sensory processing

March Madness: Daylight Savings Time

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Daylight savings time (DST) starts in a couple weeks and nothing sucks more than losing an hour of sleep. You’re dysregulated, the kids are dysregulated, everyone and their mom is dysregulated; it’s not a fun time.

According to a Better Sleep Council survey, 29% of all parents reported they disliked the Spring Forward time change. Once bedtimes and sleep routines are thrown off, everyone chimes in on how the practice is no longer necessary. It’s challenging enough to reset our kid’s circadian rhythm after summer break and again when DST ends. Now we must do it again, but with a time loss. Kudos to Arizona and Hawaii for staying out of the whole thing…

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Our Splatter Studio Playdate Review

| Patti Webb

Coming back inside for our February Playdate Review. By now, I’m sure our kids are wondering why we keep taking them on all these surprise trips.

Quick review: The playdates need to be a something new that the kids have never done before. They need to be a more-involved playdate activity and have a combination of cognitive/motor/social skills and sensory integration. While I’m sure a normal playdate at the park will do just fine, we also want to help promote some cool activities and spots around our city.

Splatter Studio opened in Atlanta around three years ago, and recently opened a location in Sandy Springs. While I’ve been to Splatter Studio before for my birthday a couple years ago, they now have Family Sundays, where you get a free child ticket with the purchase of one adult ticket. Kids have to be under 13 years old, and you each get to take home your own masterpiece.

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Child(ish) Reads: Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors, Pt. 2

| Patti Webb

Back with Part 2 of our Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors review.

We got into what goes on in our kid’s brain when they are dysregulated and showing bad behavior. But it takes two to tango, and how we react to our kids during the tumult matters.

So here are the parent takeways that help us keep our heads:

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Child(ish) Reads: Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors

| Patti Webb

First Child(ish) Reads review of the year!

Today’s post is on Raising Kids with Big, Baffling Behaviors: Brain-Body-Sensory Strategies That Really Work by Dr. Robyn Gobbel. And of course, it has the magic word: sensory.

Dr. Gobbel is a psychologist with a Masters in Social Work, so this book is all about the neuroscience behind challenging child behavior. It had some pretty lofty goals in the Introduction: to completely change the way you parent. Challenge accepted.

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Course Notes: Challenging Behaviors, pt. 2

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

For the record, not all behaviors are bad. Our kids are figuring out how to navigate their world while simultaneously learning who they are and advocating for themselves. What constitutes challenging behavior is when their actions hinder their ability to learn, complete daily tasks, or engage appropriately with others. While some behaviors occur once in a blue moon, like that total meltdown at grandma’s house, it becomes a problem when it’s consistent (aggression/defiance at grandma’s house, at the store, at school, at a party, you get the idea).

In this post, we’re getting down to the bottom of these behaviors: why they’re happening, why they continue, and how we can help our children manage and reduce them. So grab your magnifying glass Watson, because we got some investigating to do.

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