Development Milestones

Things I Learned on Netflix: Babies

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

I enjoy good documentaries and Netflix has an abundance of them out right now. So when I came across the docuseries Babies, I had to check it out for the blog.

Babies explores the new research surrounding child development within the first year of life, following 15 newborns from around the globe. While I’d like to think I’m pretty well informed in this arena, there is still a great deal that I didn’t know and that was quite refreshing. It would be crazy to think that what I learned in grad school about babies 15+ years ago hasn’t been challenged or expanded upon since.

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Course Notes: Early Development and Intervention

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

To round out my CEU courses for the year, I finished with Effective Early Intervention: Innovative Solutions to Build Motor, Balance, and Social-Emotional Skills to Improve Overall Development. While this lecture was geared towards therapists, there is still some great information that parents can use about child development and what early intervention provides.

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Tiptoe Through the Info: Toe-Walking and Autism

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

About a year ago, I posted a TikTok video of my 18-month-old daughter toe-walking. For the record, every toddler (for the most part) will experiment with tiptoeing. If it is infrequent and they’re under the age of 3, there’s no need to worry.

Shortly after the video posted, multiple comments came along the lines of “You need to get her checked. She might have autism.” Side note: she doesn’t.

Although I know their concerns were well-intended, their rationale seemed ill-informed. While frequent toe-walking may be a sign of developmental issues, other delays or difficulties must be present to determine such a diagnosis. But if you Google toe-walking, autism is in the top 3 search suggestions. No wonder parents get nervous when their kid starts walking on their tiptoes.

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Crash course: Executive Functions

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

It’s your choice.

Do you remember what I said?

What do you think we should do?

How are we going to fix this?

You’ve probably said this to your kid (or significant other) many a times, but did you know that these statements and questions engage executive function?

Any goal-driven process or activity that requires conscious thought is utilizing some degree of executive function (a set of mental skills that allow us to appropriately interact with our environment). Look at it like your brain’s upper management or “the executives” in charge of our behavior and cognition as they help plan, organize, and manage many tasks in our everyday life.  

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