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School Readiness

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SCHOOL READINESS

Another month gone! That means that 2022 is fast approaching us. And with a new year, comes a new group of children and their families making the scary and exciting transition into ‘big school!’


Transitioning into the primary school setting can be a tricky time for lots of children. It is a very exciting period, filled with new friends, new teachers and new activities. But it can also be a stressful time, as there is a lot of change in our routines, structures and expectations within every day. It is important that we support our children to make a happy, supported and successful transition into ‘big school’.

School readiness skills are about more than just reading, writing and maths. It is easy to get caught up on these details, wanting our kids to be proficient in basic handwriting, counting, or even being able to identify letters and words. It is however, really important to look at the whole picture and holistically support our children to build all of the smaller less recognised skills that will support them in achieving success in Kindergarten.

School readiness refers to the foundational skills that support a child’s body, mind and wellbeing as they transition into the primary school environment. 

The first thing to remember when starting the transition to school, is that your child is going to school to continue to learn and develop their skills such as reading, writing and maths. These are not skills that they are expected to be perfect at on their first day. However, there are lots of activities and tasks that children will be expected to independently perform when they start Kindergarten. These range from self-care skills, to fine and gross motor skills, and even social and play skills. 

Let’s start by thinking about the self-care skills that a child needs to be able to independently complete within an average school day. They will need to be able to dress themselves in their school uniform at the start of the day, undress/dress to go to the bathroom at school, and undress at the end of the school day. School uniforms often have buttons, zips, shoelaces and even ties depending on the school you are attending. Children will be expected to be able to go to the toilet independently without supervision during the school day. At lunch and recess breaks children will be expected to open and close their own lunch boxes, unwrap snacks and packaging such as chip packets, zip-lock bags, drink bottles and lids.

Developing a child’s fine motor skills is another important step in preparing them for success in school. For the transition to school, focus on building basic foundational skills such as being able to open and close a school bag. Teacher’s may expect that children can hold a pencil and use it to write their own name, draw a person, form pre-writing shapes (vertical line, horizontal line, circle, x, diagonal line), and colour in an up to down and circular motion. Other skills that will be explored are holding and using scissors to cut paper and gluing for arts and craft. 

Another important skill set to support the transition to school, will be a child’s use of gross motor skills. I’m not talking about being able to play a full game of team sports such as soccer or netball but it is important that our kids are able to safely play on playground equipment and participate in common childhood games such as tips, hopscotch, hide and seek or bullrush. Age-appropriate gross motor skills for children transitioning to school include running, jumping with two feet, hopping on one foot, skipping and balancing. It is also important for children to have developed core strength and postural stability for use within the classroom so that they are able to sit cross legged on the mat for floor time, as well as sit in their chair at the desk for extended periods of time while they complete activities. 

Children learn and develop the majority of their foundational skills through ‘play’. Therefore, it is so important that our children transitioning into the school environment have developed social and play skills such as shared attention and engagement with peers. Children aged 4 years and older are expected to engage in ‘cooperative play’. This means that a child will play with other children, showing interest in both toys or the activity, as well as the other children or child they are playing with. At this age it is also expected that children will engage in pretend play themes and making use of their imagination within play. Further social skills that will be expected in the school environment include sharing, turn-taking, patience and whole body listening skills.

A skill that you might not have considered yet, but is imperative for success in the school environment is a child’s emotional regulation skills. This refers to a child’s ability to find and maintain the level of arousal in which they are able to best engage in the world around them. Think about whether your child can maintain and adapt their own emotions, behaviour and arousal appropriately to suit the activity and situation at hand. For example, if a child is playing a new exciting game, do they get over-excited and silly to the point that they are no longer able to engage in the game? Or, do they become angry or upset because the activity is too challenging for them and they don’t know how to ask for help? Additionally, can the child recover from heightened emotions such as anger or frustration, in an appropriate manner and time frame> All of these situations refer to emotional regulation skills and need to be developed for a successful transition to school. 

Lastly, let’s talk about our child’s ability to cope with and manage transitions themselves. The transition to school is a big one, but along with this there are many other smaller transitions to consider. These transitions begin early in the day from waking up and getting ready for school, to leaving home for school, being in the playground with friends, moving into the classroom for morning period, and so on and so forth throughout the day with lunch break, home time, ect. School days are very routine and structured, and children are expected to learn and follow these routines. Challenges that come with these transitions can be as simple as having to go to the toilet at a set time, rather than just going whenever you need to at home; only having a certain amount of time to eat your lunch; or moving back into the classroom appropriately after an exciting play break. 

Some children may still be having difficulties achieving success or independence in any one or group of these skills. This increases their risk of falling behind their peers and having to play ‘catch up’ or requiring additional support to be put into place to achieve success.  Therefore, it is immensely important that we support these children by actively facilitating the necessary skills for school readiness throughout pre-school.. 

If you’d like to help your child develop their school readiness skills, here are some ideas that you can do at home together. Often the repetition of everyday activities is a simple yet effective helping hand! Practice is key!

  • Encourage your child to open their own snacks and containers.
  • Encourage your child to start drinking out of a water bottle.
  • Encourage your child to be responsible for their own items, packing them, and then packing them away. 
  • Follow a morning and evening routine to support your child’s ability to understand and follow structures. This can be supported by the use of a visual schedule of ordered pictures of each step that needs to be performed. 
  • Support transitions within the home with the use of a visual and/or auditory timer to mimic the bell system used within schools and support your child’s understanding of time, space and transitions. 
  • Practice with your child getting dressed and undressed with their school uniform once you have bought it. 
  • Practice and role-play the drop-off and pick-up routine ahead of time. Also discuss and role-play changes in routine and unexpected events i.e., somebody else picking them up. 
  • Engage your child in arts and craft activities at home. Use pencils, crayons, paints, string and beads, scissors and glue to create masterpieces together. 
  • Encourage your child to participate in colouring in activities, tic-tac, toe, mazes, colouring in, dot to dots, etc. 
  • Engage your child in card and board games that will teach them turn taking, sharing, and problem solving skills. 
  • Play and create obstacle courses within the home to practice your child’s movement and gross motor skills. Include jumping, balancing and hopping. 
  • Teach and expose your child to common group games such as tips, hide and seek, bullrush etc. 
  • Facilitate safe social encounters with similar aged children for your child to practice play and social skills with. 
  • Support your child to identify their emotions and explore and practice different ways to calm their body when in a heightened state of arousal. For example, practice deep breathing, drinking cold water, movement breaks or other tricks that work for them as an individual. 

As Occupational Therapists, we also facilitate the development of all of the aforementioned skills through our one-on-one therapy intervention sessions, home programming and our school holiday ‘BIG School STARS’ transition to school group which Explore and Soar run in the January School Holidays. If you have concerns about any of the skills discussed in this post, just ask your therapist and they can help you best support your child to achieve the success they deserve at big school. We also have a transition to school activity handout on our website, click the link here to view and download it, to help with all the activities ahead over the next couple of months.

By supporting our children to build these foundational skills, we are giving them the tools and skills that they need to not only achieve success at big school, but to have the best time while doing it!

Until next time,
Georgia

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 3, 2021

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Self Care

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SELF CARE

Self care is something we all do everyday. It includes activities which contribute to our basic needs, such as dressing, showering, going to the bathroom, brushing our teeth, sleeping and eating. 

As occupational therapists, we often refer to self-care skills as activities of daily living (ADLs) and it is an important milestone for children to develop. At Explore and Soar, our goal is to practice and strengthen skill development (at an age appropriate level) to enable independence in self care for all of our clients and therefore reducing stress on our parents and families. For many of us, these skills come naturally. However for many children, many of these tasks are complex and require high cognitive, sensory and physical capacity. This can cause challenges in getting ready in the morning, attending to hygiene or getting ready for bed at the end of the day.

Foundationally, self-care involves multiple complex skills including bilateral integration (the ability to coordinate both sides of our body), motor planning, balance, postural control and core strength. 

Additionally, higher executive functions are also important, such as sequencing, organisation and planning. It further involves our biological rhythms, being able to register when we need to toilet, hungry or full, and our sleep/wake cycle. Children with sensory processing challenges can have increased difficulty understanding where their body is in space, or be overly sensitive to textures on their skin or in their mouth. This can make tasks such as dressing, brushing hair and feeding particularly challenging and children can become avoidant.

We provide sensory diet strategies or sensory snacks to support our families in promoting self-care independence for our children. 

These can include auditory interventions through specialised music to help motivate, regulate, activate muscle tone and shift our brains into an optimal state to complete tasks. We also use strategies such as therapressure brushing and deep pressure to support regulation and internal grounding. Additionally, we think about what helps them to get moving in the morning, which may include heavy work activities or just jumping on the trampoline for 10 minutes to activate their body and sensory systems. Explore and Soar value multidisciplinary involvement and we often refer to chiropractic intervention to support biological rhythms.

Many of our referrals at Explore and Soar involve challenges in following routines and getting out the door of a morning. 

The morning routine involves multiple self care tasks. Planning outfits, dressing, brushing hair, preparing and eating breakfast, brushing teeth and packing school bags are common tasks necessary for children to complete before leaving the house. 

So often, children can find it difficult to remember and follow the routine in a timely manner, which can in turn cause stress on parents and family members. Occupational therapists can intervene by implementing the use of visual schedules and visual timers. Visuals are a great way for kids to see what step comes next and therefore support their independence and responsibility in self-care. The use of a visual timer can support their capacity to understand and stick to the expectations and can also incorporate a fun challenge for them to complete a task within a certain timeframe. Consideration of how our children learn and understanding their needs is important, whether using pictures, a list, or breaking each task down into smaller steps.

To help understand the complexity of self-care tasks, let’s break down the skill acquisition of dressing. This includes:

  • Higher executive functions: Before they even begin the task, organising and planning appropriate clothes is needed. Further, sequencing is required to move through each step of dressing in a timely manner.
  • Bilateral coordination: The use of both sides of the body working together to put on clothes, complete zippers, buttons and shoelaces.
  • Spatial and body awareness: understanding where our body is in space is important when putting arms through sleeves, legs through pants and pulling a shirt over our head.
  • Fine motor skills: utilised to complete zippers, buttons, shoelaces and putting on shoes and socks.
  • Trunk rotation: Being able to twist the body to put arms through sleeves of a jacket or shirt.
  • Hand eye coordination: controlling our arms and legs in relation to what our visual system is telling us.
  • Motor planning: Dressing requires coordination of both sides and our upper and lower body together, as well as executing motor movements. It also involves activating core strength, muscle tone and postural integrity to control our body. We have recently written about motor planning and the aspects involved.
  • Balance and core strength: Required when lifting one leg at a time to dress lower body.

If a child lacks competence in one or more of these areas, the dressing process will be more difficult, time consuming, and their capacity to achieve independence will be reduced. At Explore and Soar, when we assess clients, we make observations of these skills and then utilise play to develop and build on them in our sessions and home programs.

If you think your child may need some assistance with developing self care skills, please don’t hesitate to reach out and get in contact with us. Whether you’re a new or existing client, we can help!

Until next time,
Hannah

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AUGUST 4, 2021

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The Developmental Stage of Handwriting Skills

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THE DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE OF HANDWRITING SKILLS

The year is flying by! I cannot believe that we are already in July! 

Our winter school holidays are in full swing and we are now taking the time out to rest, recharge and perhaps even go on a small trip with our family! June brings about the halfway mark of the year and from here on we start thinking about what the remaining six months of the year will look like. We reflect on what has been achieved in the first six months of the year and set new goals for the months ahead. 

It’s also a time where we start to think about the transition to Kindergarten.

It’s about doing the preparation needed for a successful and stress-free leap into the next stage of life for both parents and children. It’s all about ensuring our children have the skills needed to make the transition. Reading back through our blogs over the years, we have detailed many of these including emotional regulation, sensory processing and gross motor skills.

A big question that is often asked by parents is how to prepare their child’s handwriting skills. How can we actually determine how well our child is prepared to learn how to write and are they ready for the transition to school?

To commence developing pre-handwriting skills, we spend time focusing on and developing our fine motor skills. You can see more information on fine motor skill development in a blog that we previously wrote here in July of 2020! 

The development of fine motor skills in relation to pre-handwriting skills begins with a focus on shoulder stability and control of whole arm movements including strength of the shoulder, upper arm and forearm, transitions to whole hand movements, positioning, grasping, whole hand coordination, finger isolation and finally finger movements.  

Once the development of fine motor skills has emerged and is strengthening, we then focus on the pencil grasp itself. 

Picking up a pencil: It may sound funny, but there isn’t just one way to learn how to hold a pencil. We first teach children a whole hand grasp, then onto a digital grasp, modified grasp and finally we transition to a tripod grasp. Through the early developmental years, forming these grasps is ideal in working towards a tripod grasp when engaging in academics. Each individual holds their pencil their own way, however, our aim is to ensure that they can each reach functional capacity and ease when completing all writing tasks. 

From the moment they pick up a writing utensil, our children draw, scribble, paint, colour and explore within the world of art. This can be in all mediums and is the beginning of pre-academic handwriting skills. This happens from a very young age and continues to develop over time. It plays such an important part in their development and not just with handwriting skills, but with their language, visual information, grapheme knowledge, word knowledge and developing symbolic representations of letters. 

Learning to write is a long term process and something that needs to be based on each child’s individual goals and skills. During our intervention and support, we scaffold and grade activities based on different developmental stages with pre-handwriting and fine motor activities. This allows for foundational skills to be set, whilst we support each of our clients emerging skills and ultimately preparing them to enter schooling

Learning to write can happen at different times for each child but as a guide and general rule of thumb, this is what most children are exploring / have the ability to do at particular ages:

At 15 months to 2 ½ months:

Random scribbling occurs, picking up their pencils and scribbling on anything they can get their hands on. Let’s face it, how many of our toddlers have picked up a writing utensil and scribbled all over our walls or doors without us realising! As frustrating as this may be, it’s a good indication that they are honing their fine motor skills. At this point in time it is about spontaneous circular shapes or scribbles with reduced clear direction. 

At 2- 3 years:

Controlled Scribbling over time with more practice and their hand muscles strengthening, scribbling drawing has increased in control, smaller drawings and creativity is becoming a part of their ability. They are starting to naturally move towards more controlled circular movements, vertical and horizontal lines, including multiple loops and spirals and shapes that resemble the letters ‘t’ and ‘v’.

Basic Shapes  (2 ½ years – 3 ½ years)

The development and understanding of being able to draw horizontal and vertical lines. Other shapes include circles and squares and shapes that may resemble the letters ‘t’, ‘v’, and ‘h’. 

This can then expand into curves, lines, scribbles that resemble writing and creating their own letters and words which is also helping their imagination, building upon letter recognition and developing drawings and ideas that have meaning, which they are excited to share. 

Pictures of objects or People (3 to 5 years)

This is when the development of distinguished drawing, such as drawing a person begins to emerge. From 3 to 4 years of age it is usually people with their arms and legs attached to their head, with expansion and development of head, body and limbs in appropriate places towards the end of 4 to 5 years of age. In addition, increasing details around the face, including eyes, mouth, nose, ears and hair. At this point your child will be able to tell you all about their drawings and what they represent but they may not always clearly represent the idea at hand. Children at this age will have an increased awareness of being able to draw two objects together, as well as beginning to expand on their subject matter, including trees, houses, vehicles etc. 

Letter and Word Practice (3 to 5 years)

In addition to the expansion of picture drawing, the child’s ability to draw and expand on pre-handwriting shapes also increases. This sets them up for increased letter representation and awareness, shapes expand from squares and circles to a cross (X), attempting triangles, diamonds and an interest in attempting letter development. 

All of these stages are fundamental in developing the pre-handwriting skills required prior to entering Kindergarten. Having these foundational skills allows for the awareness, skill and ability to make the shapes and lines required prior to knowing and beginning the correct letter formation. 

This significant part of development and fine motor skills can be lots of fun and can be completed in so many different ways through craft, play and art!  Being able to get creative, with finger painting, shaving cream, water play, colouring in and drawing are all ways that allow children to experience these skills in a playful way. It’s important to remember that play is the most effective way to learn all pre-academic and handwriting skills. Allowing the child to lead the play and explore their ideas with them will inadvertently assist you in naturally supporting and providing these opportunities to develop the skills needed. 

There is no one size fits all when it comes to developing handwriting skills! Remember that each child is different! 

What’s important for us as Occupational Therapists is coming up with creative and supportive ways to facilitate these learnings.

Berk, L. E. (2013). Child Development (9th Edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education

Huffman, J. M., & Fortenberry, C. (2011). Helping preschoolers prepare for writing: Developing fine motor skills, Young Children, 66(5), 100-103.

Until next time,
Jess

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JULY 7, 2021

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Health Promotion for our Families

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HEALTH PROMOTION FOR OUR FAMILIES

As occupational therapists we are trained to provide support to all our clients and their families, in order to increase their independence, grow their confidence and to live a happy and healthy life. 

More often than not, this is first done or activated when someone is starting to experience discomfort or challenges in certain areas of their life. For our children, self-care, play, schooling and their social interactions with their peers are where areas of concern often arise. As we’ve spoken about previously, when these challenges occur, they manifest in behaviours. For our children, the way in which they behave is in fact their method of asking for help. They are in turn telling us as adults, that something internally doesn’t feel right and they require extra help. It is then our role to determine what is going on and how we can provide effective support. 

But what if we could actually reduce these areas of concern and the amount of worry that comes along with them but being proactive rather than reactive? 

This is an area that as occupational therapists we are so very passionate about. Through health promotion we can bring awareness, education and support to all families and communities about child development, patterns to look out for and access to support services when you have questions. This should be readily accessible to every person in each of their communities. By having access to services that offer advice and support, promoting health and wellness for both the parent/carer and their child, inadvertently increases well being and reduces the risk of mental health. 

From an OT perspective; the definition of health promotion from the World Health Organisation is “the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health. To reach a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, an individual or group must be able to identify and realise aspirations, to satisfy needs, to change or cope with the environment. Health is, therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasising social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. Therefore, health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector, but goes beyond health lifestyles to well-being.” (1986, para.2). 

Something that we do as a company outside of providing intervention strategies and support to our clients and their families, is also providing them with a range of essential health promotion strategies to positively influence, empower and educate in order to further reduce the inequalities in our health industry. Therefore, significantly supporting positive interactions and emotional connections in our client’s support networks. 

Each of our OT’s provide strategies and supports to our clients, such as:

  • Teaching positive ways for your child to move their body that feels good for them, to increase control and awareness.
  • Teaching them to feel safe and comfortable sharing their emotions and sitting within their feelings.
  • Providing as many possible positive social interactions with other peers who are presented with similar challenges in group program settings.
  • Conducting skill based training for self-care so that children can be successful on school camps or overnight trips.
  • Teaching your child how to plan, organise and sequence activities or thoughts together, to help with positive inclusion in school – this makes them feel clever, smart, successful and allows them realise their worth. 
  • Providing strategies and support to be successful and confident in navigating their local communities.

Additionally, each of our OT’s provide strategies and supports to our clients parents/caregiver’s such as:

  • Providing connections and relationships within the Explore and soar family; other families, clients or health professionals.
  • Taking into account every parent’s well-being when working with their children, giving them emotional support, and interventions that are based both on the child and the parent, so as not to overwhelm and contribute to more stress.
  • Running parent groups, where like minded parents are present to talk about their own situations, so that they feel heard and they are able to build connections around them without feeling isolated, increasing their support network outside of health professionals.
  • Utilising parent coaching strategies to teach them how to do the interventions; positively reshaping their confidence in order to be able to manage all aspects of their lives with their children. 

Within Explore and Soar, we support and provide strategies to our local communities for health promotion such as:

  • Education nights at preschools for the parents and their educators. This is a regular offering as a part of our service to build awareness and health promotion for development – it’s one of the most consistent things we do. 
  • Work within our local schools; teacher professional development courses that support them in the classroom and the playground. This differs from early education nights, as rather than identifying areas of concern at a younger age, it’s more about working with difficulties that have already been identified and enveloping the right strategies.
  • Remaining very community orientated by sponsoring and supporting sporting events or team members. We do so, so that the community knows there is a point of access, that if information or support is needed, there is a place to ask questions. We always seeking to create a presence in the community to bridge the gap and get people openly talking about behaviour, emotion or social skills.
  • Promoting safe access within the community, so as to eliminate anxiety and stress.

This brings us to an exciting event happening at the end of this month in support of the Hunter Region! We are participating in the Hunter Disability Expo this May! We participate in local expos in the community to bridge the gap and bring awareness to the support that is offered.

The Hunter Disability Expo is open to anyone that would like to attend and it is on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd May at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre. 

Participants get to see all the different supports and companies within the Hunter that offer assistance to our kids, all the way through to adulthood, from allied health professionals to general support services. 

On a personal note, growing up, this level of awareness, education and events to support our local communities and families simply weren’t available. This is often still the case in our regional communities. So participating in events like this to share with others within a safe space, is and will always continue to be a passion of mine. 

So, if you have time and want to see us and many other local health professionals, join us at the Hunter Disability Expo and don’t be afraid to say Hi! We would love to see you there. 

Until next time,
Jess

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 5, 2021

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The Impact of Relationships on Social Development

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THE IMPACT OF RELATIONSHIPS ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Over the last few months, I have seen a consistent theme emerge with clients and families within our communities, centered around personal health, well-being and relationships. 

As we are focusing on the importance of mental health this year, I thought it would be good to talk about the impact of relationships on social development – especially in that of our children in their early stages of life. 

Modern life seems to be filled with more stresses as humanity progresses. From a social emotional perspective, as a society, many of us are struggling. Our emotions are high, and we are feeling anxiety and uncertainty more than ever before. Once felt, this stream of thought and instability transfers to all aspects of life. But what if I told you that there is an intervention model designed by a psychologist, Stanley Greenspan that acknowledges our emotional social development and how it stems from relationships developed soon after birth? As health professionals we can use this model to support our families, both parents and children in developing the skills to maintain healthy relationships from the first 3 months of life! At Explore and Soar, we reference this model and use it as a guide in our intervention sessions. It is called the DIRFlootime Model; a Developmental, Individual Differences and Relationship based model that acknowledges each child’s unique differences and uses relationships and connections to establish a strong emotional social connection to further enhance development. This model is integrated into our sessions by following the child’s lead and adapting their ideas to enhance these skills through play. 

So why DIRFloortime? 

Well for us it aligns perfectly with our core values and supports our ability to develop connections and relationships with all our clients. But most importantly, it is an intervention model that acknowledges the emotional social development from birth into our adult years. It allows us as clinicians to work through developmental milestones from an early age. It is also a model firmly based on parent coaching; supporting our client’s parents/carers to further develop the skills needed to support healthy relationships. 

So how can we support our communities and families in developing these skills from birth to increase emotional development, resilience and social engagement, in order to avoid seeking intervention at an older age? This is done through awareness, education and acknowledging that the first months up to two years of life are of great importance when developing healthy relationship skills. 

In the first 3 months of life the foundational skills of regulation begin. This is the beginning of co-regulation between the parent and child and fosters shared attention; where the baby can seek the mother’s attention and they respond or vice versa. This then becomes the child’s foundation to a secure attachment. Attachment between the caregiver and the baby. The start of co-regulation is around the caregivers/mother’s ability to understand the baby’s wants, needs and desires. It’s the ability to answer cues and answer questions like are they hungry, uncomfortable, do they require a nappy change or are they in fact tired? The connection and relationship is based on love and learning to soothe the baby, creating a positive experience and strong connection. This ability comes from the baby having their own unique cries or cues to indicate to the mother or caregiver what they need. This is where the baby and caregiver become entrained with one another forming a bond; the foundations to co-regulation.

In an ideal world this seems simple, easy and realistic. However, every baby enters this world differently, every mother has a different experience and every baby has different sensory processing capacities that then impact their own biological rhythms. There simply is no one size fits all when it comes to taking care of an infant. 

As a new baby comes into the world, parents are presented with an array of challenges. Difficulty sleeping, reflux and feeding concerns, high stress births, babies being unable to settle or babies that simply do not enjoy being touched or soothed. These difficulties that arise for every parent, have a flow on effect with little to no sleep, stress, anxiety, self-blame and hormonal changes being merely a few of the impacts on our parents. This too then has an affect on the relationships that surround mum and dad, including their relationship with one another.  

This is all normal. But why don’t we talk about it more? Why do we gloss over the early stages of parenthood and try to make it look as easy as possible to the outside world? I remind my clients and friends that as parents, you simply are NOT a failure for not being able to soothe your baby. The only way you will ever fail is when you stop trying to understand your child. It is about asking questions and seeking medical advice when required, but also not being afraid to ask for help from your family and friends. 

It takes a village to raise a child. 

As OT’s we provide an extra level of support to parents, children and families. We understand and work with children in motor movement patterns at a young age to support their discomfort and the development of their sensory systems, including their sleep-wake cycles. We have the skills and ability to discuss with you your routines and support in identifying cries and ability to connect with your babies. We also acknowledge where other health professionals’ unique strengths can provide positive impacts for you and your child. But most importantly for us, our skills lie in the development of connection. We look to support our parents/caregivers by building the skills to interact, laugh, smile and play together with your child from a young age. We work with you to build upon the ability to co-regulate emotions, to keep you calm in challenging circumstances and to be present in order to assist in the soothing and engagement of your child. 

If you have any questions around the foundational skills of co-regulation and shared attention please don’t hesitate to reach out. The first three months with your baby’s life is the starting point to all engagement, self-regulation and social skill development for life. My hope is that in having these conversations, we will increase our ability to ask for help when needed. We will foster strong, resilient children who have confident, calm parents who are a little kinder to themselves in challenging circumstances. If we make an effort to start from birth, we can positively impact the mental health of our children as they get older. I know I’d love to see our children’s quality of life, self-esteem and love for themselves be greater in future generations. 

In our socials this month we will go through some examples of challenges and strategies that can help to support you. Take a look at our instagram or facebook to see more. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need a helping hand or would like further information on how we could help you!

Until next time,
Jess

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED APRIL 7, 2021

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