One of the most challenging things when it comes to working with a family who has a child who ''won't eat'' is figuring out how much of it may be due to the child's inability to eat (sensory problems, physical problems, processing disorders, etc) and how much may be due to the child's lack of motivation to eat.  The former is much easier to ...

  Happy Fall, fellow bloggers!  Brrrr...I have finally switched the summer clothes (oh, how I love them!) for the warm, cozy fall and winter ones (oh, how I NEED them!).  Actually, to be more accurate, my husband did the switching since our clothes are stored in the attic.  There was a time when I could have done this myself; ...

  Good day, everyone!  I hope you are all keeping warm (no comment from you all in the perpetually warm climates!).  Keeping warm...now there's a challenge!  I have lived in cold climates for the majority of my life, which began in Rome, New York.  I remember the snow blizzard of '62 (that's 1962 for all of you born ...

Hi All!  Sorry I did not post on Friday – I was a bit under the weather with a stomach bug.  Thankfully it didn’t last more than 48 hours but that is one of the “hazards” of working with children for a living – you are bound to catch something every now and again, no matter how hard you try. J I wanted this Tuesday’s Tidbit to be a ...

When it comes to picky eaters one of the biggest challenges we have as therapists is getting the child to even taste something.  There is, of course, an entire protocol to getting a sensory defensive child to allow food to be 1) in the room, 2) on the table, 3) on their plate, 4) on their spoon/fork, 5) near their mouth, 6) in their ...

It's been raining here for the past couple of days.  Yesterday was a cold rain but today it was warmer and more of a drizzle.  I have been off on vacation in the Lancaster, PA area with my sister and mom.  We've been exploring, shopping and just having a fun time enjoying each other's company.  It's been a pleasant change but ...

I am always amazed at how the majority of kids just love bubbles.  All you have to do is pull out a bottle of bubbles and kids seem to appear out of the wood work... waiting in anticipation for that first wave of round colorful bubbles to appear so they can chase after them and pop them.  I have found, though, that bubbles have many uses ...

Logically, I understand that Autism Spectrum Disorder is still a scientific mystery. No one knows for sure what causes it. There are several strong theories supported by scientific data that point to the possibility of genetic predisposition, but it will likely be years -- and perhaps even decades -- before a definite ''cause'' of autism is ...

No matter who you are or what you do I truly believe that the one word that can help each and everyone of us through the challenges we may face in our lives is the word ''support''.   Think about it.  When you are having a tough day, when everything seems to go wrong or everything you try and do just doesn't work the way you want it ...

I was a twenty-two-year-old single mother when my beautiful two-year-old daughter was diagnosed with autism. I'd brought Aisling in to the doctor because she was 20 months old and the only word she would use with any consistency or clarity was ''no.'' The doctor noticed that she didn't respond to her name or to loud sounds, and was fairly ...