Ideas & Education
Learn Ninja Therapy Tips
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 ...
Tactics to help calm a kiddo with anxiety
Anxiety can get the best of just about anyone. From those with generalized anxiety disorder, to a more specified diagnosis, to individuals who don’t have anxiety, panic attacks can happen to anyone. They can be sudden and unpredictable. As a parent ...
ABA explianed
If you are the parent of an individual with autism, it’s likely you’ve heard of ABA or applied behavioral analysis. Attitudes surrounding ABA are often shrouded in mystery, fear, or genuine negativity fed by misunderstanding. That being said, ABA can ...
Parenting a Teenager With Autism
There’s a lot of resources for parents about the early developmental stages of their child. As kiddos get bigger, however, so does the challenge of raising them Things can get complex. For kiddos with Autism, there are a plethora of things that can ...
Getting Toddlers Ready For Handwriting
Handwriting is more than ABC, 123, periods and paragraphs. There are many underlying skills that require development to support handwriting. Does your child get frustrated during writing assignments? Does their teacher complain their work is ...
Learn physical activity ideas for individuals with special needs
On the second episode of the eSpecial Needs podcast, host Katherine Blanner talked with Kelly Behlman, founder of the Disabled Athletes Sports Association in St. Louis, MO. In this transcribed and edited excerpt from the show, she gives us tips ...
Why should my child with special needs or disabilities learn how to swim?
Summertime and swimming… the two go together like peanut butter and jelly. For individuals with disabilities or special needs, swimming can be a bit more of a challenge than it is for neurotypical kiddos. Some kiddos might have different sensory ...
EDMR Therapy explained
Whether at home or in school, life can throw a lot of trauma at individuals with special needs. The most common form of trauma experienced by individuals with special needs is holds or restraints. When a caregiver restrains an individual with special ...
How to transition kiddos with autism back into a school routine
For anyone, the transition from summertime into the school year can be tough. For kiddos with autism, the transition into a changed routine can be even more challenging as they face new uncertainties. Start slow Perfect morning routines don’t happen ...
Sensory Needs of an Aging Population with Dementia, Explained
Why sensory integration items and play is important for individuals with dementia Just about everyone has sensory needs. Whether it’s an attraction to smell, material, tactile stimulation, or a predisposition to like fluffy things, all humans crave ...
Quick Handwriting Interventions
Handwriting isn’t always an easy thing to learn. Whether your kiddo’s struggling with dexterity, sensory input, or maintaining consistency in size and width of lettering, among others, it’s important to get to the heart of the problem and remedy it ...
Help with Emotional Self-Regulation
Navigating emotions isn’t easy. It’s societally expected for just about everyone to be able to regulate their feelings about any given subject. These aren’t easily met expectations for individuals with autism, who often lack self-regulatory skills ...
Easy Elopement Prevention Strategies
The word “elopement” isn’t just used to describe an impulse wedding. “Elopement” can be used to describe a situation in which an individual with special needs or memory difficulties wanders away from the safety of their caregivers. The situation can ...
Bus Safety and Transportation with Special Needs Students
Public schools and organizations who have students with special needs are required to provide appropriate transportation for the individuals they serve. The term “special needs” can apply to a wide variety of differed abilities and behaviors, and ...
Managing Holiday Gatherings with a Child with Autism
Managing family stress around the holidays with a child with autism The holidays are stressful. Not only is it culturally expected to purchase presents for everyone in your life, but you also have to dress up your children in sweaters they hate and ...
Using Chewies as a Sensory Support at Home and School
For children with special needs or children who are on the spectrum, chewing can be a way of “stimming,” or self-stimulating, their senses. Repetitive behaviors like stimming can provide individuals with comfort and proprioceptive feedback. Chewies ...
Four Quick Classroom Handwriting Interventions
Handwriting is one of the foundational skills that children learn in school. A child’s writing ability has a large impact on their development along with their functional performance at school, in the community, and at home. Children who display ...
Tackling Testing Anxiety at School
Most students experience some level of anxiety before, during, or after a test. While a little bit of apprehension has been known to enhance performance, some students can quickly be overwhelmed with worry and dread over their performance. These ...
4 Easy Indoor Exercise Activities
Whether you’re working or learning from home right now, it’s important to stay active for both your physical and sensory health. Burn off some excess energy and keep away cabin fever with some of these tips: 1. Try to spend at least 30 minutes twice ...
Tips for keeping the kiddos with ADD or ADHD focused while learning from home
With the country in lockdown, I have been working from home, as many of us have. I have grown up with some big focusing issues, and I was homeschooled for a little bit. Here’s what’s helped me to focus, and what might also help your kiddos. Make a ...
Getting a Restful Night’s Sleep for Kiddos in Quarantine
We know it’s already tough to get the kids to bed sometimes [link back to your previous pieces on sleep], and their new learning-from-home experience probably isn’t helping that. However, there are a few ways to encourage your kiddo to get the sleep ...
Proprioception, Explained
In the special needs community, there is a lot of talk about proprioception and proprioceptive feedback. Although the word sounds like a prehistoric dinosaur, it’s a pretty big neurological part of everyone’s lives. In short, proprioception is ...
The Difference Between Weight and Compression items, Explained.
For kids with special needs, ASD, or SPD, proprioceptive feedback can be crucial to their development and help normalize the sensory input of their environments. One of the best ways to administer proprioceptive feedback to an individual with special ...
How Does A Weighted Blanket Work?
Many children have immature nervous systems or excessively high energy levels, making it difficult for them to settle their bodies down and go to sleep. The deep pressure of a weighted blanket allows the child’s nervous system to better integrate ...