pediatric occupational therapy

Don’t Hold Your Breath: Deep Breathing to Regulate

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

We know it’s important to breathe. Aside from a beating heart, it lets us know that we’re still alive. But it’s also an indicator of how we are doing internally.

From our last yoga post, breathing serves as a reflection of our emotional state, stress level, and state of mind. In our rhythm and timing post, we talked about how the brain structures that are responsible for timing are also linked to the regulation of our emotions, behavior, and arousal. By controlling our breath, we not only alter our mood, but also our rhythm and timing. But how do we teach our kids how to breathe? Don’t they just do it?

For this post, we’re focusing on breathing techniques to calm kids down in moments of stress or high arousal.

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Perfect Timing: Rhythm, Timing, and the Brain

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Timing is everything. For the most part, that statement is true.

Everything we do requires rhythm and timing. EVERYTHING. Think about it: walking, talking, reading this sentence, etc. It all relies on a pace and a pattern to complete them.

We’ve talked in previous posts about body awareness and how it affects bilateral coordination and motor planning, but rhythm and timing ensures that those movements are fluid when interacting with objects and people around us. Most of the time, you hardly notice it until you have a clumsy moment walking or stuttering over your words when in conversation.

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Post-Holiday Hangover

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

The glimmer and glow of the holiday season has seemingly come to an end.  The lights and decorations go back in their boxes, the tree is put away (or finds its new purpose as mulch), and the joy of opening presents will need to wait until the next birthday or holiday event. Although most of us are just fine with the holiday season ending and look forward to going back to the usual, some of us, especially kiddos, struggle with the shift.

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Guest Post: The Mama Dentist

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

A couple weeks ago, we shared a couple posts about our first visit to the dentist and sensory toothbrushing. For this special guest post, we’ve hooked up with The Mama Dentist, Dr. Taylor McFarland, DDS, MS and asked her a few questions on what she thinks parents should know about toothbrushing. Dr. McFarland is a Board Certified Pediatric Dentist and Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry.

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Gift Guide 2021: Preschool/Elementary Kids (4+)

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

If you ever notice the toy description in this age range, no one cares about whether its educational or developmental. It’s all about how entertaining and fun it is to play with. We’re here to say that some of these exciting toys can still provide advantages to enhancing your kid’s growth.

Here’s our top choices for children 4 and up.

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