sensory processing

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.”
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Arousal Levels and Amusement Parks

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Amusement and theme parks look like a sensory nightmare. This goes for small, pop-up carnivals all the way to big, immersive theme park resorts. There are blaring speakers, flashing colors, crowds, constant movement…Honestly, I feel overwhelmed just picturing it.

And yet, some kids who are usually sensory‑sensitive walk through those gates and suddenly become focused, regulated, and living their absolute best life. What kind of plot twist is that?

Some kids who are sensory-sensitive can look completely unbothered (joyful even) at amusement parks, and it feels like a total contradiction. It’s not. Their nervous system is responding to a different sensory pattern than the one that overwhelms them in everyday life. That difference has everything to do with sensory processing, arousal levels, and how they modulate input.

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Skin Deep: Skin’s Role in Child Development

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Touch is a child’s first language. Studies show that early tactile experiences shape attachment, regulation, and the development of motor and sensory systems. It helps build our body schema for crying out loud.

All of this begins with the skin: the body’s largest organ, the first sensory system to mature, and the primary gateway through which infants learn about safety, connection, and their place in the world. Because the skin is a direct extension of the developing nervous system, it plays a central role in how children build body awareness, emotional stability, and early relationships.

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Talking Body: Kids and Body Schema

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Kids have an enormous amount to learn, but before they can take on reading, writing, math, social skills, or even coordinated movement, they need a basic sense of themselves.

As children develop, it takes years for them to truly understand themselves—the “me I feel inside,” the “me others see,” and the “me I’m becoming.” That long process begins much earlier than most people realize. It starts when the brain first learns the physical boundaries of the body.

Those early signals (movement, balance, joint and muscle feedback, and deep pressure) are the “me sensations.” They give the brain its first clues about where the body begins and ends. Over time, these sensations fill in the brain’s internal “map of me,” the foundation for later self‑awareness, confidence, and coordinated movement.

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Coffee Chat: A&Z’s First Visit to the Podiatrist

| Patti Webb

I do not have flat feet. If anything, my arch is incredibly high and my friends complained that we couldn’t borrow each others’ shoes because of it. I also tend to underpronate which I didn’t really notice until college. So when Troy and I started dating and he wore orthotics, I totally thought it was an old man thing.

Last month, Troy suggested we take the girls to the podiatrist. I get being overzealous about your kid’s health, but exactly how many pediatric podiatrists are there?

He said that he noticed that Z’s ankles were crumbling in when she walked and that’s a sign of flat feet. A’s feet also were a bit weird; they curved inward. My little pigeon toe! My MIL also worked as an x-ray tech in a podiatrist’s office, and she reconfirmed they definitely needed to go.

I didn’t think this was a big deal, since they were still growing and neither of them seemed fully “in their body” yet. But when I looked at videos of Z walking in flip flops, it was very clear. Similarly, in videos of A running, she looked a bit “floppy” for lack of a better word. To the podiatrist we go!

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