I love teaching parents, therapists and caregivers how to help young children manage their most difficult behaviors. The responses that most therapists dread (crying, whining, tantrums, etc.) are the ones I hope will happen…… Continue reading Why Telling Your Child “It’s OK” Doesn’t Calm Him Down (And What To Do Instead)
What Helps Sensitive and Autistic Kids Handle Haircuts?
Depending on your child’s age and issues, getting a haircut can be anything from a chore to a dreaded event that you put off, and then put it off a bit more. So many kids fear them: kids with ASD, kids with sensory issues, children that have had multiple hospitalizations or procedures, children with anxiety…… Continue reading What Helps Sensitive and Autistic Kids Handle Haircuts?
How Parents Can Teach Healthy Body Boundaries To Young Children
One of the greatest horrors of the Larry Nasser story is that parents were often mere feet away from these girls while they were being molested. The people most invested in a child’s safety had no idea that anything violent was occurring, and these girls did not reveal their discomfort at the time. These…… Continue reading How Parents Can Teach Healthy Body Boundaries To Young Children
New Baby? Exhausted? Try Dr. Karp’s 5 S’s To Pull Things Together
New parents are often shocked at how tired they are. After all, newborns don’t DO much. They eat, sleep, pee and poop, and that is about it. But they do it around the clock and they aren’t very experienced with any of it. Dr. Karp’s 5 S’s can help all of you learn…… Continue reading New Baby? Exhausted? Try Dr. Karp’s 5 S’s To Pull Things Together
Stop All The Whining With The Fast Food Rule
Whining is a “fingernails on a chalkboard” experience for most adults. We often give in to a whining child, just to avoid hearing that noise. Or we explode and scare them (and ourselves) with the anger that whining can trigger. What can you do? What would you say if I told you that I use…… Continue reading Stop All The Whining With The Fast Food Rule
How To Stop Your Baby From Throwing Things (Most of the Time!)
After the adorable infant period of dropping objects from the high chair to see you scoop them up, most children devolve into a throwing stage. Commonly seen at the 11-16 month developmental level, this is different behavior but it can be just as maddening. Maybe more. Today, I am going to give you both…… Continue reading How To Stop Your Baby From Throwing Things (Most of the Time!)
Holidays Hints For Sensitive Kids
The stores are full, your inbox is too, and you are wondering how to handle your sensitive child’s reactions to family and school events. You are not alone. Everyone knows about the “holiday blues”, where our dreams and expectations come up against real life: awkward family relationships, conflicting demands on our time and finances, etc.…… Continue reading Holidays Hints For Sensitive Kids
OT and Non-Disabled Gifted Children
I was asked to write another guest post for Therapro, the fantastic OT equipment and materials company that I have been using for clinic and home items for years. This time the subject is gifted children: Do Gifted But Non-Disabled Children Need Occupational Therapy?. The first time you encounter a young gifted child, you may…… Continue reading OT and Non-Disabled Gifted Children
Gifted Or Disordered? The Unrecognized Behavioral Traits of Young Gifted Children
Here is a short list of many common behavioral characteristics of gifted children that get labeled as “disordered”: Spontaneous. Very. Boundless enthusiasm. Intense focus on passions. Highly energetic. This is the child who doesn’t seem to need as much sleep or downtime as peers. Constantly asking questions. Constantly. Insatiably curious. Everything is interesting,…… Continue reading Gifted Or Disordered? The Unrecognized Behavioral Traits of Young Gifted Children
Have More Halloween Fun When Kids Don’t or Can’t Trick-Or-Treat
Kids big and little are anticipating Halloween, but this holiday isn’t always enjoyable for children with ASD, SPD, anxiety or motor issues. Putting on a costume can be difficult for some kids to tolerate and nearly impossible for kids that have mobility issues. Kids with endurance and mobility issues struggle to walk up to…… Continue reading Have More Halloween Fun When Kids Don’t or Can’t Trick-Or-Treat
Is Your Gifted Child Is A Perfectionist?
Do you know a child who is always trying to get to “perfect”? Being called a perfectionist is almost universally a criticism in our society. It doesn’t have to be. Some kids that are reaching for the ultimate aren’t unnecessarily stressing them selves out. They may gifted. The gifted child is capable of seeing…… Continue reading Is Your Gifted Child Is A Perfectionist?
Address A Child’s Defiance Without Crushing Their Spirit
Kids that defy adult instructions, even instructions that are ultimately for their benefit, often get begged or threatened into compliance. Pleading with your child to pick up their mess, or threatening your child that those toys on the floor will be given to a charity shop isn’t always going to work. Why? Probably because your…… Continue reading Address A Child’s Defiance Without Crushing Their Spirit
Hypermobility and ADHD? Take Stability, Proprioception, Pain and Fatigue Into Account Before Labeling Behavior
ADHD is a disorder that is diagnosed clinically. This means that there are no brain examinations, no measures that are not behavioral, when determining whether or not to give a child this label. The younger the child, the less accurate behavioral measurements are. But the risks in quickly giving a child this label are significant.…… Continue reading Hypermobility and ADHD? Take Stability, Proprioception, Pain and Fatigue Into Account Before Labeling Behavior
Negotiating With Toddlers? Why They Think That 90/10 Is A Good Deal
Toddlers can make you doubt your sanity. They really can. How can a crushed cookie be the end of the universe as they know it? Why do they think you can make more cookies appear on demand? And how to explain to this person that thinks you hung the moon that you simply cannot…… Continue reading Negotiating With Toddlers? Why They Think That 90/10 Is A Good Deal