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Table Top Sensory!

By zfortadmin

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022

OT (Occupational Therapy)/Sensory based table top activities for school-aged children

Play is an important aspect to a child’s growth and development. It is a child’s primary occupation to play. The occupations of a person are the meaningful and purposeful activities we participate in during the day. Adults have different occupations than children, but sometimes it is important for everyone to play! A child develops functional skills, motor skills, language skills and interpersonal skills through play. Engaging in different types of activities at home can even help your child develop skills in the classroom. Play helps encourage all areas of development, from cognitive and physical to social and emotional. Some benefits of play are it builds self-esteem and confidence, develops problem-solving skills, encourages new vocabulary usage, teaches children to be alone and independent, allows children to release their emotions and encourages planning and thinking ahead. It can be a great tool for children to connect with their peers and the adults around them. Fine motor development is important for children to develop as well as gross motor development. At a preschool age children are working on both. Gross motor (large muscle groups) development can impact fine motor (small muscle groups). As a child builds stability in their core it allows more control in the hands etc. Since play can be filled with opportunities for development, here are some activities children can play at a table while encouraging fine motor growth and development.

Tape play

Picking at the edges of the tape is a fun way for little hands to develop fine motor dexterity. They are working on a pincer grasp (tip-to-tip pinch of the thumb and index finger)
Playing a word spelling game with boxes made out of tape. Have the child help tear the tape into bits (tripod grasp, working on small motor strength of the hand arches)

Tweezers play

Pick up large or small objects with tweezers. Put things in sand, rice or beans and have children try to tweeze them out. (Tripod grasp, working on separating the two sides of the hand in a small motor task)
Sort pom –poms by color or size with tweezers into cupcake tins, bowls or empty egg cartons. Have the child tweeze a pom- pom from one side of the body to the other. (Tripod grasp, working on crossing mid-line.)

Play dough play

Press thick beads into play dough with the thumb in a bent position. This helps encourage development of an appropriate pencil grasp. (Working on the muscles needed to oppose with an open web space and flex the tip of the thumb.
Using play dough mats or the surface of a table play utilize play dough by pushing, smashing, rolling, and pulling it apart. Make sure the whole arm is involved in manipulating the dough! (Working on finger, shoulder and arm strength that helps support an age appropriate writing grasp.)

Pipe cleaner play

After tying a knot at one end, have the child hold the pipe cleaner with one hand and bead with the other. Using beads with smaller openings will require the child to use more finger strength. Make patterns with colors or shapes for more fun! (Working tip-to-tip pinch of the thumb, index finger and eye/hand coordination. )
Place an upside down colander on the table. Use various sized pipe cleaners to poke through the holes. Make designs and patterns using different colors. Try to get the same pipe cleaner in more than one hole. Add a time challenge for older children to see how many they can place in 30 seconds. (Working on pincer grasp, eye/hand coordination, bilateral coordination and sequencing.)

Water play

Sort water beads by color or size using a spoon or measuring cup. Place water beads in a bin or a sink and have the child scoop and sort into cups or buckets.
Filling up a container with water, have the child use a turkey baster or plastic pipettes to squeeze water in and out.. Add food coloring, sparkles or bath toys for more sensory play. For younger children, use a sponge he or she can squeeze out after dipping it into the water bin. (Tripod grasp, working on pinching and fine motor strength/ coordination.)

Categories : Advice, Parenting, Sensory Processing

Tags : children, Parenting, Sensory Processing

Letting Your Kids Work It Out On Their Own

By zfortadmin

Wednesday, September 14th, 2022

We want our kids to succeed, plain and simple. We want to see them thrive, accomplish things, feel good about themselves, and reach their potential. For some parents, though, the pathway to mastery can be pretty painful. So if you ache to watch your child trying to learn a new skill, if you feel an impulse to jump in and rescue them from a challenge, or if you have an even harder time than your child does coping when they miss the mark, this article is for you!

First off, your compassion for your child is beautiful. The fact that you feel so deeply for them is a visceral sign of how deeply you love them, how connected you feel to them, and how far your empathy travels. However, if your level of discomfort exceeds theirs when watching them tackling a difficult challenge, it might get in the way of their ability to master a skill.

Following are some tips to help you navigate moments when your child is facing a challenge. These are ways to help you balance how much to help versus how much to lay off. In addition, how to resist that pesky impulse to intervene at the wrong moment!

When to Step In

It is healthy for children to confront some challenges. Facing novel tasks head-on encourages them to develop their problem-solving skills, build grit and resilience, use creativity, work on self-regulation, and cultivate independence. But when the challenge is too steep, it can be discouraging and promote feelings of inadequacy.

When you’re trying to figure out whether to step in, first consider your child’s developmental level. Think about what skills they already have, and take a beat to determine whether you have good reason to believe they can apply those skills to the current situation. If the task seems entirely beyond their reach, consider the least possible intervention to make the task possible. A little bit of frustration on their end is okay – in fact, it can even be motivating – so long as the frustration doesn’t rise so much that they can’t cope with it. The goal here is to scaffold them towards mastery of a new skill. The sweet spot is when they have to work a little harder and use a little ingenuity to figure it out.

Wait It Out

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if a task is at the right level for a kid to take on independently. If you’re concerned that you might intervene too soon and get in the way of their progress, hit pause. See if you can hold off for 5 minutes before stepping in. This will give you and them some time to see if they can figure it out independently.

But how do you fight that all-consuming urge to step in??

Find Your Mantra

Come up with a short and snappy phrase you can repeat to yourself in the moment to remind yourself why you’re stepping back. He can do this. This is how she’ll learn. My anxiety doesn’t need to be his anxiety. Find the thought that fits for you and say it in your mind as much as necessary. If you need something even more substantial, you can write the thought down on an index card that you keep in your wallet as a visual reminder.

Observe Your Feelings Like Clouds

Feelings don’t last forever. If you wait long enough, each feeling will pass, and new feelings come along. If your distress level is high and makes you want to “rescue” your child (when your child is doing okay on their own…), label your feeling. Do you feel scared? Anxious? Uncomfortable? Find the word that fits your emotional state, and imagine that word plastered across a cloud overhead. Observe the cloud floating in, covering you in its shade, then moving along until it’s out of sight. This practice not only grounds you in the moment and makes you feel more in control of your emotions, but it also serves as a distraction to help you wait it out!

If All Else Fails, Step Away

If the urge to intervene is too strong, and you know it could cause negative repercussions (like embarrassing your child in front of his friends, perhaps!), separate yourself. Pace out of sight, turn your head away from the situation, distract yourself by talking to someone else, or even scroll through your phone. Bonus: taking the time to help yourself cool down when your emotions get the best of you is excellent modeling for your children to learn how to cool down when their emotions get the best of them!

Remember, we all need to stumble to learn how to get back up again. It’s okay to let your kids work some challenges out on their own, so long as they have the skillset and self-confidence to do so. The more opportunities they have, even if they don’t end successfully, the more they’ll grow!

Categories : Advice, Parenting

Tags : advice, children, emotions, kids, Parenting

Seven Back-to-School Strategies

By zfortadmin

Thursday, September 1st, 2022

Set your child up for school success in 2020-21 with these back to school strategies.

Most years, the back-to-school time is filled with excitement and hopefulness for kids, and relief for parents glad for the return of the structure of a school schedule. This year, of course, is not a typical year.

As we move into the new school year, the range of emotions expressed by our children, parents and teachers could not be broader. While there is certainly the excitement of seeing friends, and the hopefulness of a bit of normalcy, there are also feelings of uncertainty, confusion, and stress regarding the many unknowns and things beyond our control. As we navigate the new environment, we will all need to be prepared to “roll with the punches.”

Although these months will require significant flexibility on everyone’s part, we have compiled seven strategies to help your child (and you) during these topsy-turvy times:

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Enter the Home Classroom
Meet the New Assistant Teacher
Allow For Transition Time
Create Structure & Consistency
Strike The Home / School Balance
Learn New Behaviors

1. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

*Hopefully you’ll find a better method (Photo by **Andrea Piacquadio**)*

Be as fully prepared as possible to answer your child’s questions and establish good communication with school staff.

Attend school activities and meetings, albeit through the remote platforms that we are able to access. During these meetings, your school will be disseminating information, answering questions, and soliciting feedback.
Clarify how your child’s teacher/school will be communicating with you. Stay up to date on emails/websites/texts so you know what your child is supposed to be doing.
If your child is having trouble staying focused and motivated, consult with your child’s teacher or a designated member of your school’s social-emotional learning team, and be creative to incorporate more hands-on activities.

2. Enter the Home Classroom

*The apple is for you (Photo by Photo by **VisionPic .net**)*

Create a “Home Classroom” to help your child stay productive, engaged, and focused throughout the day. Whatever the new school year brings, students will be engaged for part, if not all, of their week in remote learning, and either way, it is essential to get your home school space ready to go.

Have all possible school supplies necessary in one space to limit your child’s need to get up and down during learning time.
Limit distractions in this area by removing extra electronics, games, and toys.
Having a space designated for “school” allows the child to differentiate between school and home time. If space does not allow for a separate area, identify a designated workspace with all their supplies in a tub or laundry basket nearby. Ideally, this should be an open space where you can visually check in with your child to ensure they are engaged in their learning. If possible, your child’s workspace should not be in their room (though for some older kids/teens this may work fine – it depends on your child).
Keep usernames and passwords readily available.
Have a water bottle and snacks (fruit, almonds, etc.) nearby to limit the ups and downs throughout the day. Having healthy choices readily available will improve your child’s overall functioning and provide them with the fuel they need throughout the day.

3. Meet the New Assistant Teacher

*No, that doesn’t mean you do the work for them (Photo by **August de Richelieu**)*

Like it or not, you’re now the new Assistant Teacher. While few of us have actually been trained for the role, there are some things we can do to do the best best job we can.

Be prepared to help. If your child is struggling, they will likely quickly become frustrated and unmotivated. After a couple of independent attempts, try doing a practice example together and then move on to the next problem/question.
Help your child organize tasks. Assist in breaking down large tasks. Prioritizing tasks helps them become less overwhelmed throughout the day.
Do regular check-ins. Whether or not your child is working independently throughout the day, plan a check-in at the end of the day (or multiple times throughout the day depending on your child’s level of independence) to make sure your child is on track with learning and teacher expectations. This allows you to ensure they do not fall behind and provides an opportunity to teach them life skills about organization, procrastination, and asking for help when needed.
Create a reward system, particularly for younger children who may be less intrinsically motivated. Based on your child’s age you can provide rewards by the day or week. Rewards can range from a special dessert if all school tasks are completed during the day to a bigger reward such as a new game for completing their work throughout the week. Relationship-based non-monetary rewards are even better, such as choosing a family game to play or movie to watch together, choosing what’s for dinner, or an extra book at bedtime.
Create visual signs to maintain boundaries. When you are working from home and your child is doing schoolwork, there are times when you cannot be interrupted. Setting up signs can help give visual cues to teach your child when they can ask for help and when they need to wait. For example, you can put a stop sign up at your workspace when you cannot be interrupted and take it down when you are available. You can similarly create “Help” signs for your child that they can put on their workspace.

4. Allow for Transition Time

*Child’s desk may not be as neat (Photo by **Burst**)

Plan for time between different activities: hybrid learning, working with pods in the neighborhood, or even sharing time between two homes.

Coordinate with those sharing responsibility in your child’s education to create as much consistency across environments as possible. (Examples – scheduling, expectations, use of reward systems, etc.)
Share successful strategies with teammates.
Help your child to create checklists to ensure needed materials are successfully transitioned between locations so your child has the supplies they need each day. (Depending on your child’s age, you may be responsible for the entire list.)

5. Create Structure

*Chalk walls are always fun, too (Photo by **Julia M Cameron**)*

Provide structure; consistency is key is success in the new learning environment.

Create a schedule. Your school will likely provide you with a schedule, noting times for check-ins with teachers and peer-to-peer group learning opportunities. If your school does not provide a specific schedule, creating one can help your child stay on track. It allows your child to establish a routine so they understand expectations and can work more independently. A schedule also increases the child’s inner sense of “control”, further reducing stress.
Include both movement and brain breaks throughout the day (put them in the schedule). Some great ideas are doing three yoga poses between academic tasks or drawing a picture. To foster independence, you can write each activity on a popsicle stick and put them all in a cup. When a break comes up in the schedule, your child can randomly pick one and do it! (FYI- TV, video games, etc. can make it difficult to re-engage in school activities.)

6. Strike the Home / School Balance

*You won’t find me up there (Photo by **Marcelo Moreira**)*

Support your child’s emotional health by keeping the balance and boundaries between “home” and “school.”

Be ready to manage stress…your child’s and your own. Make sure you are allowing times for self-care, individual recreational activities, and family activities. Both stress and calm are contagious. To set your child up for calm, it is essential that you are taking care of your own emotional needs first.
If you and your child are experiencing conflict surrounding school, it is especially important to balance them with positive experiences unrelated to “school” to maintain a healthy parent-child relationship.
Include transition activities at the beginning and end of the day. The trip to and from school provides this by allowing your child to “gear up” for school and “wind down.” If your child is learning remotely, it is important to keep these transitions for your child. It may be as simple as cleaning up, organizing, and preparing the space for the next day. The point is that by scheduling “transition activities” creates closure and separation between various areas of your child’s life.
Establish expectations surrounding screen time. Given screen time will naturally increase with virtual learning, it is important to limit additional screen time. The neurological and emotional impacts of screens can occur regardless of the content. The point here is to find a balance between tech time and other activities.
Keep the social connections. This can be virtually or in person with distancing. Ongoing peer interactions will foster healthy social and emotional development.
Exercise. Get your child moving and get them outdoors.
Schedule family game night/movie night/basketball night, etc.

7. Learn new behaviors

*Now, if she’d only stay six feet away (Photo by **Yaroslav Danylchenko**)*

For those returning to the school environment, there are some new behaviors you need to introduce or reinforce. With the return to the classroom, we want behaviors to protect their safety to be second nature.

Practice wearing a mask in as many environments as possible. This includes washing your hands before and after you touch your mask.
Model social distancing. Increase your child’s awareness of their personal space and space of others keeping 6 feet apart.
Point out one-way signs and floor tape indicating directions to walk.
Point out floor markers showing spacing while waiting in line.
Show your child what 6 feet is with a tape measure or piece of string.
Identify items in your child’s environment that are 6 feet long (their bed, the width of the dining room table, two hops, etc.).
Teach and practice coughing/sneezing etiquette. Reinforce coughing and sneezing into your elbow or a tissue, then immediately washing your hands.
Avoid touching your face. Some tips to help kids do this include keeping their hands in their pockets or sitting on them.
Model and practice proper hand washing. Use soap and warm water, singing “Happy Birthday” twice, using a paper towel to turn off the water (not their clean hands). Create a habit of all family members washing their hands as soon as they return to the house.
Be on the lookout for hand sanitizer and use it frequently.
Teach your child about lunchroom practices for their school which may include eating in the classroom, eating with their pod, or eating in individual spaces in the cafeteria. Their lunchtime structure will likely look significantly different than it has in previous years. Being prepared for change helps.

Remember

If you or your child are struggling with the “new normal” you are not alone. Some of us have handled these challenges admirably, but the reality is that children and adults alike have been asked to adapt to huge changes in a very short period of time with limited clear guidance on best practices. (For proof that you’re not alone, see this NYT piece “School Chaos Is Breaking Me”)

Keep self-compassion and self-care as your top priorities, and help your child prioritize healthy ways to stay emotionally and physically balanced. At the same time, do not hesitate to seek out personal and professional supports to help see you through these challenges and pave the way for smoother transitions ahead. If interested, see our Services page, or send us an email at hello@sascoriver.com.

Categories : Advice, Parenting

Tags : advice, Parenting, remote learning, school

Managing Strong Emotions

By zfortadmin

Wednesday, July 13th, 2022

Managing Strong Emotional Reactions in Children and Teens

Have you ever been so overwhelmed with an emotion that it felt all-consuming? Like you were stuck in a deep, dark emotion pit without a ladder? When emotions take the reins, they can make it really hard to focus on the situation at hand, to process logical reasoning, and to problem-solve. The crippling impact of overwhelming emotion is even stronger for children and adolescents, because they are still developing neurologically and don’t have the same capacities as adults to self-regulate. So what is a parent to do when their child is swallowed up by fear, worry, anger, or sadness? Following are some tips to help you help your child manage strong emotions:

Address the Emotion

Father holding cheeks of son in face mask

When children or teens are having meltdowns, many parents try to speak to them rationally. While parents do this with the best of intentions, the problem is that when somebody is in an emotional tailspin, the logical part of their brain is completely shut down. Even the most revelatory comment will go straight over their heads until the emotional arousal comes down.

So when emotion carries your child away, instead of trying to problem-solve, start by addressing the emotion. If they are too far gone to access language, label the emotion for them (e.g., “I can see that you are very upset”) and validate why they feel so upset, even if you feel they are behaving inappropriately (e.g., “I understand that you are really mad that you have to finish your homework before you watch TV”). Oftentimes having somebody acknowledge how you feel helps bring the level of the emotion down to a tolerable level, which then makes it easier to reflect, redirect, and problem-solve.

Help Your Child Ground

Another way to bring down emotional arousal is to force the brain to think about something else. “Grounding” skills are techniques that are designed to direct your focus to something occurring in the present moment, rather than having your brain carried off by emotion.

One helpful grounding skill is the 5 Senses Activity. Guide your child to identify:

5 things they can see
4 things they can hear
3 things they can touch
2 things they can smell, and
1 thing they can taste.

In a pinch, you can do even simpler grounding activities, such as counting activities (e.g., How many light switches do you see in the room? How many tiles are on the floor? How many surfaces can you sit on?). Try it yourself right now – the more you have to focus on something in your immediate environment, the harder it is for your brain to get distracted by anything else, which gives your emotions time to cool off.

Preempt the Emotion

Close-up Photography Of A Girl Eating Bread

These first couple skills are for use in the moment, when the emotion has already taken over. In the long run, it can help to identify patterns and warning signs. Spend some time observing your child and getting a feel for common triggers. This can help you preempt significant escalations in emotion (for example, if your child tends to get “hangry”, save difficult conversations for after they’ve had a snack).

That said, it’s also good for children to learn to “build the muscle” of tolerating difficult emotion (the world won’t always be able to accommodate them as well as a parent can!), but this needs to happen in a graduated way. In calm, quiet moments, work with your child to help them identify when they tend to get upset and how they know their emotions are rising. What do they feel in their body? What thoughts go through their head? Once they become familiar enough with their own signs of emotional arousal, they can practice self-regulation skills before it’s too late, such as deep breathing, positive mental imagery, or separating themselves from a difficult situation. At first, you may need to help guide them to use these skills when you notice an uptick in emotional arousal, but in time, these skills will become more automatic, and they will be better able to initiate self-regulation strategies independently.

Model Self-Regulation Skills

Children learn about emotions from those around them. The more you are able to regulate your own emotions, the more they learn to do so themselves. This doesn’t mean being an emotion robot – many parents worry about their kids seeing them upset. What’s most helpful to kids is to see that it’s okay to feel these feelings (at safe levels), and that there’s something they can do about it. So when you’re upset about things, it’s healthy to let it show in front of your kids in small doses, to talk about your feelings in developmentally-appropriate language, and most importantly, to talk about what you’re going to do to help yourself feel more calm. Young children will enjoy joining you in self-regulation activities, such as the ones listed above, and it will be good practice for them to get into the habit!

Build Your Own Tolerance For Their Distress

Ethnic father and kid relaxing in bedroom

While children are growing, their bodies are too small to handle the big emotions they sometimes feel. It is typical for children to have big reactions to strong feelings while they get the hang of self-regulation. The goal is to help them feel confident in their abilities to self-soothe, but this doesn’t happen overnight, and too much pressure to regulate faster than their bodies are capable of can hinder the process.

When your child is having a meltdown, remind yourself that they are doing their best in that moment, and you can continue to help them build their regulatory muscles when they are calm again. Take a few deep breaths, and trust that if you are able to stay regulated yourself in those most difficult of moments, it will help your child see that they are safe and protected by you even when they don’t feel safe and protected in their own bodies. And remind yourself that you are doing your best, too! Learning to self-regulate is hard work for everybody. It’s okay if it feels impossible sometimes. It will become easier in time!

Still too much?

As always, reach out to us if you need more information or help.

Categories : Advice, Parenting, Sensory Processing

Tags : children, emotions, Parenting

The ‘Senses’ and Skills of Gardening

By zfortadmin

Wednesday, April 27th, 2022

Gardening is a great, enriching activity to perform, especially for children – not just in the summer, but in the fall as well. Children naturally learn and develop novel skills, through the interactions that they have with their environments. Gardening enables children to build upon these skills in a natural environment and it allows them to be exposed to various forms of sensory input.

The Seven Senses

We all are familiar with our five external senses:

Sight (visual)
Smell (olfactory)
Touch (tactile)
Taste (gustatory)
Hearing (auditory)

However, we also have two internal, lesser-known senses:

Vestibular
Proprioception

The Vestibular System is located in our inner ears and is activated when we move our head in space (up/down, side to side, or lateral direction).

The Proprioceptive System is located in the receptors of our muscles and joints, and is activated any time one performs an activity that entails pushing, pulling, or lifting an object (or in other terms “heavy-work” activities). The proprioceptive system also acts as a regulator. When the proprioceptive system is activated it releases a neurotransmitter, serotonin, which is calming to the nervous system. Gardening is an activity that can provide proprioceptive input, by one actively engaging in the performance of heavy-work tasks (i.e. carrying a filled watering can). A child who may experience sensory processing difficulties naturally seeks out this type of input, in order to help them be in a more regulated state.

The ‘Senses’ of Gardening

Stop to smell the flowers. Photo by **Tetyana Kovyrina**

Think about this: Before heading outside, you apply sunscreen (tactile input). When you step outside of your house, you are hit with an array of sensory stimuli (visual, olfactory, auditory, and/or tactile). Initially, you feel the warmth of the sun hitting your face (tactile input). You grab your tools and place them in your wheelbarrow filled with the flowers and herbs you had just recently bought. Then you wheel the wheelbarrow over to your garden (proprioceptive input). You empty out the contents of the wheelbarrow, bend down, and sit on top of your knees (proprioceptive input). Then grab your hand shovel and start digging holes in the soil, looking down at the garden bed below (proprioceptive and vestibular input). As you’re digging, you feel the dirt slightly touch your hands (tactile input). You suddenly hear a bumblebee buzzing past your ear (auditory input). You stand up and look around (up/down and left/right) to see where the bumblebee flew (vestibular input). And to think, this is just the beginning of the sensory input that one may experience while gardening.

No Green Thumb Needed

A green thumb is not needed, but is handy (pun intended). Photo by **Dung Tran**

As mentioned, gardening works on numerous skills, in a fun and interactive manner. Below is a list of skills (not all inclusive) with some examples that one may be working on while engaging in this activity.

FINE MOTOR SKILLS

Fine motor precision – Carefully placing one seed at a time into individual cells of a seed tray.
Bi-manual coordination – Opening up a seed packet – stabilizing the packet with one hand, and utilizing the other to open it.
In-hand manipulation – Placing seeds in the palm of your hand, and manipulating one seed at a time into the pads of the fingers to place into a container (palm to finger translation).
Promotes grasping patterns (i.e. pincer grasp) – Picking up a seed with the thumb and index finger.

GROSS MOTOR SKILLS

Strength
Endurance
Bilateral coordination

DISCRIMINATION SKILLS

Proprioceptive Discrimination (the ability to grade force on an object)
- While removing a plant from a plastic pot, one must grade their force appropriately. Pulling too hard could result in one accidentally removing stems or leaves off of the plant.

Tactile discrimination (the ability to feel an object without relying on the visual system)
- Feeling different sized seeds in the palm of one’s hand, without the need to look.

SEQUENCING SKILLS

MOTOR PLANNING / PRAXIS SKILLS

BODY / SPATIAL AWARENESS

EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING SKILLS

AND MORE…

Gardening can also help improve one’s:

patience (delayed gratification),
frustration tolerance,
cognitive flexibility (as one may need to change their original plan), and
social skills (if working with another peer or family member).

Create Your Own ‘Sensory Garden’

A ‘sensory garden’ can incorporate a mix of plants and/or garden décor, to provide one with a unique, sensory experience.

Visual – Utilizing plants with vibrant or different colors, varied heights, or those simply unique in nature, can provide some visual input to one’s garden.
Olfactory – There are an abundance of plants that have scents. Think of herbs that you may use while cooking, like rosemary or basil.
Tactile – Plants with texture – soft, hard, spikey, or bumpy – are a fun way to add tactile input to your garden. Providing different landscape textures (i.e. sand, rocks, or mulch) are another way to provide additional tactile input.
Gustatory – Think of herbs, fruits, or vegetables that you can grow, and eventually eat!
Auditory – Provide your garden with sound by either hanging up a wind chime or perhaps having a water source (like a small fountain).

Have fun, and be creative. There is no right or wrong way when designing your own garden!

————————————————————————————————————

If you or your child has any allergies (i.e. environmental, oils in plants, insect bites, etc.), there are other alternatives that can be performed (i.e. utilizing faux flowers).

Due to these unprecedented times, many local garden centers/nurseries are now offering free contactless delivery or contactless curbside pickup to ensure the safety of their customers.

Categories : Parenting, Sensory Processing

Tags : camp, gardening, kids, Parenting, senses, Sensory Processing

“I’m Bored”

By zfortadmin

Thursday, January 6th, 2022

“I’m Bored”: Down Time and Praxis at Home

Woman in White Long Sleeve Shirt Sitting on Black Chair

As we continue to practice social distancing, we all have a lot more free time on our hands than we are typically used to. While the beginning of quarantine may have been very productive, the motivation for most of us has diminished over the long months. Recently, you may notice that you and your family are having an increasingly difficult time coming up with constructive activities to do and are turning towards technology more and more. This can be particularly true during school breaks that would typically be spent visiting family or traveling, but now are filled with hours of down time. Your children (or spouse) may be coming to you more saying: “I’m bored”, despite having many things to do around the house. This feeling, one we know all too well, can be amplified for children that have difficulty with praxis.

What is Praxis?

Praxis is often associated with motor planning or planning movement, but this is really only the tip of the iceberg. More specifically, praxis is the neurological process where cognition directs motor actions (Ayres, 1985). In other words, praxis is the planning of what to do and how to do it.

Man Wearing Black and White Stripe Shirt Looking at White Printer Papers on the Wall

In practice, praxis is the complex series of events that an individual’s body must execute in order to produce a desired outcome.

First, we must conceive the idea of what to do using ideation (i.e. kicking a soccer ball into the net);
Then, we have to plan how we are going to achieve the desired outcome using motor planning (i.e. giving self a running start and kick with your right foot).
Next, we need to execute the movement correctly in order to be successful (i.e. kick the ball with enough force and good aim);
Lastly, we need to be able to reflect on the feedback from the movement to adapt our actions to increase likelihood of success for the future (i.e. kick the ball harder using a longer running start);

For most people, praxis is a complex process that we take for granted since it occurs mostly automatically. However, for some children, learning novel activities is something that requires extra practice and effort due to a missing piece in the multi-step process. In today’s society where a lot of activities are planned and video games have rigid objectives and processes, praxis can be underdeveloped simply because it has not been practiced! Think of riding a bike; while most people learn this skill at a young age and practice it throughout their lives, there are adults that have never learned how to ride! Similarly with praxis, if we didn’t learn and practice this skill as children, we may not have developed it fully. Either way, working on praxis can help everyone, especially when we think of what to do in down time.

Signs of Praxis Difficulty

If your child is having difficulty with praxis, you may observe:

Difficulty learning new motor skills or requiring more practice time than their peers (i.e. riding a bike, learning a dance, etc.).
Appearing clumsy or uncoordinated.
Unable to follow multi-step directions to complete a physical task (i.e. an obstacle course). This becomes particularly apparent with verbal cues (instead of visually demonstration)
Avoidance of gross motor or novel activities.
Difficulty retrieving the right materials for a play activity.
Appearance of laziness and incomplete work (Caused by not knowing how to start).
Failure to perform movement(s) safely.
Difficulty knowing where their body is in space.
Frequent falling, tripping, or bumping into obstacles.

Praxis Difficulties & Technology Use

Simply put, technology is both a blessing and a curse. Even prior to the pandemic, balancing technology and physical play was a common concern voiced by parents. However, during the pandemic, the world has increased its reliance on technology to include almost all daily functions. From attending remote school to having virtual holiday parties, technology has become one of the only outlets to safely interact with the people around us. With this increased reliance on technology, children and parents are having an increasingly difficult time separating the now blurred boundaries between productive technology use and “down-time” technology use. Video games and YouTube videos are a preferred activity for children with praxis difficulties because it eliminates the need to come up with activities to do independently. Technology use also fulfills our natural need for stimulation and impacts the pleasure systems of the brain by releasing dopamine and can, therefore, become addictive. In addition to making children feel good, it is often used more so as a crutch for children with praxis difficulties due to their difficulty with planning and executing activities. Methods to decrease technology reliance include but are not limited to: setting “tech free” breaks, fostering motivation by including siblings, giving explicit ideas of activities, encouraging outdoor play, and setting expectations for screen time and down time.

Home Praxis Activities

Man in Blue Polo Shirt and Woman in Beige Pants Sitting on Blue and White Mat

Try these activities to try at home to increase praxis skills:

Simon Says
Can help improve ability to spontaneously movement plan and improve body awareness.
Floor is Lava
Can help to improve ideation and problem solving skills determining safe and efficient ways to avoid touching the floor.
Unstable Obstacle Course
Create an obstacle course with unstable surfaces: walking or climbing over unstable surfaces is a great way to increase strength and motor plan unpredictable movements.
Twister
Increase body awareness while building upon the problem solving skills to determine the best way to move your body with obstacles.
Yoga Cards
In addition to the many benefits of yoga, it challenges the ability to process and motor plan actions by giving a visual demonstration of the movement.
Animal Walks
Increase problem solving and ideation naming an animal and having your child act out how the animal would move.
New Card Game
Learn a new card game and teach the family
Heads Up
This is a great way to help your child learn how to describe a particular topic/word
Mix ‘N Match
Give your child 5 items and see how many different ways they can use them! For example play dough, a coin, a string, a cup and a marble!
Charades
Can help improve ideation of desired movement and increase problem solving and processing when conceptualizing the other person’s movement.
DIY
Create your own game! Don’t forget to tag us @SascoRiver in your creations.

Tips for Praxis

Woman Holding A Poster On Proper Hand Washing

Tips for children with praxis difficulties

Use “first, then” language
This helps the child understand what sequence they need to complete the demand. For example, “first have a snack, then start your homework.”
Break instructions into parts
Instead of saying, “go and get your shoes and backpack and go outside”, say “get your shoes”. Once that direction is accomplished, you can continue to the next direction, “get your backpack”, and etc.
Give visual cues
Children with praxis difficulties can rely heavily on their visual system to “mimic” novel motor actions. Giving a visual cue for an action will increase the ease of processing the movement.
Physical cues
Physically guide the child through the action so that they can learn what the movement feels like.
Repetition
Practicing the movement allows for increased success rate and increased confidence.

“I’m Bored”

Adapt to Praxis challenges during long breaks from school with these tips:

Activity Bingo
Use a blank bingo board and put different activities for your child to do in them, you can even have them help you fill it out. You can give a little extra “tech time” or other reward every time they get Bingo!
Make a visual “menu” of activities
Sometimes it is helpful for children to visually “see” options
Make a new game!
Keeping things new and novel can increase motivation to participate, including others can also help. For example, have your child make a scavenger hunt for other family members and then take turns doing the scavenger hunt. The act of making it works on praxis and increases the time engaged!
Have your child “video” their activity to send to family members
While this uses some technology, helping your child feel connected to others while doing a physically engaging activity can be more regulating than simply using technology.
Make a visual schedule
This can help children to visualize when it is time for “tech” and time to engage in other activities. While we typically think of this for scheduling extracurriculars, it can also help to know when it will be time for their “preferred” down time activity is within the house

How Anxiety Is Supposed to Work

In order to understand how to navigate anxiety when it becomes problematic, it’s helpful to think about how anxiety is supposed to work. Anxiety serves as the emotional predecessor to fear. When we identify a threat in our environment, fear triggers our brain’s fight or flight response, which cues our body to mobilize – either in order to stand up to the threat and fight it directly, or to escape it by running out of dodge as fast as we can.

The function of anxiety is basically to be one step ahead of fear – it helps us identify the possibility of a threat in our future and motivates us to plan for it before the threat rears its ugly head. Anxiety about an upcoming test can mobilize you to prepare for it by, say, opening a book and studying. Anxiety about finances can mobilize you to make a budget and plan expenditures. In fact, studies show there is an optimal level of anxiety that makes us our most productive – enough to motivate us to action but not so much that we are paralyzed with fear.

So clearly anxiety itself is not the intrinsically the problem; in fact we need a certain level to be productive. The problem is when there is a mismatch between the intensity of the anxiety we feel and the actual risk of the anticipated threat. The most common mental mistake our brains make is overestimating the likelihood of a threat, and just how bad it might be. When anxiety responds too strongly, it can trigger that fight or flight response in ways that just end up making things worse (such as fighting social phobia by exploding at a peer, or fleeing from a big test by skipping school).

Tips for Handling Anxiety

When anxiety gets out of hand, we need to recalibrate our bodies and our minds. To help you and your child do this, we’ve put together the following tips (note that these tips are applicable for both adults and children):

Tip #1: Bring Down the Arousal

Anxiety is a physiological emotion. Our bodies mobilize for action by quickening our breath; increasing our heart rate, blood pressure, blood flow to our muscles (cue muscle tension), and sweating; and decreasing digestion and excretion (cue stomach ache!). These physical changes are very helpful if you’re about to get into a big fight or you need to run away from a predator, but they’re not so great when you have a big presentation or a school play.

So when you notice that your body (or your child’s body) seems to be launching into hyperdrive in an unhelpful way, the following techniques can be helpful in bringing the physiological arousal back down to baseline:

Deep Breathing Exercises

The key is to breathe through your belly rather than your chest (this allows the breath to go deeper, which helps bring your arousal down. When you practice, put your hand on your belly to make sure you see it going up and down. Our arousal also decreases more on the exhale than the inhale, so try to spend as long as you can on the exhale. I find it helpful to count – inhale for 4, exhale for 6 (adjust up or down based on your lung capacity!).

To make deep breathing engaging for kids, try one of these activities:
Mindfulness for Kids: Clever Breathing Exercises for Kids to Calm Down

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Follow these steps:

Start with your hands – clench as hard as you can for 5 seconds, then release for 5 seconds, and repeat.
Work your way through your body parts – tense and relax your arms, shoulders, face, stomach, buttocks, legs, and then feet.

Progressive muscle relaxation (or PMR) serves several functions – it helps encourage your muscles to relax in the moment, it helps train your brain to differentiate between tense and relaxed muscles in the long run, and it keeps you grounded and focused on the task at hand.

Here is a script you can read with your kids to make PMR fun and accessible for all ages:
Relaxation Script for Younger Children Hands & Arms Pretend you are squeezing a whole lemon in your left hand. Squeeze it ha

Positive Imagery

Think about one of your favorite memories. To bring it to life, I encourage you to engage as many of your senses as possible. Pick a snapshot in time from the memory to focus on, and think about what you were seeing in that moment, what you were hearing, what you could smell, what you could taste, and what you could touch. The more multisensory the imagery, the more you activate different parts of your brain, and the more effectively they work together to override the anxiety response.

For kids, practice leading them in a guided imagery practice:
Guided Imagery for Younger Children.

Tip #2: Retrain the Brain

young girl stressed out looking at her laptop

Anxiety encourages avoidance, and avoidance encourages future anxiety. When we avoid something that makes us feel anxious (like skipping prom to avoid dancing in public), we immediately feel better, which tricks our brain into thinking we were right to have avoided our fear. The problem is that in the moment, our brain doesn’t think about long-term consequences of avoidance (if you keep avoiding social activities, you might lose out on friendships and experience loneliness).

To break the avoidance cycle, we need to retrain our brain to think rationally about the risks involved. Practice asking yourself, and encouraging your children to ask themselves, the following questions:

What am I expecting to happen?
What evidence do I have that it’s going to happen?
What has happened before?
How many times has it happened before?
What has happened to other people I know?
What else might happen?

Write down your answers to these questions, and use them to determine how likely your feared outcome actually is (it’s often way less likely than our brain tells it is).

Next, make a plan:

What’s the worst thing that could happen?
What would be so bad about that?
What would I do in that situation?
What is a coping thought I can have if it does happen?

Tip #3: Beware the “Reassurance Seeker”

A lot of children who experience anxiety tend to seek reassurance from their parents to help them feel better. This is fine here and there, but sometimes children accidentally attribute their safety to the fact that a parent gave them reassurance (they think, “Well, I’m only okay because mom/dad told me I would be…”). To help them feel more autonomous in managing their anxiety, start by asking them the above questions (and practice having them generate the answers themselves). Then, over time, encourage them to start asking themselves the questions.

Keep in mind, when trying to recalibrate your anxiety or your child’s anxiety, that it took a long time for the anxiety to build to the point that it got out of hand. Therefore, it may take a long time for it to return to baseline.

The more you practice the above skills, the more opportunities your brain has to “relearn” how to anticipate outcomes more accurately and respond more effectively. So be patient, and keep up the hard work!

When It’s Too Much

Sometimes, though, even if we try all the tricks in the book, anxiety can just be too much to handle. If your anxiety is getting in the way of your ability to function in any setting (such as work, school, home, or in relationships), it may be best to seek out the help of a mental health professional.

Categories : Advice, Parenting

Tags : advice, anxiety, depression, Parenting, tips

Sweet Dreams: Helping Your Child Develop Good Sleep Hygiene

By zfortadmin

Monday, January 11th, 2021

Kids need a lot of sleep. Young children need about 10-13 hours of sleep per day, school-aged children need between 9-12 hours, and teenagers need about 8-10. Although their bodies appear to be at rest during this time (except if they’re sleepwalking!), they are actually hard at work. While children are sleeping, everything they learned throughout the day gets consolidated into their long-term memory (tell that to your teenager next time he wants to pull an all-nighter to study for a test!). Their bodies also release hormones that stimulate growth, repair sore muscles, and regulate mood, attention, and appetite.

Sleep hygiene is a term that refers to good sleep habits. Our bodies make associations between our behavior patterns and sleep routines – and those associations can either help or hurt us! Read on for some guidance on how to help your child maximize restfulness to support their development. And bonus… these tips apply to adults as well!

Be Consistent

It pays to stick to the same bedtime and wake time every day (this includes on weekends!). Our bodies adapt to consistent sleep schedules and will naturally become sleepy at bedtime and alert at wake time if they happen at the same time every day. While it may be tempting to stay up late or sleep in on the weekends, this can disrupt circadian rhythms and throw off the whole cycle. So do your best to keep bedtime and wake time consistent, at least within an hour!

Use Beds for Sleeping Only

Our brains make connections between what we do in bed and what mental state to be in. While it may be tempting for kids to snuggle up in bed to do their homework, this habit could train the mind to perk up (or worse, feel stressed out!) every time they hit the sheets. If possible, keep kids out of bed unless it’s time to hit the hay.

Depending on the setup of your home, this may be harder for some families than others. If your child needs to use her bed for other purposes (workspace, play space, etc.), you can still help her brain differentiate between sleep and awake mode by having a particular blanket or pillow that covers the bed during the day but comes off at night. This way she will still have a cue at bedtime that it’s time for her body to settle down, even if she’s been spending time on her bed throughout the day.

Cut the Screens

Studies show that the wavelengths emitted by blue light stimulate alertness. While this is great during the day, it can really mess up the nighttime routine. Unfortunately, all the devices we use throughout the day (and even some of the energy-efficient light bulbs that are all the rage these days!) are common sources of blue light. So while your child may be excited to play five more minutes of Minecraft before bed, or your teen may want to scroll through his Instagram feed before lights out, these habits can disrupt sleep. To help their brains settle down, try to cut out screen time within an hour of bedtime.

Routines Are Your Friend

Ethnic kid brushing teeth opposite mirror

The more your brain is exposed to a bedtime routine, the more it triggers sleepiness when that routine is enacted. If every night goes the same – say, a warm bath followed by reading books followed by a quick snuggle with mom or dad followed by lights out – your child will come to associate that series of events with sleepiness. The key is to keep routines manageable, because if you break the cycle, it may disrupt your child’s body’s cue to get tired. So when it comes to bedtime routines, short and sweet is best. Bonus: building in a nightly bedtime routine helps get kids away from screens right before going to sleep!

Use Daytime Hours Wisely

How your child spends his day will impact how he spends his night. It’s important for kids to get sufficient exercise during the day (but not too close to bedtime, because that will stimulate release of adrenaline, which will keep them up!). It also pays to be mindful of what they’re consuming. Avoid caffeinated beverages, such as soda, in the late afternoon or evening. If your child likes to settle down with a cup of tea, read the packaging to make sure it’s decaffeinated. And while chocolate may seem like a special treat for dessert, it can be loaded with caffeine (especially dark chocolate!), so keep portions small or cut it altogether if your child is having difficulties getting shuteye.

Consider White Noise

If your child is a light sleeper, he may benefit from having a fan on or playing a White Noise tape on a device (with the screen off!). Not only will the white noise block out any unexpected and potentially startling sounds, but the consistent hum can help lull him to sleep.

Keep a Notepad By the Bed

Empty agenda with pen on crumpled bed in house

One reason children (and adults!) have trouble sleeping is that their minds may race at bedtime, particularly if they are anxious or identify as a “worrier”. During the day, we are constantly surrounded by distractions, so it is easier to escape from anxious thoughts, but at night, our brain takes center stage.

To help your child break the habit of staying up for hours worrying about what the next day will bring, put a notepad and pen by their bed and encourage them to write down any worry thoughts that come up. They can then schedule a time to “worry” in the morning. While this may sound silly, it can actually be quite effective for children to remind themselves in the moment, “I don’t need to worry about this now.” They’ve written it down, so they won’t forget. They can worry about it tomorrow instead, when they’ll be more able to do something about the worry thought.

Don’t Stare at the Ceiling

Finally, if your child is having a hard time sleeping and spends hours staring at the ceiling and waiting for sleep to come, her brain will start to associate bedtime with the stress of trying to fall asleep. If she spends 20-30 minutes in bed without falling asleep, encourage her to get up, walk around, and engage in a non-stimulating activity (such as reading a book) for ten or fifteen minutes. Then, she can get back in bed and try again. If another 20-30 minutes goes by, she should get out of bed again and do the same thing.

While it may sound counterintuitive to treat sleeplessness with less time in bed, the goal is to train the brain that being in bed corresponds to being asleep (not lying wide-eyed in the darkness!). When her body is tired enough, she will fall asleep. And the more the brain gets used to being asleep while in bed, the less time she’ll spend restlessly tossing back and forth. It’s a process that can take some time, but with practice (and following the other tips listed above), the bed/sleepiness association will become stronger.