If you’re traveling, we’ve shared some fantastic activities to keep your child having fun and building skills. And even if you’re not going on vacation, these are great to have in your back pocket! We all find ourselves in situations where our kiddos are in the car or waiting at another sibling’s activity for a while. This is a great time to get some OT activities in!

Tis the season of love, and with Valentine’s Day here, I thought I would share the love with three activities I am loving right now to your little one building skills and having fun!

This the season of love, so I thought I’d share a few of my favorite games. These are all great games to keep your little one occupied, interested and building important OT skills!

This is a unique activity designed to work on visual skills and is great for learning to match and write those pesky ABC’s. You will need a long strip of paper, writing utensils, and clothespins. Let's hurry up and get started. Yay!

3 Things to do over the holiday break to keep your little one building skills, regulated, and having tons of fun!

The holiday season is here, and you may be wondering what to get the little one in your life. I’ve rounded up 5 gift ideas that are fun, educational and will support your child’s occupational therapy!

Are there any other fun options that can help my kid to learn their ABCs? Yes, yes yes! Here are some fail-proof ways to make learning the ABCs an exciting adventure on the road to learning!

One question that I run into often is, “ Should my child be able to do x,y,z already?”. Parents are programmed to worry. We worry if our child is behind or not doing the things their peers are able to do. While the temptation to compare is normal, it is ideal to remember that there is a range to which child development takes place.

When I was finishing up my graduate degree there was already plenty of talk about whether writing would maintain its importance in education as word processing seemed to be taking over the educational system. Did kids even need to learn how to write anymore? What was the point of writing when there seemed to be so many advantages to using a computer? Was the actual act of pencil to paper writing really at risk of becoming obsolete and if so should occupational therapists turn their attention to assistive technology and keyboarding leaving writing in the dust?

The ability to use your two upper extremities together in order to accomplish an activity is called bilateral coordination. Bilateral coordination is a fancy name to describe a highly important and functional skill. The kids I work with know their two extremities as boss hand (dominant) and helper hand (non-dominant). In this way, I let kids know that both are important and function best when working as a team!

Hypotonia is the medical term used to describe decreased tone or tension within the muscles. It is important to note that muscle tone and muscle strength are NOT the same thing.

I am grateful for families I work with trusting me during some of their most vulnerable times.

This is a question I run into often. Teachers and parents alike get themselves into worried frenzies when a child isn’t using the pencil grasp they know to be correct. Are you ready for the truth? It may come as a surprise, but there are actually many different ways to hold a pencil.

Fine motor skills refer to one’s ability to use the small muscles of the hands and fingers to manipulate small to tiny items. When children have fine motor delays, skills in tool use, visual-motor tasks, self-care, and play are put at risk. Developing good fine motor skills in terms of both strength precision is essential for success in and out of the classroom.

You have hired an Occupational Therapist to work with your child. Now what? What should you expect therapy to look like?

I am so excited and I just can’t hide it- thanks Pointer Sisters! I am starting something very exciting that I am anxious to share. Breathe. Let’s start at the beginning.

One of my students lost a tooth today. His first one, so clearly it was a monumental occasion in his six-year-old life. I barely made it through the front door and there he was showing off his new look. He was beaming, his smile stretching from ear to ear. Intense excitement doesn’t even begin to cover what he seemed to be feeling.