Menu
Menu

Relationships

Safety for Vulnerability

· · Leave a Comment

SAFETY FOR VULNERABILITY

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone has had a magical Christmas and New Year with your family, friends and community. 

I know December was a busy time for a lot of people, navigating all the demands of the end of year. I hope there has been lots of resting, sharing quality time and making memories for you and your family, to set you up for another successful year ahead. I truly cannot wait to see you all continue to grow, share who you are with the world and shine.  

At the beginning of each year we reflect on the previous year’s theme and set intentions for the year to come. This year our intentions and the way you will see us show up within ourselves, our team and with you, our families and communities is Safety for Vulnerability. 

Why this theme?

How this came about is for the last few years we have had significant change, including life and world events; but also growth of the company, which has meant a lot of movement, adapting, changing and requiring to always be on. This year, it is about getting back to our core knowledge and foundations. 

It is about holding space for people to feel ‘Safe’ to allow for ‘Vulnerability’. When this happens, this is where the magic happens. 

The clinical side of it

From an OT perspective, there is a lot of research around the importance of feeling safe before beginning any work with any child, family member or community. 

When we feel safe, secure, and protected, we are comfortable to let our true self shine, to show people our true selves, including our quirks, strengths and limitations. This is where the true beauty is. Being able to share who you are unapologetically is the essence of what brings you joy in your everyday activities; it brings about wellbeing and enhances our confidence in everything we do. As OT’s this is part of our job – to facilitate and support all our children, parents and community members to achieve this. To create a feeling of safe, to allow you to be vulnerable and share who you are. 

This is where our point of difference at Explore and Soar is for our clients and families, because connection, relationships, establishing trust and safety are at the forefront and the beginning of everything we do. We take pride in these relationships with you all, because we know when we have this safety and connection, only then can we address and begin the real work.

Once we feel safe, we can be vulnerable 

We can share and express how we feel, and work through these feelings. It is these moments that we as part of your team, get to support you further and be there with you in those moments. It is where we can assist in identifying activities that are leading to such feelings where things feel like they are  unattainable or unachievable. 

This is where we grade these activities for success in learning that new skill and then, where appropriate share them with your people and community. 

So something that felt big and challenging is now an obstacle overcome and done so with everyone supporting you. 

Vulnerability also brings the need for flexibility

When we share our true selves – our emotions and feelings – we cannot be sure how people will react; its unpredictable. 

For our children, unpredictability is the opposite of what they need. It is the opposite of what they seek. They seek the predictable, to know the boundaries and limits and have control. However, ensuring strong connections and relationships allow our children the safety and securing within this unpredictability. 

It is here we can show our flexibility. It is here that we can still provide our children with the predictability they seek. Our ability to be flexible in our thoughts, plans and actions is teaching our children that skill also! It is breaking down a skill that seems big and challenging to our children in real time. 

Being flexible and dealing with change is something every one of us has to be at some point in our lives. 

So it is our commitment to our Explore and Soar families that we will show Safety in Vulnerability in 2023 – to develop our children’s flexibility and dealing with change.

Until next time,
Jess & Lori

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 10, 2023

Latest Posts

Transitions for Kindergarten

· · Leave a Comment

TRANSITIONS FOR KINDERGARTEN

Transitions can be an exciting and nerve-racking time. Transitioning to Kindergarten being one of those times in our life. It is the moment where you are finishing an era in preschool and being home more with your family, to starting your 12 years of learning at school. It’s the start of one your biggest transitions.

We at Explore and Soar, have you. 

We hear you in the excitement as well as the nerves. We understand the range of emotions we all have with the closing and saying goodbye to a fun stage in our lives and opening the door to the next. We know exactly what to look out for and how to assist during these times. 

As OTs for our children, we look at all areas of development, such as sensory motor, emotional and social, attention/concentration, fine motor, gross motor, self-care, routines, motor planning, problem solving and play skills. We dive deep into all these areas, identify strengths, areas to work on and provide a range of strategies to support their development in preparation for the coming year. 

Some strategies for our children are:

Obstacle Courses: Inside and outside (weather and time dependent), being able to crawl, climb in, over, under, through all different items within the family home or backyard that brings about a fun playful adventure. Sometimes we play “pirates finding the treasure”, dinosaurs or “hidden treasures in the garden” – the world is your creation in play!

Arts & Craft: Christmas is such a fun time for all the craft ideas that our children are motivated to engage in. It’s great for using all different craft utensils and ways to make anything, from ripping paper, scrunching and gluing it on a Santa hat, cutting out a Christmas tree, painting (inside or outside), using a water bottle and paper towel to clean up wet chalk drawing on doors or chalk on the pavement. If you want to share your creations, we would love to see them all! 

Eating & Drinking: With all the end of year social events and New Year, practicing drinking from our school drink bottle, to open it, close it and refill it is vital. So is eating different snacks and food. When going out to all events over the break, take your school lunch box and package foods like you would they were attending school. Practice eating from this packaging to ensure they can open it. Who doesn’t love to eat?? 

If you’d like some ideas, our team have developed a Transition to School resource for you to reference and support you for some fun activities.

As OT’s for our parents, we look at how to best support you in this transition to provide the best for your children, this can come in many different ways and is not limited by any means. Some ways that we support is through parent coaching and education, presenting transition to school talks at our local communities schools as well as providing online education transition to school seminars with a Speech Pathologist. 

Some strategies for our parents are:

Self-regulation & Awareness: Being aware of your own emotions and ability to regulate them. It’s ok to feel nervous, uncertain and overwhelmed, but being able to individually work through these yourself will further support your child transition. What emotions you are feeling subconsciously, your child will be able to feel them too. 

Ask Questions: It is ok to ask questions! Talk to your teachers, chat with allied health professionals (OTs and speech pathologists) if you have any questions about development and/or being ready to transition to school. We can help, support and give guidance for where you need it.

Attend our FREE online School Readiness talk with ASPIRE Speech Pathology. 

Our Director Jess Rodgers and ASPIRE’s Director Andrea Cooper, team up each year to present all the must knows around Speech, Language & Overall Development as our children transition into Kindergarten. The online FREE event occurs at 7pm – 8pm Thursday 3rd November. Please join us as we love answering all your questions and sharing our knowledge with you all. 

Lastly but most importantly. Follow your gut! Our gut instincts are there for a reason, if you have any uncertainties or questions, my advice is also trust your gut and go with it. The uncertain feeling is there for a reason.  

School transitions are big, we want to ensure you are well prepared and have plenty of opportunities to reach out. If you would like more information each November, we write different pieces around school readiness. 

We hope these last few months of the year are exciting, fun and playful. We are looking forward to sharing with you our last blog of the year next month and begin sharing with you all, all the changes and transitions, Explore and Soar have been going through too. 

Until next time,
Jess

P.S. Last year Georgia wrote a lot of helpful tips about school readiness. Read here. 

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 1, 2022

Latest Posts

Self Care with Structures and Routines

· · Leave a Comment

SELF CARE WITH STRUCTURES AND ROUTINES

This month’s theme is self-care – which works in conjunction with our 2022 theme of self-awareness and growth. Self-care encompasses many different aspects of well-being. Last year we spoke about the occupation of self-care, the tasks involved and how to break them down. 

This year I’d like to speak about self-care routines and how we can implement daily, weekly and monthly habits to ensure greater wellbeing. Optimal self-care is achieved through structure and routine. In doing so we are able to maintain balance, complete day to day activities and achieve goals.

There are so many positives to having a rhythm, structure and routine within our daily lives such as; comfort, security and safety, productivity and achievement. Our routine forms the structure and basis for everything we do. 

So, I’d like you to take a look at your daily routine. How do you spend your days? Is your daily routine supportive of you and your family achieving your goals? Does it give you a healthy and balanced structure? One that reduces stress? 

Take a moment to write down what a typical week day looks like for you and let’s discuss the ways in which you could enhance it moving forward.

The most important thing about establishing a routine is to remember that it needs to be tailored to your individual needs. Every single person on this planet is different. There’s no one size fits all, or right way to do things. The best place to start is with your value set. Identify what’s most important to you and then work backwards from there – are your routines supporting your values? If for example one of your values is family – what are your day to day routines doing to support and cultivate a strong relationship with those in your immediate and extended family? Can you do simple things like ensure that your family eats together each night with phones / technology removed to ensure open communication and connection?

Routines and structures that we put in place are vital, but life doesn’t always stay the same and we need to still allow for these movements and alterations as well. You have to be mindful of being somewhat flexible with your routine and remembering that life is about balance. 

Try to ensure that you follow routine 80% of the time and allow for movement within the other 20%.

Another key element of routine is timing and establishing structures. We live in a fast paced world that is ever changing. Finding structure in day to day life can actually promote a sense of calm in not only your life, but the lives of those around you. Establish clear boundaries within your structures eg: when you arrive home allot a time to check emails from work if needed but then switch off and remain present with your family – to ensure that you are tending to your value set. 

We aren’t perfect, things don’t always go to plan and you aren’t always going to maintain a routine. It’s important to be kind to yourself. Nothing is gained from you being hard on yourself if structure is not met on a certain day or even week. As occupational therapists, helping our families develop routines to support their goals is a vital part of our job. Doing so creates a sense of ease in daily life. If that’s something you think we could help you with, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask. 

When I began writing this blog, I was reflecting on my own routines and structures. These have changed and continuously evolved as I have moved locations, matured, started my business and transitioned into different phases of my life.

I want to talk to you about the three different levels of routine that I have experienced in the first 30 years of my life to date. 

Right now, I have had to rely on my ‘back bone routine’ due to each day being different with work, either traveling, working from home or seeing clients and increased demands over the last few months. This routine and structure is my bare minimum, it’s not enough to keep on top of everything, but it’s enough to maintain my sanity and organisation. I want to make it very clear that it’s fine to have times in your life where the ‘bare minimum’ is quite ok. 

The next level of personal structure would be my ‘mid level routine’ – this level for me involves basic self-care routines, structured in a more organised and less chaotic way. I am able to have my morning/evening routines, exercise and regular stretching routines, time to cook and structure my week with lists and goals. In this  structure, I am still busy but more of my own individual routines and needs are being met to increase my energy to be engaging in daily life demands more proactively. 

Lastly, my ‘Ideal level of routine’ involves establishing and adhering to almost complete structure within my day. It’s when I am able to achieve all required tasks and allow for sufficient time to tend to goals that facilitate my value set. I do want to make it clear that this is a rare occasion, as life doesn’t allow for it on an everyday basis. Within this state, there is more intention in each action throughout the day. 

I often get asked about people that are creative or thrive off a lack of routine, how do they find balance and ensure that their values and goals are being met? Structure is effective even for the creatives of the world – I am one of them. The most important element in this instance is to structure time for creativity itself and allow for freedom of choice. Maybe if you sit down to structure your day / week, give yourself an allotted time where you get to choose from a couple of activities – allowing for space and the freedom of choice.  I also like to have the freedom to complete the activities and jobs that are required of me in my own time. I will meet the deadlines required but how and when it gets done, I like to be in control of. I like the time and space to sit, create and develop to turn an idea to a task and complete it. But at the core of how I live my day, I still establish routines and structure that help me get through the day itself. This backbone and core routine is paramount, even for us creatives. 

So my challenge to you this month is to think about what routine means to you. Answer these questions and develop a new routine for you and your family…

What routines do you have daily, weekly and monthly? On a good day for your children, what do their routines look like?On a not so good day for your children, what do their routines look like? Is it different every time?

If there was one part of your routine at home that you would like help with, what would it be? Think about it, talk to us at Explore and Soar about it. We can help! We will support you, help establish a routine and structure unique to your needs and goals. 

A final note and friendly reminder, it takes 30 days to cultivate a new habit. 

Are you up for the challenge? Are you looking to make a positive change to your health – physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually. 

This is your sign to start a new routine today.

Until next time,
Jess

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AUGUST 3, 2022

Latest Posts

Social Skill Development & Community

· · Leave a Comment

SOCIAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT & COMMUNITY

Last month we spoke about enhancing our understanding and development of safety and connection between the caregiver and a child. In the time that’s passed since our last blog,  so much has happened at Explore and Soar and with our families! With school and extracurricular activities, celebrations, catch ups and holidays all occurring over the last 6 weeks, as well as the constant uncertainty of Covid, we have been forging a path towards a new normal.

I have often thought about how exhausting assimilating into a ‘normal’ social life is for me, my team and our families. We have gone from months of being stuck in our own homes, to all of a sudden being out and about all the time. It has been exciting to reconnect with our friends, family and community in ways we did pre-pandemic, yet such a change does come with a few consequences. 

Notably, our children are exhausted! 

They simply haven’t had this much social stimulation in a long time. They have been out on weekends and are now experiencing their first proper end of term fatigue. And let’s be honest, as parents, we too are exhausted and needing some down time. 

As much as I want to discuss social skills and interaction in this month’s blog, I’d like to focus on finding the balance between socialising and creating the time for rest and integration (processing) time. 

Socially, developing these skills occur at the commencement of regulation and engagement (please refer to our previous posts), but social skills are dependent on a child’s ability to process sensory information internally and externally (from the world around them). This is completed through sound (middle ear), movement (vestibular system found within the ear), and the visual system (eyes), in conjunction with other systems in the body. Additionally these organs and sensory systems are all connected through cranial (head) nerves. When we are processing information, our sensory systems alert and motivate our body to carry this information through our nerves. Our cranial nerves are located on the face and in the brain, which allows us as young children to begin understanding non-verbal social cues. There are a lot of nerves that are connected to the mouth and eyes, from our ears, which when working together, create facial expressions and we then in turn use words to express ourselves, allowing us to socially interact with others using both non-verbal and verbal communications. 

If our children have challenges processing sound, visually tracking or moving their body, just their emotional regulation and social skill development can be impacted. Unfortunately children can’t always tell us what is going on inside their body with the use of words, but they can tell us with their behaviour. 

So let’s take 5 minutes to reflect on how your children have been over the last month. Ask yourself these questions:

How do they look? How are they feeling? Are they regulating through their emotions? Are they coping at school? How fatigued are they? When you are communicating and connecting with your children, are they seeing your facial expressions? Are they able to read your social cues in order to pick up on what comes next? 

If the answer to any of these questions is no, then please take some time to work on safety and connection with them. Support their regulation, calm their bodies and nervous systems. Pausing and giving time for their bodies to rest is optimal integration time to support gains in all development but also supports them in understanding demands socially through their sensory systems. 

So many of our children are easily overwhelmed by sounds, visual input, touch and movement. When they are not able to process these inputs optimally, it can greatly impact how they socially connect with you, as parents, their siblings, and additionally how they cope in the school and community environments, when connecting with their friends.

Which brings me to socialisation in schools. Is your child having difficulties socialising with their friends at school, is it becoming more of a problem now than in previous years? And how can you help your children more?

Please reach out and chat to us if you are worried about this! Each of your clinicians will have an understanding of your child’s needs and when we are working with them, we are developing their foundational skills to further support their social skills, or additionally we are specifically working on skills that can further expand their capacity to interact with peers.

Some strategies we work towards developing are:

  • Understanding their feelings.
  • Understanding others feelings through body language and facial expressions, such as happy face, surprised face, frustration or sadness.
  • Understanding whole body listening concepts and active listening when interacting with friends or a group of friends.
  • Developing group plans, negotiating and turn taking within these activities.
  • Expected, unexpected and flexible thinking when working with friends. 

At home there are things you can do to further expand your children’s social skills, such as:

  • Understanding which emotions your children feel or express to you. How many are there? (remember this will differ pending age and their self-regulation skills). 
  • Can they ask you what is wrong if your mood or facial expressions change?
  • Playing silly faces, can they guess emotions from facial expressions, such as sad, excited, surprised?
  • Play a game together that you all contribute to, each having an idea and adding everyone’s ideas together, to form a group plan and play as a family. 
  • Play boardgames that are chance related to expand on regulating through waiting their turn, winning and losing, as well as supporting each other as a whole family. 

As we are socially interacting with others in the community, school and different events, in order to further support your child’s tolerance in busy environments or supporting their reintegration into the community, you need to take notice of fatigue. Please consider different strategies that can support you and your children re-entering into the social world such as:

  • Reducing sounds, visual input and high energy movement to help them process the world around them.
  • Provide some visuals and plan for the day to support their understanding of routine and expectations.
  • When the days are not as busy, take your time or allow for transition times between activities.
  • Provide moments of deep pressure hugs, fetal positioning, ice chips, inversion activities, respiration or squishes to support their regulation and calming of the sensory system for increased engagement and interaction with peers.
  • Reduce time spent in the community or at events to support a transition back into the community and increase tolerance of high sensory inputs over an extended period of time.  

Allowing and providing our children with the best support in order to allow their sensory systems to engage socially and be present with others is paramount. It is vital in the current environment due to the reduction in time spent socialising during the last 24 months. Be kind to yourselves and to your kids, you have permission to take it slow. You do not need to say yes to everything! Think about what is best for you and your family, and focus on that!

We hope to continue seeing all of you venturing out into the communities, reconnecting with friends and expanding upon our children’s social skills. If you think we can further help you with these skills and expand on our support offerings, please don’t hesitate to contact me or your treating clinician.

Until next time,
Jess

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED APRIL 13, 2022

Latest Posts

Safety and Connection

· · Leave a Comment

SAFETY AND CONNECTION

As we continue to break down and share with you the way Explore and Soar supports our clients and families in our year of ‘self-awareness and growth’, it’s only fitting that after having dived into our continuity support plans and parent coaching strategies, we address the topic of ‘safety and connection’ with you. 

Upon reflection and after reviewing a large amount of continued professional development over the years as a practitioner, one valuable skill set remains a constant. This integral part of development is always discussed at the beginning of each theory or model for paediatrics. It is the ultimate foundational skill required for us as human beings in order to begin our journey of  overall development; from infant > toddler > child > preteen > teenager > adult. 

These skills are safety and connection. 

The premise being, no developmental milestone or emotional and social skills can be obtained optimally without the foundations of safety & connection. 

Establishing a sense of safety and security is essential to all stages of development, with connection following this. 

As occupational therapists when working with our clients and families, we begin by establishing what safety looks like for each family, in order to use our therapeutic practices in the most efficient and successful manner. Before any goals can be targeted or reached, it is essential for a sense of safety and security to be built between our client and their therapist. 

As a therapist when working with families, to be able to identify their strengths, boundaries and what makes them feel most secure allows for adaptive intervention methods. When this occurs, there is a natural sense of relief and sense of calm that is not only beneficial for our parents and caregivers but with our children as well. If there is no sense of safety between the clinician and parent/caregiver, then the safety the child will feel with the therapist can be altered, impacting all therapy intervention and a child’s ability to achieve their desired goals and skills in regards to development. 

Safety and connection work simultaneously. 

Connection is a feeling. It is often described as the way in which someone unconsciously connects to another’s energy and then interacts with your own. Think about when you meet someone for the first time. With some people there is a sense of calm and connection straight away, like you have known them your whole life. But then others can also have the opposite effect, with a great sense of disconnection. These feelings are our internal navigation system that helps determine whether we are feeling safe and connected or whether there is a potential threat to our sense of safety. Acknowledging these feelings then allows us to make a choice on how to respond. 

Personally, many of my decisions as an adult, especially in work have been navigated by my sense of safety and connection. I wanted to provide the support that I didn’t have growing up in a small rural town. I want to provide the knowledge, research and intervention strategies that I have learned over my lifetime to families in order to enhance their sense of safety and connection, especially in our remote areas that lack greater levels of support. At the heart of my why is relationships. And establishing Explore and Soar as a safe and connected space for our families is paramount. 

Ensuring that your children feel a consistent sense of safety and connection is what allows them to evolve and grow as a human.  

Connection is established from birth, however due to individual differences for each child, parent and/or caregiver we all have different ways of establishing these connections or different individual reasons as to why some of us may have difficulty establishing connections.  

Connection is the foundation to any relationship and is paramount for all of us as humans to feel connected. The bond between parent and child from birth is where this all begins. A model that we use within Explore and Soar is the DIR Model (Developmental Individual Differences Relationships-Based Model originally developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan) which allows us to work on providing strategies, interventions through parent coaching and relationship approaches to help our parents and children obtain a healthy parent-child connection. 

We seek to support the development of these skills in order to allow your children to enhance their own skills through a model of “Shared Attention and Regulation” – being the foundational pillar. 

It has been extremely exciting for us to explore the recent research addressing more specific developmental skills in relation to connection. These skills contribute to the beginning of development and enhance the child’s relationships and connectedness to both parent and self, ultimately allowing for future emotional and social development to occur.

So how do we as humans actually establish connectedness? 

We establish this through;

  • Mutual gaze – visually connecting in face to face interactions for connection of shared emotions which is foundational and earlier than shared attention (joint attention), through games with parent and child (Rollins, De Froy, Campbell, & Hoffman, 2021). 
  • Unconscious mimicry (shared actions), is linked to movement and body synchrony, outlining the importance of rhythmicity with movement, mirroring body language to connect to others (Peper, Van Der Wal & Begeer, 2016).
  • Synchrony – shared social timing, known as timed relationships, some examples include predictable rhythms of mother for baby to connect with such as heart rate, respiration, reciprocity (tone) of voice, sleep/wake cycles and an ability to have an interactive and rhythmic flow of interaction to connect the parent and child’s emotional state to match (foundations of co-regulation and regulation) (Feldman, 2007). 

These established skills result in a parent child synchronicity and connectedness, reinforcing the sense of safety as outlined above and supporting overall emotional skill development.

I personally love working within this field because you can learn so many different models of support and expand your intervention approach and strategies for all children, as no child is ever the same. As I continue to work in this field, I have begun to see each model overlap and support one another.

Safety and connection is vital in building the foundations to co-regulation and regulation. It greatly impacts social development which we will be discussing in greater detail next month.

Articles

Geller, S. (2018). Therapeutic Presence and Polyvagal Theory: Principles and Practices for Cultivating Effective Therapeutic Relationships. From Porges and Dana (2018) Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory: The Emergence of Polyvagal-Informed Therapies. New York: WW Norton 

Feldman, R. (2007). Parent–infant synchrony and the construction of shared timing; physiological precursors, developmental outcomes, and risk conditions. Journal of Child psychology and Psychiatry, 48(3-4), 329-354. 

Peper, C. L. E., van der Wal, S. J., & Begeer, S. (2016). Autism in action: reduced bodily connectedness during social interactions?. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 1862. 

Rollins, P. R., De Froy, A., Campbell, M., & Hoffman, R. T. (2021). Mutual gaze: An active ingredient for social development in toddlers with ASD: A randomized control trial. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51(6), 1921-1938.

Until next time,
Jess

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MARCH 3, 2022

Latest Posts

Subscribe to our newsletter

Receive our news and updates via email. That's all.

View our Terms of Use.

Your feedback is always valued at Explore & Soar. If you have some feedback to help us support your needs better, please click here and share your valued feedback with us today.