Visual Calendars & Schedules: How They Benefit Your Child

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Summertime brings about a more relaxed schedule that is filled with fun activities: camp, family vacations, trips to the water park. However, children with sensory processing difficulties or any anxiety tend to prefer a very predictable schedule and may feel uneasy during this time. When there is a change in routine or something new is thrown into the day, that element of predictability disappears, and the child can become anxious, upset and possibly act out as a result. He or she may not know what to expect and how to plan for new sensory experiences. After all, with each new activity comes a plethora of new sensory input such as sound, touch, movement, and sight. A visual calendar that identifies daily and weekly schedule changes can help children with sensory processing difficulties or children who have a hard time transitioning feel more comfortable with their summer routine.

Tips For Using A Visual Calendar Or Schedule With Your Child:

  • Use a calendar large enough to write down daily and weekly activities.
  • Review the calendar with your child daily so he knows what to expect for the day and for the weeks ahead. For example, “Today we will go to the beach. In 5 days, you will start camp.”
  • Cross off the days as they conclude and review what is on the schedule for the next day at bedtime, and again in the morning.
  • Be sure to include the first day of school on the calendar to indicate the end of summer.

For children with sensory processing concerns, thinking in the future can be very abstract and overwhelming. The visual calendar will be beneficial to make your child’s day to day and week to week schedule more concrete and help him or her be more organized.

Below is an example of a successful visual calendar:

Visual Calendar

Visual Calendar

Feel free to comment with how a visual calendar has helped your child!

Top 5 Pediatric Therapy Myths: Explored and Explained

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Scared Girl

There are numerous misconceptions about pediatric therapy out there. I hear parents reporting to me all the time that they “heard from a friend,” or better yet, “saw on the internet” that developmental therapy does not work and that pediatric therapists “just keep kids in therapy” with no real improvement.

Below, I will address the 5 biggest myths out there regarding Pediatric Therapy:

Myth 1:   My child will “mature” and this will not be an issue.

I have heard this numerous times from parents about their children. Will the child “mature” and develop eventually? Sure, probably to some extent. My question back to them is: at what cost? What would be the consequences of not addressing the specific issues that the child demonstrates? How would these issues play out in school? Would the child be teased, bullied, or unable to progress to the best of his or her ability? There are obviously certain developmental stages that children reach at certain times, but some children develop at a slower rate than others . The goal of pediatric therapy is to enable these children to catch up with their peers and prevent later consequences. Additionally, research has demonstrated that the earlier the developmental issues are addressed, the better that child’s long term prognosis will be. Read more

Taking Off The Training Wheels

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Trainig WheelsWarm weather is finally here and it’s a great time to gear up the family for bike riding.  Here are a few tips that will help ease the transition to a two-wheeler.

  1. First, make sure that the child’s bike is in good condition with properly inflated tires, working brakes, and that the seat is low enough that the child can stand on the ground when the bike is not in motion.
  2. A well adjusted helmet is essential for safety and some children may need elbow and knee pads for extra comfort and protection.
  3. The “run behind” method– where the parent follows the child holding underneath the bike seat to help them balance– is a proven technique for beginning the 2-wheeler process.
  4. Plenty of praise is essential and will keep your child motivated.
  5. The best way to teach your child to bike ride and enjoy overall fitness is to lead by example so plan some family bike riding outings today!

I would love to hear your Two Wheeler Success stories!

Raising an Independent Child

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Childhood IndependenceIt’s summer time, the kiddos are out of school, and Independence Day is right around the corner!  It is the perfect time to help your children become more self-sufficient and confident by encouraging them to become more independent in their daily routines.

Where Childhood Independence Begins

Typically, children begin to demonstrate their independence by the age of two.  They may want to try everything by themselves and even act annoyed if you try to step in to help them.  This is perfectly normal and I encourage you to embrace this developmental milestone!

Bedtime should be the first area to be targeted when teaching your child independence.  Establishing a consistent bed time routine is a must.  Children should be sleeping in their beds independently.  They may still need reminders to stay in their room, but there are plenty of ways to work on getting this accomplished.  You can try giving them a signal of when they can leave their room (e.g., when the light comes up or when the clock looks like this: 7:00).  You can also keep a bin of toys in their room that they are allowed to play with in the morning.  It is very important to be aware of your reaction when they do get out of bed.  Firmly state the expectations (e.g., “Johnny, you need to stay in bed until the clock reads 7:00”) and guide them back to their room.  Do not provide eye contact or attempt to rationalize with them.  You may need to bring them back to their room several times over many days.  Don’t give up!  I promise it will get easier!

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VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE: Will it affect my Child’s Behavior?

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Research on Video Games and Aggressive Behavior

There has been a lot of debate about whether or not violence in video games can lead to an increase in maladaptive behaviors in children. As much as parents want to try to keep children and adolescents away from violent games, many children will find a way to play them. One research study revealed that approximately 70 % of American teenage boys between the ages of 13-17 have played the violent videogame Grand Theft Auto, in which the goal of the game is to steal cars and murder people. Another research study indicated that the less exposure that children have to violent games, the less aggressive behavior the children exhibit. Furthermore, a rather large research study concluded that aggressive video games lead to aggressive behaviors in children.

The question remains as to whether or not children who play violent video games are at increased risk to exhibit aggressive behavior; or is it that aggressive children tend to want to engage in aggressive activities? Regardless of the causality of preference for violent games and aggressive behavior, it is important to recognize that the children who play these violent games are at increased risk to be aggressive.  Read more

Mean Girls & Bullying Boys: How Parents Can Help

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Bullies of Today

The world of social media is increasing at the speed of light—especially with Facebook, Twitter, iPhones and more! We can’t deny that the new and improved methods of social networking have changed the way we live as adults. We also can’t deny that our children will grow up in a different world than we did, with such huge expansions of social media changing the ways children express and relate to each other.

So many of the ways children and teens communicate today (typing away on the Internet and texting away on their cell phones) don’t involve adult supervision thus making it difficult to monitor for good behavior and treatment of others. Girls and boys can now post mean messages and threats to each other via web pages only their peers can see and never be held accountable. This indirect form of aggression is more likely in girls, who show bullying behaviors in very different ways than boys. Boys may be more likely to demonstrate overt physical aggression, while girls tend to use hurtful words and enforce social hierarchies. Read more

Secret Summer Tricks to Help Your Child Enjoy Reading

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Kids reading in a fieldSummer can be a crazy time for families.   Kids are excited to be away from school work and educational activities, yet 30 minutes of reading a day is still recommended.  Reading can be reinforced through fun everyday summer activities.  Below are great tips to get you started!

Family reading activities (different activities for different ages):

  • Act out story after reading a book
  • Write grocery lists with your children before going grocery shopping
  • Play restaurant at lunch- create menus for the “customers” Read more

3 Tips For Using HubSpot’s Blogging Application

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Tip 1: Embedding Video into Your Blog

 

To embed a video like the one above, you’ll need to do the following:

  1. Most video sites like YouTube have an “embed” source code that you can copy and paste. For YouTube, this code is listed just to the right of the video itself, under a person’s username.
  2. Open up the HTML Editor in HubSpot by clicking the “HTML” button in the toolbar. Then, paste in the source code at that point of the article you’d like the video to show up.
  3. Save! This tip will work on the rest of the CMS as well, not just in the blog. Just click on “Add Module”, and add an HTML module. You’ll be able to paste in the source code directly, and the video will exist as a stand alone module on your site.

Tip 2: Automate Your Social Media Publishing

If you use the HubSpot blogging platform, then we’ll be able to automatically publish your content for you.  To set up Social Media Publishing, complete the following steps:

  1. We need to add your social media credentials before we can automate your blog publishing to their feeds. Under the Promote tab, open up HubSpot’s Social Media application.
  2. Click the “Social Media Accounts” button. When prompted, add your credentials for the social media sites you’d like to publish to.
  3. Once your credentials are entered, head back to your blog’s homepage and click on the “Options” link (to the right of the “Create Article” link).Your blog options will appear.
  4. Click on the Social Media Publishing tab. Under Social Media accounts, check off the boxes of the social media feeds you’d like your blog to publish to automatically. Remember to click “Update” at the bottom of the screen.
  5. When publishing content to your networks, you’ll need a line of explanatory text to let people know what they’re seeing. To write this line, write your slug in the “publishing slug” field, directly above the list of your social media acccounts. This is the text that will appear in Facebook and Twitter along with a link to the blog article.  For example, you might write “Check out my new blog post!”

Tip 3: Text Formatting 101

You can edit the fonts of your website by going to Settings > Template Configuration in HubSpot, and then click on “Advanced Configuration”. Throughout this list, you’ll see places where you can change the font of your different headers.

One caveat to this, however: The fonts you can use on a website are dependent on the fonts that are available on a visitor’s machine. If you try to name a font that the user does not have on their computer, it will default back to something standard (usually Arial or Helvetica).

Most machines are preinstalled with dozens of fonts, so the trick is knowing which fonts are likely to be installed on which computers. For a list of the fonts supported on most browsers, view this article on Success.

potty training boy

10 “Do’s and Don’ts” for Potty Training

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Potty Training your child can be a daunting task.  Here are a few tips to help you accomplish the job successfully!

Potty Training

Potty Training Do’s:

  1. Watch for signs that your children are ready.  They may show interest in the potty, ask to be changed after they eliminate, or can tell you when they are eliminating.
  2. Write down when your child normally pees and poops during the day for a week.  This will help you determine an appropriate schedule.
  3. Find success with peeing on the potty first, so increase the fluids!  Pooping usually is secondary.
  4. No more diapers, except for night time!  The only way the child can begin to pair the behavior with the sensation of eliminating is to immediately feel it!
  5. Get the school and day care on board.  Read more

Bilingual Homes: Do they delay a child’s speech and language skills or enhance them?

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Language in the Home, School and Work:

In the fast-paced world of technology and communication, parents are continuing to seek out all opportunities for getting their child ahead of the game.  Most schools believe that it is advantageous to introduce their young students to an additional language in order to facilitate early acquisition of a second language.  As these children grow and enter the workforce, their value becomes increasingly more apparent.  Many families throughout the country currently speak multiple languages within the home and parents continuously weigh the benefits of teaching their child another language.  However, other parents may wonder if they are doing their child a disservice by introducing another language when their child is so young.  While it has been widely proven that children significantly benefit from early exposure to a second language, parents often question whether the acquisition of a second language will hinder their child’s fluency in their first language. Read more