Tag: sensory processing disorder

Why Does Autism Create so Many Toilet Training Struggles for Kids (and Their Exhausted Parents)?

It isn’t that parents and professionals think potty training an autistic child will be easy.  They know it could be a challenge and it could take longer than training a neurotypical child.  They simply don’t expect it to be so consistently tough and to have so many unexpected twists and turns. Some of them can…… Continue reading Why Does Autism Create so Many Toilet Training Struggles for Kids (and Their Exhausted Parents)?

Doing Quickshifts? Modulated Music? Therapeutic Listening? Get These Affordable, Comfortable, Kid-Size Bluetooth Headphones From PURO!

Wirecutter, owned by the New York Times, just did a piece on great gifts. The PURO BT2200 models were featured because they are child-sized NOISE-LIMITING headphones with a BUILT-IN MIC, which is great for virtual school participation. I am recommending them because they will not destroy your child’s hearing. They max out at 85 decibels.…… Continue reading Doing Quickshifts? Modulated Music? Therapeutic Listening? Get These Affordable, Comfortable, Kid-Size Bluetooth Headphones From PURO!

Is It Sensory Treatment…Or Sensory Stimulation? How To Know The Difference

cco I have spent the first part of my career in pediatrics convincing parents, teachers, and other therapists that sensory processing is important for development, and that sensory processing disorders are a real “thing”.  I am spending the latter part of my career trying to explain to the same groups that using a sensory-based activity…… Continue reading Is It Sensory Treatment…Or Sensory Stimulation? How To Know The Difference

How To Remember to Do A Sensory Diet With Your Child

A “sensory diet” is the cornerstone of managing a child’s sensory processing issues.  Every therapist knows that without a good home program that only addressing a child’s needs in a session, we aren’t going to see much progress.  Treatment sessions are spent half playing catch-up:  trying to increase postural activation, calming them down, or waking…… Continue reading How To Remember to Do A Sensory Diet With Your Child

A Fun Way to Help Kids With Low Tone Stand Up Straight: Stomp-Stomp!

Kids with hypermobility or low tone are often found standing in the most dysfunctional of positions.  Toes pointing in, feet rolled in or out, feet on top of each other: take your pick, because these kids will alternate between these wobbly choices and more!  Read How To Improve Posture In Children With Low Muscle Tone… Without…… Continue reading A Fun Way to Help Kids With Low Tone Stand Up Straight: Stomp-Stomp!

Is Your Child With Low Tone “Too Busy” to Make it to the Potty?

Since writing my first e-book, The Practical Guide to Toilet Training Your Child With Low Muscle Tone, I have fielded a ton of questions about the later stages of potty training.  One stumbling block for most children appears to be “potty fatigue”.  They lose the early excitement of mastery, and they get wrapped up in…… Continue reading Is Your Child With Low Tone “Too Busy” to Make it to the Potty?

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 To Correctly Reposition Your Child’s Legs When They “W-Sit”

Hypermobile kids, kids with low muscle tone, and kids with sensory processing issues are champion “W-sitters”.  What’s that?  If your child sits with their thighs rotated inward, knees bent, and their feet rotated so their toes point outward, you have a W-sitter.   This sitting pattern isn’t abnormal if it is only one of many…… Continue reading How To Correctly Reposition Your Child’s Legs When They “W-Sit”

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?

What Do You Say to Kids Who Don’t Know They Need to “Go”? Tell Them to Stand Up

For children with either low muscle tone or spasticity, toilet training can be a real challenge.  If it isn’t clothing management or making it to the potty on time, they can have a hard time perceiving that NOW is the time to start heading to the toilet. Why?  Often, their interoception isn’t terrific.  What is…… Continue reading What Do You Say to Kids Who Don’t Know They Need to “Go”? Tell Them to Stand Up

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

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

Have a Child With Low Tone or a Hypermobile Baby? Pay More Attention to How You Pick Your Little One Up

Carrying and holding kids is such a natural thing to do.  But when your child has hypermobility due to low muscle tone, joint issues or a connective tissue disorder, how you accomplish these simple tasks makes a difference.  Your actions can do more than get them from one position or location to another: they can…… Continue reading Have a Child With Low Tone or a Hypermobile Baby? Pay More Attention to How You Pick Your Little One Up

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

Improving Daily Life Skills for Kids With Special Needs

  Therapro, the terrific source for a lot of handy therapy equipment and especially for items that help kids with sensory processing issues, has posted another piece from me on ADLs.  Take a look: What Helps Special Needs Kids Tolerate Grooming and Hygiene? “Activities of Daily Living” don’t have the cache’ of kineseotaping or therapeutic listening,…… Continue reading Improving Daily Life Skills for Kids With Special Needs

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?

Can You Use The Wilbarger Protocol With Kids That Have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome?

My posts on proprioception and hypermobility have been popular lately, leading me to think that parents (and therapists) want more information on the sensory basis for their children’s struggles, and that often their treatments don’t include addressing their sensory processing issues. The Ehles-Danlos Syndromes (yes, there are more variants than just vascular and hypermobile!) are…… Continue reading Can You Use The Wilbarger Protocol With Kids That Have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome?

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?

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