It’s Occupational Therapy month and we are celebrating by highlighting some of the ways you can get OT support for [continue reading]
If you’ve ever worried about your preschooler’s handwriting skills and whether or not they’ll be able to write their name or their ABCs by kindergarten, let us (a pediatric Occupational Therapist and a former teacher with a Masters in Early Childhood Education) put your mind at ease. You might be shocked to realize that some of the expectations placed on kindergarteners and young learners isn’t actually backed by evidence. [continue reading]
Speaker 1 (00:00):Now I want to clarify. Some of you might be hearing this and say, so does she still [continue reading]
Today, we’ll be discussing the topic of a sensory lifestyle- or you might sometimes hear it referred to as a [continue reading]
Episode transcript: https://www.theotbutterfly.com/podcast The OT Butterfly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theotbutterfly Heavywork freebie Heavywork webinar Work with Laura: https://www.theotbutterfly.com/parentconsult [continue reading]
I often preach about spending time after the meltdown to help your child “fill in the blanks” for some things [continue reading]
Have you ever heard of interoception? It’s one of the 8 senses and it’s responsible for alerting us of our [continue reading]
We had our first experience of a family play-date hang out at our house and, it went way worse than [continue reading]
Is Low Self-Esteem and Sensory Processing Disorder Linked? One of my absolute favorite books is The Out of Sync Child [continue reading]
Have you ever heard of therapists use terms like “top down and bottom up approach” to working with behaviors in neurodivergent children? This episode will teach you the difference between the two and help you understand the pros and cons to each approach. [continue reading]
When parents find themselves in a space where they’re desperate for answers and solutions to help their neurodivergent child, they often forget one important step. Here’s a hint, it has to do with checking in with yourself! Listen to the episode to find out more. [continue reading]
The size of the problem is a common lesson therapists and teachers use to teach kids emotional regulation skills. As I have learned more about the neurodivergent community, I’ve started thinking about this lesson in a different way and want to share that with you in this episode. Don’t worry, it’s not all bad! [continue reading]
If you have a neurodivergent child who tends to get overstimulated, overwhelmed and dysregulated around gift-giving time during the holidays, you’re not alone. Over the years I’ve found ways to manage dysregulation around gifts and the meltdowns that usually happen and this year, I’m putting it all together so I can have a more regulated holiday season. [continue reading]
Join Andi Putt, as we spread awareness of the different ways Autistic individuals learn and behave so we can be more neurodiverse affirming. [continue reading]
Neurodivergent learners have different ways of learning and listening. They won’t always appear to be listening, and often get in [continue reading]
I always get asked what kind of parent my husband is.
People want to know if we use the same parenting style and if we don’t, how do we handle that conflict?
People want to know what he thinks about our daughter’s neurodiversity and how he handles that.
I asked him all those questions and more in this episode!
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Dealing with power struggles and push back from your child when you just want them to clean up, get dressed, [continue reading]
Most parents deal with a picky eating phase, but some parents’ journey with their child’s picky eating is a little more severe than others, and we’re going to cover it all today. [continue reading]
Did you know that development of handwriting skills depends on a solid foundation of sensory processing skills?
Really, all of our motor output (both gross and fine motor) become refined and developed after sensory skills have been established. So, it’s pretty common for some kids with handwriting challenges to have underlying sensory processing issues.
As an Occupational Therapist, I get asked all the time what my thoughts are on ABA, and if I think [continue reading]
It’s so amazing how much a shift in mindset can positively impact progress in your own parenting journey as well as your neurodivergent child’s journey. Sometimes we can feel like we’re stuck, not making progress and we try to find all the right solutions and tricks and hacks, but what we need most is a mindset shift, or at least a mindset re-set.
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One of the most common questions I get asked about is if children can have mixed thresholds, meaning seek some sensory input and be sensitive to others. The answer is yes! A child can have a whole grab-bag of surprises when it comes to sensory profiles and sensory processing challenges. Listen to the episode to find out more. [continue reading]
My whole experience of motherhood has been completely different than what I had envisioned, and that’s okay, but it needs to be talked about. I don’t love this version of motherhood. I’m not enjoying the role I play as Mom. I miss the old me. Raising a neurodivergent child is hard. So many thoughts are unraveled in this episode, and I share a lot of vulnerable thoughts and feelings about motherhood, in an unscripted way. I also share a lot of confessions and frustrations that other moms have shared with me. [continue reading]
Co-regulation is something that will always be part of us as human beings. We are social beings and need the interaction, social transaction and intimacy and trust with another human being. But we can’t always rely on others to regulate ourselves, and we do want the ultimate goal for our children to be some version of self-regulation. I want to share with you what you can do now to build towards self regulation. [continue reading]
Forget thriving, how can we survive the holiday season with a neurodivergent child? Well I don’t have a magic wand, but I do have some tips for you to hopefully set you all up for success. Here’s a hint- it all has to do with building in familiar routines. [continue reading]
Out of all the social media posts, books, blogs, there’s just ONE thing you need to know about your neurodivergent child’s meltdowns, and that’s the fact that you can’t stop a meltdown. [continue reading]
Welcome everyone to a VERY exciting episode of the Sensory WISE Solutions Podcast for parents.
I have a TREAT for you all because I have Nicole Parish, who is the content creator and artist behind @soundoftheforest on tik-tok (with 1.7 million followers!)
Tune in to this episode to listen to Nicole’s experience of getting diagnosed with Autism in her adulthood, what her childhood experiences were like with some of her Autistic traits and how she’s found support. [continue reading]
This episode is completely unscripted but was so therapeutic for me to just talk and vent it all out. I’ll talk about why it’s so hard to keep up with her regulation, what’s going on with her at school, and even touch on our tough decision of not having any more children. [continue reading]
Empowering parents to be their child's best advocate.
-Laura Petix MS OTR/L