What Exactly IS Stimming? An easy way to understand stimming is as an action that people use in order to either make themselves have more energy or to calm down. The more accurate explanation is that the connections in our brain work best when we are able to organize the information sent from our environment…
Have you heard about teletherapy? Teletherapy is simply therapy, over the internet, through a live video connection. The treatment is very similar to what a child receives in person; it’s just done using a computer. If you’ve ever used FaceTime or Skype you’ve used the same type of technology that teletherapy uses. Teletherapy can be used with…
Play-dough has been around for ages and is a near-universal childhood toy. As an adult, even I love to knead and roll the stuff! But as much fun as play-dough is, it’s also a great choice for kids with delays and disabilities. Following are a few ways play-dough can help kids with special needs: Stress…
A few weeks ago, I shared some guidelines for how to recognize if your baby may benefit from occupational therapy, and in that post I explained that a person’s “occupation” doesn’t have anything to do with a job (at least not in the therapy sense), but actually encompasses what a person needs or wants to do…
With Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror, it’s full steam ahead for the Christmas season. Our routines change, activity ramps up, and often our children are exposed to new and unfamiliar people, places, smells, tastes, and experiences. Some kids love the excitement of the holidays, but for others it can be stressful (heck, it’s stressful for…
Does your child use an AAC or communication device? Halloween is a popular holiday for many children, and there’s no reason why kids with AAC devices can’t participate fully in the fun! First, you’ll want to program some key Halloween words and phrases into the AAC device. Some devices actually come programmed with a Halloween…
Many parents whose children skip the crawling phase believe that their children are not only developing typically but are actually advanced. When parents report that their child has skipped crawling, the pediatrician may (or may not) indicate that it’s an issue. So is it important for a child to crawl? The short answer is yes,…
“Why does my child often seem disorganized? I told him the same thing five times and he still did not remember! He has trouble planning and checking his work…It is difficult for him to switch from one activity to another or one thought to another. It is even difficult for my child to get started…
We all know how frustrating it feels to try to communicate with someone who is not paying attention. We have something important to say, but our conversation partner is checking her phone, looking everywhere but us, and when we ask a question, the response is “Huh?” None (or very little) of the information we were…
Kid’s Creek Therapy recently hosted the LAMP conference, an event where SLPs, OTs, teachers, paraprofessionals, ABA therapists, and parents gathered to learn more about the LAMP approach to augmentative alternative communication (AAC). All of our SLPs, in addition to one of our OTs, attended the conference and were trained on the LAMP principles. In today’s…