Transitions are hard. Sensory needs change. That always tends to be very frustrating for parents because they think: “Man I got it I know what my kid needs are,” and the next day… bam! There’s something different and that’s OK. We want their sensory needs to change because that’s a good thing that means that need is being met. And now we’re kind of moving on to something else so. So, some ninja therapy stuff that I usually talk to parents. I really try hard to talk to them about organization and organizing their day. You know, I’m a mom of two kids, so I understand that life does get in the way.

So simple things that you can do… I like to do the five shelf clothing organizers. They have ones that have “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday” on it. Ninja therapy for me would be on Sundays. As a family, you work on picking out your clothes to put in those organizers because then, during the school week, if you use a visual schedule or you have a checklist anything that you use to kind of help keep you on track, you already have the clothing picked out. So that’s kind of one of those things to help lessen some of the burdens on the parents. And you kind of give the kid the ability to be more independent with, you know, choosing their clothes or clothing retrieval… whatever skill you’re kind of working on.

Another ninja therapy thing is the use of a Time Timer. The Time Timer is a really great 60-minute clock. So say you need 30 minutes in the morning to get ready to go to school. You can pull it down to 30 minutes. It gives a visual verbal cue of “Hey, look at the clock. I’ve got 30 minutes before we have to go.” As time goes the red starts to leave. So, by the time the 30 minutes is up, it’s back to being like a white-faced clock. So, it gives the kids a visual place to start. It gives them an idea that time is this real thing and allows them to start kind of organizing themselves and figuring out time management on themselves.

We always want our kids to be as independent as possible. You know, kids are super competent. A lot of times, life gets in the way so it’s easier for adults just to kind of do the task whether it’s tying shoes or putting their jackets. [Parents complete tasks for their children for time efficiency’s sake.] Trust me, I know I’ve got a four-year-old. If I tell her it’s time to go, it is like trying to get a snail to go through peanut butter.

It can be frustrating but, you know, allowing our kids to be able to do that by giving them a checklist or schedules or even using the Time Timer and allowing them to try, even if they don’t do it the right way the first couple of times, giving them that support and giving them that chance to try is going to allow them to be able to learn that skill and move on to the next one.

Other ninja therapy things that I talk about is [the importance of] having a central location where you have a big wall calendar. In that calendar, you can post things that are up and coming. That way, everyone has a visual schedule. It’s also a place for you to jot notes down you know if you start noticing different behaviors you start noticing kiddos are reacting differently to things. If you start noticing that you know your kiddo is more tired or having a hard time focusing, or if there’s a skill that you guys are working on? Write it down on the calendar. It gives you a visual place to start. It gives you a record. And then, if there’s a good new skill that you’re trying to learn, if you document it on that calendar every time you look up, it gives you that feedback of “Hey, look how far we’ve gone! Back at the beginning of the month, you were unable to do this. Now, look at the stuff that you’re being able to do!”

That’s a great motivation because it’s giving you something that shows your progress. Same thing with journaling. You know, those are more ninja therapies techniques for parents. If you journal and you discuss kind of what’s going on like in your day or what you see or if there’s like a certain behavior you’re starting to notice, write down what happened before that behavior and what happened after that behavior and how they reacted to whatever intervention you provided, whether it be provided him a deep hug, or whether you provided them, just by leaving them alone. Write down how they responded to that. [Once you write it down,] you’re going to start seeing trends that are going to pull through there which might help you figure out if there is an intervention that you need or if there’s a piece of equipment that’s going to help support your kiddo at home.

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