Making Waves: OT Tips and Tools for a Sensational Beach Trip ☀️
Making Waves: OT Tips and Tools for a Sensational Beach Trip ☀️
Navigating the Mid-Year Gap: Strategies to Support Your Child's Success
As January marks the midpoint of the school year, it's a crucial time to assess your child's progress and address any challenges they may be facing. Recognizing the signs of a widening gap and taking proactive steps can empower your child for a positive and affirming school year. Here are some practical tips to guide you.
Fostering Community with a Neurodiversity Affirming Approach
Community and a feeling of belonging are vital components for building stable relationships and developing a strong sense of self. The desire to be a part of a community and to feel like a welcome member of a like-minded group begins to develop at an early age. When a child is exploring leisure activities, building friendships, and figuring out who they are.
But what happens when you are someone who views the world through a different lens? For neurodivergent populations, interests may be more diverse and unique, making it more challenging to find others with similar interests.
Read more to learn ways to foster community with a neurodiversity affirming approach.
Four Sensory Strategies to Facilitate a Successful Halloween for Your Child
Sensory Friendly Strategies to Facilitate a Successful Halloween
Back to school we go!
For any child, moving from one set of routines to another can present challenges, but for those kiddos with sensory sensitivities, this change can be overwhelming and cause a lot of fear and anxiety. In this blog post, I will give you a few OT tips and tricks that can help prepare and regulate your child to help ensure a successful transition back to school.
inspire skill building with holiday themed activities: st patty's day!
Occupational Therapists know that playful, theme-based activities are so important to keep kiddos engaged while building skills! Holidays (including St Patrick’s Day) are an easy way to build in themed activities that are meaningful and fun and that inspire participation in activities that may otherwise feel challenging. Themed-based activities are also a motivating way to encourage exercise! At KidSHINE, our OT team LOVES to connect exercises to themes and stories!
fun and functional heavy work
Every child has their own unique way of viewing and interacting with the world. This includes individualized responses to sensory information. Basically, everyone reacts differently to the “stuff” life throws at them. Children with sensory processing challenges often need a special sensory diet to help their bodies find that just-right engine. These activities can help all children and adults too!
tips for managing holiday stress & anxiety
The holidays are filled with family, fun, exciting activities, and celebrations! It can also mean different sleep and eating patterns, varied and less predictable daily schedules, and new environments with unfamiliar sights, sounds, smells/tastes, and movements.
New School Year, New Senses, New Anxieties – Understanding & Helping
Dr. Amy teamed up with Noel Foy, a Consultant in #Neuroeducation, to talk about the links and circular impact sensory challenges can have on anxiety in children.
my child is returning to school! now what?!
We have reached the one year mark of the pandemic shut down, and restrictions are starting to lift. There are so many mixed emotions- so much sorrow for the countless lives that have been lost, and also so much hope and joy, given that we appear to be steadily moving forward to a return to normal.
listening to a child with sensory processing challenges
Parents and educators and other professionals are dedicated to facilitating growth and development in children. If a neurotypical child needs something, he or she simply asks, and an adult is able to respond to the child’s needs. But what happens if a child has challenges processing sensory input? This child may have difficulty articulating exactly what he or she is feeling or expressing what type of help he or she needs.
top 5 ways to help your child breathe
I got an apple watch for Christmas this year, which has been amazing for my productivity- I can check email and respond to texts more quickly and stay on schedule for my clients and meetings. But there is an interesting feature on the apple watch that I am still trying to wrap my head around. Three times a day, my watch buzzes on my wrist and reminds me to stop and breathe. The watch tells me to breathe for a full minute, 3x/ day, and I admittedly struggle with this (I’ve made it 27 seconds to date).