Activities
First, Core & Upper Arm Strength
Before a child is ever able to write, and before they learn to control the small muscles of their hands, they need to have full-body strength. This comes mainly in the form of strength in […]
Preschoolers
At Home
“Destructive” Play
“My child won’t play without being destructive. He is extremely smart, but he bounces off the walls and is destructive. We try redirecting him. We try positive reinforcement. We try using incentives. We use time-outs. […]
At Home
Reward Charts
Two people have asked me questions about reward charts in the last week or so, so that seemed like a reasonable question to answer next. The reason for both of them asking it was because […]
Philosophy
AAC Babbling & Repeated Noise
In my recent experiment with consulting with a few people via email, I received this lovely question! The asker was asking about their child specifically, and their child is a young adult. However, the specifics […]
At School
“Make” Them Write
I said this a few days ago as part of a larger post, and I liked it so much I decided it needed its own post. 😉 Some kids are interested in “writing” when they’re […]
Child Development
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
Young children repeat the same thing over and over and over (like the same joke, the same observation, reading the same book, playing the same game…) because they are strengthening the connections in their brain […]
At Home
Wet Mess vs Dry Mess
If you’re someone who would say “Oh, I can’t handle letting my kids make a mess! It stresses me out too much!” …Well, first step, let’s differentiate between “wet mess” and “dry mess”. These aren’t […]
At Home
Video Games
On my recent post about children being developmentally ready for games with winning and losing, somebody asked me if the same information applied to video games, which was a great question. I think the umbrella […]
Elementary
Inconvenient
Autism, ADHD, and several other conditions — especially the type diagnosed often in childhood — are the same way. Emphasis on being the type that are diagnosed in childhood. Because when children are inconvenient, their […]
At Home
Teaching Play
Once you’ve “taught” them how to use something (even accidentally), I notice these things happen: -they start to believe there is a “right” way to play with the toy -they fall into a pattern of […]