Author: Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Work from Home: Learning Spaces

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

By the time kids hit fourth grade, school suddenly demands more from their home setup. My son now spends real time at his desk: homework, online assignments, supplemental workbooks, you name it.

The problem is that his desk has slowly transformed into a geological dig site of papers, half-finished personal projects, and an ever-growing collection of knick‑knacks and doodads. Every time I remind him to tidy it up, the clutter returns like it has a life of its own. The result is that he abandons his desk altogether and completes his written tasks and assignments at the dinner table instead. What is happening?

Which brings me to this thought: What do kids actually need for learning at home? While it may sound like a question with an obvious answer, it becomes surprisingly relevant once we look at how and where the academic work actually gets done.

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Back to School Month: New Beginnings

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

We’ve been doing Back to School month for three years. In that time, we’ve written about navigating new schools, new friends, and new teachers.

But while open houses and curriculum nights might seem same old-same old at this point, there are always small changes and new starts each academic year. And even if everything about school remained the same, our kids (and ourselves) are constantly growing and changing.

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Gen Z: A Cautionary Tale

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

A couple weeks ago, a study reported that we are entering a post-literate society: people simply aren’t reading books anymore. The horror!

Before that, there was a trend of managers sharing what their new Gen Z hires were saying/requesting/complaining about in the workplace. For shame!

And lest we forget the article about Gen Z never having completed an entire book during high school before showing up to college. WTF!

Gen Z carries a reputation that’s hard to ignore. Yes, they’re the most socially tolerant, entrepreneurial, tech‑fluent (to an extent), emotionally aware, and scientifically literate generation we’ve ever seen. But, they’re also routinely labeled as entitled, fragile, phone‑obsessed, socially awkward, overly sensitive, and unprepared for adulthood. Those criticisms show up everywhere, especially in headlines about academic struggles, resilience gaps, and workforce readiness. But context matters.

As we’ve been told many times, Gen Z’s identity has been shaped by an always‑on digital landscape, rising mental‑health challenges, and a level of societal instability no previous generation faced at the same age. Many of the behaviors older generations interpret as weakness or entitlement are actually signs of a generation growing up under unprecedented pressure. And that’s exactly why Gen Z has become a warning for parents raising younger kids today.

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Go with the Flow: The Just-Right Challenge

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Kids can seem allergic to focus when it’s something we need them to do: homework, chores, anything that feels like a requirement rather than a choice. And yet, that very same child who can’t stay with a worksheet for five minutes will suddenly spend an entire afternoon perfecting a dance routine, building an elaborate Lego world, painting with total intensity, or disappearing into a book.

In those moments, we unintentionally play the “bad guy,” interrupting the very focus we wish they had during everything else. That kind of deep, effortless engagement is the beginning of what psychologists call flow.

The term flow was coined by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (Me-high Cheek-sent-me-high-ee), who introduced it in 1975 through his research on artists, athletes, and other deeply absorbed performers. He wanted to understand why people feel their best when they’re fully immersed in something. Through thousands of interviews and years of experience sampling studies, he found a clear pattern: people felt their greatest focus, enjoyment, and meaning when the challenge of a task matched their skill. Ergo, flow.

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It’s Just a Phase, Right?: Understanding Kids Eating Behaviors

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

When it comes to kids and eating, those early years can feel brutal. You’re cooking two separate dinners, avoiding restaurants altogether, or gearing up for nightly standoffs with a child who will defend their right not to eat a vegetable with the confidence of a seasoned negotiator.

But once kids move into elementary school and beyond, the mealtime battles don’t disappear — they just change. The dramatic toddler meltdowns fade, yet new challenges pop up as attention span, sensory tolerance, independence, and social awareness evolve. Many of these behaviors are still totally typical, even if they drive parents up the wall. Others, though, can signal that a child’s eating patterns deserve a closer look. And that’s where things get confusing.

In reality, most families are wrestling with the same common handful of mealtime frustrations. The real question is which eating behaviors are developmentally normal for big kids, and which ones are true red flags?

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