When you read books to a young child, it encourages bonding, may calm your child, and promotes communication and longer attention span. Young children who are exposed to reading early often love learning and do well in school later. Books can also help children make sense of new and unfamiliar situations.
Many parents have concerns about, and spend hours battling with their children over, screen time – and for good reason.
My relationship with my autistic brother is a challenge, but I’ve learned so much from him, and I’m eager to watch his life transform.
Spring is here and now is a great time to take your kids outside. Outdoor activities encourage your child to take risks, solve problems, and explore independently, and promote sensory, social, cognitive, and motor challenges.
Is grocery shopping with your child a challenge? With so many products competing for the shopper’s attention, the grocery store is a full-on assault of color, noise, and confusion. It can be a challenge for kids with sensory issues to navigate this environment. In recent years, grocery pickup and delivery have become available, and for…
What Exactly IS Stimming? An easy way to understand stimming is as an action that people use in order to either make themselves have more energy or to calm down. The more accurate explanation is that the connections in our brain work best when we are able to organize the information sent from our environment…
Have you heard about teletherapy? Teletherapy is simply therapy, over the internet, through a live video connection. The treatment is very similar to what a child receives in person; it’s just done using a computer. If you’ve ever used FaceTime or Skype you’ve used the same type of technology that teletherapy uses. Teletherapy can be used with…
Play-dough has been around for ages and is a near-universal childhood toy. As an adult, even I love to knead and roll the stuff! But as much fun as play-dough is, it’s also a great choice for kids with delays and disabilities. Following are a few ways play-dough can help kids with special needs: Stress…
A few weeks ago, I shared some guidelines for how to recognize if your baby may benefit from occupational therapy, and in that post I explained that a person’s “occupation” doesn’t have anything to do with a job (at least not in the therapy sense), but actually encompasses what a person needs or wants to do…
With Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror, it’s full steam ahead for the Christmas season. Our routines change, activity ramps up, and often our children are exposed to new and unfamiliar people, places, smells, tastes, and experiences. Some kids love the excitement of the holidays, but for others it can be stressful (heck, it’s stressful for…