Occupational Therapy

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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A Personal Physics Lesson: Turning Your Child’s Potential Kinetic

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

On the banner for our site, you’ll see the tagline, “Turning your child’s potential kinetic.“
Every company and organization has a mission and vision statement, but this phrase has been significant to my professional career long before Child(ish) Advice came to be.

Seeing Potential

As an OT, I recognize that everyone is born with the potential to do or be something great. When it came to the kids I’d see in the clinic, their potential would get stuck, perhaps by their own limited abilities, the environment, or the presented task. This affected their participation at school, home, or within their community. They would be labeled as “bad”, “disruptive”, or “difficult”; identifiers that lowered the expectation of these kids to do anything right.

What sucked was that some of these kids believed these descriptions and that their parents were at a loss for what to do. What potential did these kids have if they didn’t think they had any in the first place? How could they harness it if they didn’t know how?

That’s when my professional mission statement was born: “Turning a child’s potential kinetic.”

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New School OT

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Some professions are easier to understand than others. When someone says they’re a doctor, lawyer, or electrician, there’s no elevator speech to explain what they actually do. However, occupational therapist?? Yeah, insert your first impression guesses here.

In a nutshell, occupational therapists (OTs) help people live an independent, functional, and meaningful life in their environment. How we do that depends on the needs and values of the individual and family. Where it gets tricky is that purposeful activities vary from person to person.

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Handwriting Q&A

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Handwriting is a complex skill. It requires our sensory and motor mechanics to work harmoniously together to make our writing remotely legible. And when we start working with our kids on how to write letters, numbers, and eventually words and sentences, we notice that their writing is never going to look like our own. That’s when we question what is “normal”?

From their pencil grasp to writing upside-down, we wonder if these strange tendencies are just a quirk of little kids or something to be really concerned about.

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Coffee Chat: Dogs are like kids, right?

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

My family has been fostering Roxie, a young black lab mix, for a few months now and it’s been hectic. We have had a dog before, but that was when my husband was my boyfriend and the kids were nonexistent. I assumed this pup was going to be like the last one, similar temperament and obedient (silly me).

After watching a ton of dog training videos and using up the last of my patience and understanding, I’m happy to report that she’s becoming a polite pup on leash and at home. This process made me wonder if it’s true what they say about dogs and kids: are they really that similar?

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