Occupational Therapy

Joyride, Part 2: Riding a Bike

| Patti Webb

“I think it’s also one of those quintessential kid activities that parents actually look forward to teaching.”
Oh, how young and naïve we were three years ago…

My girls had been riding their first bikes (with training wheels) for about 3 years. Since our neighborhood is on a steep hillside, the girls keep the bikes at their grandparents’ house where it’s flatter and where they would have more space to ride. They rode them heavily; growing out of helmets, raising seats, and patching tires. But for me and Troy, the bikes were a bit out of sight, out of mind.

We had the intention of taking the training wheels off over Spring Break when they were around 5 ½. That got pushed off until the summer, and then another Spring Break passed. Finally, Aeris grew out of the entire bike, knees hitting the handlebars. It was time to buy a new bike, thus no more training wheels.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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?

Continue reading →

Child(ish) Review: Toy Story 5

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

I’ll be honest, I never really got into the Toy Story franchise. I know Woody, Buzz, and Jessie are beloved icons, but I just wasn’t into sitting down and watching the movies when they came out, and even now as a parent. So when Patti told me Toy Story 5 was coming out and I casually mentioned that I was indifferent, the gasp she let out was audible. For reference, the first Toy Story came out when we were 10.

But then the Toy Story 5 trailer dropped, Lilypad appeared on screen, and suddenly I was fully invested. In this installment, Bonnie is introduced to a new high‑tech tablet which completely disrupts the balance of playtime, forcing Jessie, Bullseye, Buzz, Woody and the rest of the gang to confront what it means to matter to a child in a digital age.

Toy Story 5 is essentially a child‑development case study wrapped in a Pixar movie. The film directly tackles themes that map onto core developmental domains: social-emotional growth, imaginative play, peer relationships, technology use, and the psychological experience of being “enough.”

Continue reading →

Our Wheel Throwing Playdate Review

| Patti Webb

It’s the last week of the school year and the last posts before our annual summer blog break. So we’re keeping it fun with a playdate review.

With the kids getting older, there isn’t much that they haven’t tried. So, play dates have been harder to brainstorm and plan. One of the first things I wanted to do when we came up with this blog series is wheel pottery. I had never done it before, and the girls have done kids clay sculpting classes many times. Now, all three kids are finally old enough to take it on.

Most pottery wheel studios have a minimum age for their beginner wheel classes, or they want you to buy several sessions or weekly course. In my cursory Google search, I found Mudfire, an open community pottery studio built around creativity, inclusivity, and shared space. They offer single Wheel 101 and 102 classes, capped at 12 people with a minimum age of 6 years old. They also have kids summer camps and special kids-only pottery wheel classes starting in June.

  • “It’s called wheel throwing, not wheel gently tossing.”
Continue reading →