Many kids with ASD and SPD struggle with agitation and even tantrums when people enter their homes. It can happen when their parent returns home from work, eager to scoop them up. These kids become shy, run away, even hit! Many, even most parents, believe that this is “bad behavior”, being defiant, or expressing…… Continue reading How to Help Sensitive Kids Handle Greeting People (Including Their Own Parents!)
Category: behavior issues
Is is Sensory Or Is It Behavior? Before 3, The Answer Is Usually “Yes!”
If I had a dollar for every parent that asked me if head banging when frustrated means their child has a sensory processing disorder…well, I would be writing this post from a suite in Tahiti! Modulation of arousal is the most common sensory processing concern for the parents that I see as a pediatric occupational…… Continue reading Is is Sensory Or Is It Behavior? Before 3, The Answer Is Usually “Yes!”
Teach Kids With Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Or Low Tone: Don’t Hold It In!
People who have read my blog are aware that I wrote a book on toilet training kids with low muscle tone, The Practical Guide to Toilet Training Your Child With Low Muscle Tone. Children that have problems with muscle tone or connective tissue integrity (or both) risk current and future issues with incontinence and UITs…… Continue reading Teach Kids With Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Or Low Tone: Don’t Hold It In!
Sensitivity and Gifted Children: The Mind That Floods With Feeling
Gifted children are often the most emotional and empathic toddlers in the room. They are the kids who cry when the ASPCA runs those tearjerker commercials. They are the teens who want to develop an NGO to provide clean water in developing countries. Gifted children don’t do this to get a boost on…… Continue reading Sensitivity and Gifted Children: The Mind That Floods With Feeling
Are YOU A Sensory Sensitive Parent?
If you fill out the Infant/Toddler Sensory Profile for your child and see yourself on the page too, don’t be too surprised. Actually, you might feel relieved, and even a bit excited. Because now you know that you aren’t “crazy” or “weird” or even “difficult”. If you have some sensory processing issues of your own,…… Continue reading Are YOU A Sensory Sensitive Parent?
Parents of Formerly Picky Eaters Can Feel Like The (Food) War is Still Going On
What do parents of children who have had successful treatment for oral sensory sensitivity have in common with Vietnam veterans? Parts of them do not know that the war is over. Raising a child that can become unglued over the texture or taste of a new food is like walking through a minefield. As a…… Continue reading Parents of Formerly Picky Eaters Can Feel Like The (Food) War is Still Going On
Wait Out Your Whiner Before Reacting And Everybody Wins!
Whining/whinging can drive a calm parent to the edge. Like nails on a chalkboard, the effect of a small person squealing their demand may unhinge you. Add refusal to comply with a reasonable request, and you have a recipe for disaster. OK, maybe not disaster, but how your react can inflict damage on the warm…… Continue reading Wait Out Your Whiner Before Reacting And Everybody Wins!
Teach Your Child To Fail Today. You Can Thank Me Later
Yes, I said it: fail. We all will fail at something sometime. Even, and most especially, the gifted kids who experiment and explore constantly, will fail at something. Knowing what to do with your feelings when you fail is essential for a happy life. And that is why you will thank me later. Angel Duckworth…… Continue reading Teach Your Child To Fail Today. You Can Thank Me Later
Your Bossy Baby or Toddler May Be Gifted. Really. Here Are The Signs You Are Missing!
Very young children can be a challenge at times. Tantrums over broken cookies, insistence on hearing “Goodnight Moon” for the 11th time in one night, etc. They can be adorably cute and amazingly difficult in the same 15 minute period! Lurking inside all that chaotic behavior may be signs of genius. Here are some…… Continue reading Your Bossy Baby or Toddler May Be Gifted. Really. Here Are The Signs You Are Missing!
Infants With Sensory Sensitivity: When Your Fussy Baby Takes Over Your Life
fpsyg-08-00789 Parents are often the first to suspect that their infant’s constant and intense complaints are more than just fussiness. Sometimes pediatricians pick up on a pattern of edginess that cannot be explained by all the usual suspects: teething, food sensitivity, temperament. Having a baby who complains bitterly about the most common events, such…… Continue reading Infants With Sensory Sensitivity: When Your Fussy Baby Takes Over Your Life
Low Tone and Toilet Training: Learning to Hold It In Long Enough to Make It to The Potty
If your child can’t stay dry at night after 5, or can’t make it to the potty on time, there are a number of things that could be going wrong. I won’t list them all, but your pediatrician may send you to a pediatric urologist to evaluate whether there are any functional (kidney issues,…… Continue reading Low Tone and Toilet Training: Learning to Hold It In Long Enough to Make It to The Potty
Is Your Gifted Child Also Your Most Strong Willed Child?
Parents of some gifted children know that this gift comes with more than a quick intellect. It can come with a will of iron and incredible emotional range. Gifted children can be expansively happy one moment, and intensely sad the next. No, it isn’t bipolar disorder, and it probably isn’t ADD (gifted kids are misdiagnosed…… Continue reading Is Your Gifted Child Also Your Most Strong Willed Child?
Sensory Sensitivity In Toddlers: Why Responding Differently to “Yucky!” Will Help Your Child
Sensory sensitivity and aversive behaviors are among the most common reasons families seek occupational therapy in Early Intervention. Their kids are crying and clinging through meals, dressing, bathing and more. What parents often don’t see is that they can help their child by being both empathic and educating them throughout the course of the day.…… Continue reading Sensory Sensitivity In Toddlers: Why Responding Differently to “Yucky!” Will Help Your Child
Overwhelmed With Your Toddler’s Demands? How To Cut Tantrums in Half!
Do I have your attention? Good, because to achieve this amazing feat you will need to learn some new techniques, and understand your toddler’s perspective more clearly. Take a look at two of my popular posts on toddler behavior, then practice a bit until your new communication skills shine. The posts that will teach…… Continue reading Overwhelmed With Your Toddler’s Demands? How To Cut Tantrums in Half!
Gifted and Struggling? Meet the Twice Exceptional Student, and How OT Can Help
I work with two amazing children that could be diagnosed as “twice exceptional”. Both boys, they have amazing intellectual gifts (one verbal, one in math) but they work with me on their handwriting and their behavior. Neither can write a simple sentence without significant errors in letter placement or formation. But both…… Continue reading Gifted and Struggling? Meet the Twice Exceptional Student, and How OT Can Help
How Occupational Therapy Can Help Gifted Children (And Their Exhausted Parents!)
Gifted children have abilities that make them more sensitive to their bodies, their world and the people in it. They notice sensations, emotional states and the interplay between the physical and the non-physical world in ways that non-gifted people do not. Exquisite sensitivity, combined with intensity and drive, often come at a price for…… Continue reading How Occupational Therapy Can Help Gifted Children (And Their Exhausted Parents!)
Is Your Sensitive Child Gifted As Well?
Happy New Year! The topic of sensitivity (in all it’s expressions) in young children isn’t new to this blog, but the correlation with giftedness hasn’t been a part of my other posts. It is today. Sensitivity is common in gifted toddlers and preschoolers, and sensitivity is ubiquitous in young children with diagnoses such as…… Continue reading Is Your Sensitive Child Gifted As Well?
Toilet Training Older Kids: Equipment Matters as Much as Approach
Is potty training after the toddler years different? Yes, and no. Here is what you need to consider when you are looking at the equipment for an older child that is still in a diaper or a pull-up. Whether they have language or not, whether they have rigid or stereotyped behaviors or not, your set-up…… Continue reading Toilet Training Older Kids: Equipment Matters as Much as Approach
Dressing Without Tears: Sensory-Sensitive Strategies That Work
If your child has tactile (touch) sensitivity, getting them dressed can mean more than a chore. It can mean tears. Tags in shirts, “scratchy” jeans, and all that pulling of clothing over their face! I know families that scheme for months to find clothes that their child will wear to a wedding or buy clothes…… Continue reading Dressing Without Tears: Sensory-Sensitive Strategies That Work
When Can You Start Toilet Training?
Just like walking, children cannot be toilet trained before they are physically ready. That usually happens around 18 months. But like walking, some children are physically ready a bit earlier. WAIT! Using the toilet by yourself is so much more than physical readiness. Potty training is a complex skill, with cognitive, sensory, motor and behavioral…… Continue reading When Can You Start Toilet Training?