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We recently completed a 2-on-1 mentoring session with a fellow OT practitioner.
We discussed some simple activities to do with her young child as well as brainstormed ideas for her teletherapy clients!
Some of the topics include: seating accommodations, getting outside, teaching teens about technology, executive functioning, and more!
Make sure to check out all of our links below!
We’d love to answer your questions on the podcast! Fill out this form -> https://harkla.typeform.com/to/ItWxQNP3
Brought To You By Harkla
This podcast is brought to you by Harkla. Our mission at Harkla is to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. We accomplish this through high-quality sensory products, & child development courses.
Podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla with the discount code "sensory". Head to Harkla.co/sensory to start shopping now.
Links
All Things Sensory Podcast Instagram
Harkla YouTube Channel
Harkla Website - Shop Sensory Products!
Harkla Instagram
Free Sensory Diet Webinar
What it Means to Meet the Sensory Threshold
Teletherapy for OTs and Parents
Digital Courses
Sensational Brain Free Resources
Leisure Interest Survey
Check out our Autism Acceptance Month Sale, now through April 30, 2024 https://harkla.co/pages/aam-sale
Save 15% on all sensory products
Save 20% on all digital products
We recently completed a 2-on-1 mentoring session with a fellow OT practitioner.
We discussed some simple activities to do with her young child as well as brainstormed ideas for her teletherapy clients!
Some of the topics include: seating accommodations, getting outside, teaching teens about technology, executive functioning, and more!
Make sure to check out all of our links below!
We’d love to answer your questions on the podcast! Fill out this form -> https://harkla.typeform.com/to/ItWxQNP3
Brought To You By Harkla
This podcast is brought to you by Harkla. Our mission at Harkla is to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives. We accomplish this through high-quality sensory products, & child development courses.
Podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla with the discount code "sensory". Head to Harkla.co/sensory to start shopping now.
Links
All Things Sensory Podcast Instagram
Harkla YouTube Channel
Harkla Website - Shop Sensory Products!
Harkla Instagram
Free Sensory Diet Webinar
What it Means to Meet the Sensory Threshold
Teletherapy for OTs and Parents
Digital Courses
Sensational Brain Free Resources
Leisure Interest Survey
I always find it best when I'm involved with the kiddos. Like, I'm doing a sensory diet myself or I'm making a sensory diet myself and then doing it and then reporting back or like taking a video of myself doing the activity and then the next time we're meeting with a kid, like show the video and that way, it's more of that buy in. Be like, we're all doing this together. The challenge will be the kiddos who are a little bit more disabled who aren't able to recognize the necessarily the difficulties with screen time and that will take more of the caregiver involvement and explaining to them how we're going to meet their needs, find the soft spot of like, are they struggling with sleep? Can we improve their sleep through less screen time and finding that balance of going outside and doing more nature activities.
Rachel:I'm Rachel.
Jessica:And I'm Jessica. And this is All Things Sensory by Harkkla.
Rachel:We are both certified occupational therapy assistants and together with Harkla, we are on a mission to empower parents, therapists and educators to help raise confident and strong children of all abilities.
Jessica:On this podcast, we chat about all things sensory diving into special needs, occupational therapy, parenting, self care, overall health and wellness and so much more.
Rachel:We're here to provide raw, honest and fun strategies, ideas and information for parents, therapists and educators as well as other professionals to implement into daily life.
Jessica:Thank you so much for joining us.
Rachel:Hey there, welcome back to All Things Sensory Podcast by Harkla, you're listening to your good friend, Rachel and Jessica today.
Jessica:We're super excited to share this conversation with you. We did a mentoring session with a fellow OT. She is a mom and she provides teletherapy online services to students who are attending virtual schools. So not only are the students that she's providing ot services to receiving schooling online, but they're also getting their OT online. So they are on the screens a lot. So our conversation kind of centers around strategies for providing OT services virtually.
Rachel:To kids in school, which is super, super awesome. We haven't actually talked with an OT who's all virtual for virtual school. So it was a cool conversation. We just really got to know the things that she was struggling with and we provided some strategies. We brainstormed. It was really fun episode and just a really fun conversation. We had a great time. So we are excited to share with you. We were just going through the form that you filled out and just have to say thank you for putting in so many great questions. Like so many good things. I'm excited as well to talk about your child and the questions that you had about your child. I thought that was really interesting, too. So.
Jessica:Yeah, let's start there.
Rachel:Yeah, kind of fill us in.
OT Mentee:Right, perfect. So I have an eight month old. So she's my first. So I am personally struggling at living the shoes between being a parent and being an OT. I feel like the over analyzing is next level and I feel like I'm constantly like, Oh, am I doing enough? Am I doing too much? Like we used to joke that she used to be a little tiny peanut. and we'd be like, Alright, time to do baby Bootcamp on the floor. Let's go. Like, oh, no, not again. How can you not worry about things? And I mean, it's never gonna go away. But how do you know what to look for? And like, when did the red flag go off or when is enough or things like that? She was born at 37 weeks. So she was tiny. She was technically full term, but she was right on the cusp there being a little bit premature. She is doing really well with more of like the fine motor stuff, of course, you know, the stuff that I feel like I know a little bit more about with the birth to three age range. And then from the speech aspect of things, she seems to be doing really well. But then I'm worried about the gross motor component of things.
Rachel:How is her gross motor?
OT Mentee:So gross motor wise, she rolls from back to belly so fast.
Rachel:Okay. In both directions?
OT Mentee:Yes.
Rachel:Okay, perfect.
OT Mentee:And then from belly to back, she's been working so hard on it. She now can roll one way really well, but she needs almost like kind of like a cue, like a tap, and then the other way if hit or miss. She will stay in quadropod position to crawl. She absolutely hates it and will not crawl. She's obsessed with standing and.
Rachel:Can she sit unsupported okay?
OT Mentee:She can sit. Yep, she could sit unsupported. We're in the phase where we're trying to navigate, like, turning and things. So we've had quite a few little crashes here and there. She's doing good and she is. I listened to one episode and I forget, I think you called somebody a happy sitter.
Rachel:Yes.
OT Mentee:I don't know if she's the happy sitter, but I feel like she might be.
Rachel:Can she get in and out of sitting on her own?
OT Mentee:No.
Rachel:Okay. Okay. And when she is sitting on her legs, like, if she had like a long sit? Are her legs in front?
OT Mentee:Long sit.
Rachel:Okay, so she's in a long sit and she's eight months old. Struggles to get in and out. Have you sat her on the therapy ball?
OT Mentee:Yeah.
Rachel:Okay, how does she do sitting on a therapy ball? Okay. And if she goes supine, upside down over it on
OT Mentee:Okay. her back? She'll curl up.
Rachel:She'll pull herself up. Okay.
Jessica:So is she army crawling at all?
OT Mentee:She will. When she's in quad, she will lift her arms up.
Rachel:Okay.
OT Mentee:But she does not do anything with her legs.
Rachel:Will she rock? like, if you like put her in rocking position.
OT Mentee:She'll rock by herself.
Jessica:Okay. Cool. If you so if she's in quad, and you're there with her helping her stay in quads, since she doesn't like it and if you put some motivating toys, like a foot or two away, and so she can almost reach them. But they're just barely out of her reach, and help her with that rocking. So she can like maybe start to go forward just a little bit at a time and help her get that success. So you'd start with the toys closer, so that she's in the rocking, and she can kind of play with them, you'll move them a little bit farther away, so maybe she has to move forward just a tiny bit to reach it. That's going to be a good starting place.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Jessica:On doing that every day.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Rachel:And then I would add in there too, since it's so closely connected to the STNR. Remember, when we are integrating the STNR, the body is at the mercy of the vision and the head and the neck. So until that STNR integrates, baby's probably not going to be able to progress forward in that forward crawling pattern. So what we could also incorporate is like visual tracking activities. Visually up, down, left and right and really try to work on the visual connection too.
OT Mentee:Okay. Should that be done in quad too? And tummy time?
Jessica:Also do it in tummy time. Even in supine, would be good. Just in all of the positions.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Rachel:And then I'd also start working on helping her transition in and out of sitting. So while she's sitting on the ground, helping her bend her legs, plant one hand, twist, rotate, get into that quad position or go down to tummy time.
Jessica:And then vice versa, as well.
OT Mentee:She has done the one from sitting to belly a couple of times. I don't know if it's purse purposeful, but it's not like a big crash either. So it's like okay, but never the other.
Jessica:Just make sure you're going both directions. So if she's in quad and she transitions from quad to sitting to the right side, make sure that the next time you do it, it's to the left side. When she's in sitting though, you said she is sitting unsupported? You can also put toys like slightly out of reach when she's in sitting to promote her to move from sitting into quad.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Rachel:So when she's on her belly, and now we're trying to get her up into her sitting, we're gonna use this arm to like stretch and like push herself up into that sitting. And then same with going down, weight bear, and then you'll do like some hip presses here then down and then we'll go back up. And then we'll go the other direction, weight bear, and then you'll use the vision to direct her as well. This is like a seven person activity trying to get them to do it, and then stretch that arm through. Hip input here and then up.
Jessica:If you don't have another person, that's okay. Because like you would be helping facilitate the movements while somebody else is moving the object. If you don't have somebody else to move the object for you, that's okay. It could be a toy that maybe makes noise or moves or lights up. So it's motivating for her to like, when you move it, she looks at it, and then you're helping her get into position to reach for it.
Rachel:Or like a suction cup toy that sticks on like a window or a wall, if you have that available. You could like, move that up to help her like, go up a little bit too and that way it would be spinning or noise too.
Jessica:So and eight months, you know.
Rachel:Right on the verge.
Jessica:And I think if you just keep doing these activities daily, if possible, then she'll get there. My thought is she loves standing and we don't want to discourage her from standing necessarily, but we do want her to master crawling before she walks.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jessica:So we want to keep toys on the floor as much as possible versus putting toys up on the couch, where she'll get up to stand to get to them. Just keeping things on the floor for right now.
Rachel:I just had another thought. Do you have like a play couch or a nugget couch?
OT Mentee:I don't.
Rachel:Like couch cushions or pillows? You can cover your floor in like couch cushions and blankets ao that way she has to like navigate across the floor on different surfaces. She has like little levels to climb up instead of like pulling all the way up onto like the couch or a chair.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Rachel:That would also help kind of facilitate the crawling too. My guess is that you'll see her just all of a sudden click once that STNR integrates, and she'll start progressing forward. It'll just be like a lightbulb moment because.
Jessica:It'll happen.
Rachel:It doesn't sound like there's any delays. Personally, I don't feel like there's any delay. She's right on eight months,
Jessica:Right on track. mean, the happy sitter is like, a yellow flag almost. You know what I mean? Like, she's just once she is in that seated position, she's just like content to stay there. That's potentially a yellow flag of maybe some motor planning challenges, but not necessarily.
Rachel:Put her in sitting like if you're gonna put her down on the floor, just put her on her tummy or on her back and make her work to get into a different position if she wants to.
Jessica:The other thing I was thinking was the cushions or the pillows on the floor, you can also use your legs. So like if you're sitting on the floor, you put your legs straight out and maybe you put a toy in between your legs. So she has to like start to move up over your leg to get the toy and then you put it on the other side of your leg and she asked to kind of maneuver over. And you're helping her, you know. Your helping her arms and legs up to get started. That's an easy way without equipment, or using the cushions and the pillows as well on them. So she asked to like reach up and get up to them that kind of thing.
OT Mentee:Okay, sounds good.
Rachel:I know you've mentioned like continuing education courses, since we're talking about all the things. All of this is in our infant course that we're launching.
Jessica:Two weeks.
Rachel:The webinars next week. The course will be live in two weeks. So technically next week or the week after,. If you do the live, then you can get like a discount on it when it goes
Jessica:It's approved through AOTA for CEUs.
OT Mentee:Oh, cool. So I think I got an email for the I think live. it's like a shorter course. It's like the free version. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. But I have that so then there's going to be an additional course too.
Rachel:Yes. So what we do when we launch a new course is we do a free webinar that basically goes over like what we're going to talk about in the course. But with this one, we decided to get the free webinar approved through AOTA. So you'll get AOTA CEUs for the live webinar and then we'll kind of like touch on our course that's launching. So it's like 1.1 AOTA CEUs. So it's 11 hours and the bigger course is what we really go through like the tips and tricks and strategies for the milestones, speech, fine motor, primitive reflexes. Kind of all of the areas of early birth to three.
Jessica:And then with your eight months old, it would be perfect. It's perfect as you as like a parent to go through but also you have the therapy lens to go through it as well. So.
OT Mentee:Right? Okay, cool.
Rachel:So you said you're not in Birth to Three right now, are you? Okay, that's right.
OT Mentee:No.
Rachel:That makes sense, then.
Jessica:Did you have any more questions about your daughter?
OT Mentee:I don't think so. I think the biggest thing was like how important crawling is and rolling and everything like that. So I just didn't know it's like, is there a fine line? Like can you be a bad crawler? But like, I mean I guess you can be a bad runner. So.
Rachel:My son janky crawled to start with. So he had like one leg out while he was crawling, and so I had to like, really work to help them have like that good crawling pattern. So yeah, you can be a quote unquote bad crawler.
Jessica:For sure.
Rachel:they started crawling too, and it was just like, all of a sudden that they could move forward and that.
OT Mentee:Okay. So then do you guys recommend kind of using different strategies to kind of help integrate that STNR too, then?
Rachel:Yeah.
Jessica:Yep. The more time she's in quad, the more she does that rocking, that's our sign that it's working and doing that independently, then that's good. That's kind of what worked. Well. It sounds like she's right there.
OT Mentee:All right. Good. Thank you. I know, my husband's gonna be like, Oh, my goodness, because you're driving me crazy.
Rachel:Mine said the same thing. He's like, could you just stop? I'm like, no.
OT Mentee:I guess it's not a bad thigs. I guess it's gonna be an over concern.
Rachel:That definitely better side of caution for her to be a year old and still not crawling, and you're like, oh, so better safe than sorry.
Jessica:I was going to ask you, just because I'm working with some early intervention kids right now. Is she mouthing toys? She is. Okay. Well, because that's what I'm seeing a
OT Mentee:Yes. lot of lately are these like, infants who are just not mouthing anything. And I'm like, what's going on? It's really strong range. I have noticed if it's new, she'll mouth it and then as soon as she gets it, if it's like, a toy that she's played with it, just check it out. And then she won't mouth it anymore.
Jessica:I think that's totally fine because she's learning about it initially through her mouth. Right? Then, she has that experience already. So it's like, she doesn't have to do it again.
Rachel:She has an understanding of the object. Because really, they're learning about the tactile system through her oral system. She's like, oh, how big is it? What does it feel like? What's the texture? And now that she's like, Oh, I put it in my mouth. I know what it is. I can see it. I can feel it. and I really have more of an idea of Yeah, what it is.
OT Mentee:Yeah.
Rachel:Solids, though, are going okay? She's bringing food to mouth sitting. Right?
OT Mentee:Yeah.
Rachel:Not having any like severe adverse reactions to texture. She's getting messy and being good with that.
OT Mentee:Yes. She's definitely seems to be an oral sensory seeker. Loves lemons. Like I tried to give her like last night chicken with sweet potatoes and carrots. Whatever. Nothing too crazy. Then wanted nothing to do with and wanted like mine and my husband's dinner, which was like egg roll in a bowl, which was.
Rachel:That sounds so good.
OT Mentee:Flavorful, and like full of spices and she loved it. She would not eat her bland food.
Jessica:Oh, that's so funny.
OT Mentee:But I'm like, early like You go girl, like maybe you're gonna be a chef or something. I don't know.
Jessica:I love that.
OT Mentee:But I mean, nothing, kind of red flag in my opinion.
Jessica:Oh, awesome.
Rachel:Cool. Well, yeah. Just keep doing what you're doing. Keep practicing those things.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Rachel:It'll just kick in here soon.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Rachel:If not, let us know.
OT Mentee:Yeah.
Rachel:Yeah, we'll be in touch.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Jessica:So tell us about the virtual services that you provide.
OT Mentee:So I provide services to a couple of cyber schools and the services that we provide to students are all students that do their schooling through cyber school. So other than virtual, yeah. So OT is not like, it's not random for them to be doing OT virtually, because they do absolutely everything virtual. So that's where I feel like a lot of people get hung up is like, Oh, how do you know that these kids aren't used to being on a computer. So it's, like a school setting. So IEP. Everybody is one on one. So that's great. and then their goals kind of range from variety of things to handwriting, typing, sensory, emotional regulation, executive functioning, and then we have students in K through 12.
Rachel:Okay. Are you doing the evals virtually?
OT Mentee:Yeah.
Rachel:Wow.
OT Mentee:Yeah, yes. If it is a tough and it's okay. If it's like a typically developing student who might just have like a couple little things going on, but for somebody who has more significant delays, it's like it can get really tricky. So and I feel like since COVID, the push for the cyber schools continues to grow surprisingly. Because I was like, oh, like that's probably going to peak and then go back down once COVID isn't a thing anymore,. But we have so many students and some of these learners have pretty severe stuff going on. So it's like, we keep seeing more and more of them and I talked to my director, I'm like, I need to do something, because I don't know what to do. Because these students have so much going on and I'm just like, I don't even know where to start.
Rachel:Yeah.
Jessica:When you are doing those sessions with them, do they have an like a caregiver or somebody with them?
OT Mentee:Depending on like, their level of disability, or whatever the case may be, there is a caregiver, or a lot of the times if it's a more independent learner, caregivers, probably around somewhere if you needed something. But they're not directly there.
Jessica:Okay. Because I do think that these kids are like, at home doing school, so they have their virtual instructors, but their main source of contact is still their caregiver or parent, whoever it is. And so it's almost like, you have to do like some education with the family.
OT Mentee:Right? Yeah.
Jessica:So are you getting that kind of that time to talk to them a little bit or not really?
OT Mentee:Usually, it's usually best thing for me to get in touch with the parents, unless like, I don't get me wrong, I have some parents who are super involved, and will sit and talk to me. But you know, if I have a student that I need to kind of get in touch with them, I usually rely on phone call or email primarily. And usually it's not, you know, they don't usually have time for this whole intricate discussion. Usually, the first session that I provide, if a student has like a lot of sensory aids or whatever that is, one of the first things I tell them that hey, have you heard your podcast? And we can refer them to there and then some different sources that you guys have on your website. Because chances are they have multiple children that are enrolled in the cyber school. So that's a barrier too.
Jessica:Okay, yeah, that is a barrier for sure. What. Are they located all over the country?
OT Mentee:So I live in Pennsylvania. So the students that I see are only in Pennsylvania, but they are all over this state of Pennsylvania.
Jessica:Because I was just thinking about, like, outside time, because these kids are on screens so much of there time. How much outside time are they getting?
OT Mentee:Not a lot, for sure.
Jessica:And that might be like, I don't know, how long have your sessions with them?
OT Mentee:It depends. Most of I'd say probably 75% of them are 30 minute session.
Jessica:Okay. Because I mean, it's probably not reasonable to tell the child, okay, let's take your computer outside. Being in the winter is too cold. But it's like, if somehow they could, and
OT Mentee:So what is your like? How do you, a lot of these this would be carried over with the parents, of course, incorporate more outdoor time into their school routine. That is going to help with focus and attention and self regulation, even just a five minute walk around the block, or going out to the backyard to run around for five minutes in between lessons is going to be huge. students are obsessed with technology, like how do we get them to find that motivation or that drive to think?
Rachel:I think for the ones who have the ability to understand like the pros and cons of screen time, you could almost set up an activity of like a Venn diagram, where they are talking about the pros, the cons, and like what's in the middle of screens, and then you could work them through how to find balance,. You could set the screen time tracker on their phone or on their computer. So that way they could report back to you and like journal how much time they're on the screens and then when they come back to you, after they've kept track of this, you can go through okay, you've been on the screen for 10 hours today. And then you could talk about the challenges associated with that and then talk about what they're missing out on as well. You know, and like our bodies, we're not going to sleep very well because we're getting too much of this blue light and we need to make sure that we're getting outside in the morning and getting the natural light and we're meeting our sensory needs. And for these kiddos you could talk about their sensory system. You could maybe fill out a sensory checklist with them. So that way they can go through and identify their sensory preferences. You could fill out your sensory checklist simultaneously. You can chit chat about what your differences are, what you seek, what you avoid, and then you could kind of make a plan to help meet those needs during the day as well. And then I always find it best when I'm involved with the kiddos like, I'm doing a sensory diet myself, or I'm making a sensory diet myself and then doing it and then reporting back or like taking a video of myself doing the activity and then the It is so tricky when they love screens so much. next time we're meeting with a kid, like show the video. Okay, I was doing my sensory dyad, XYZ, whatever it is, and that way, it's more of that buy in and they'd be like, Oh, okay, we're all doing this together. That's the easier route with the kiddos who can have that conversation with you and can understand that. The challenge will be the kiddos who are a little bit more disabled, who aren't able to recognize the necessarily the difficulties with screen time and that will take more of the caregiver involvement and explaining to them how we're going to meet their needs. Find the soft spot of like, are they struggling with sleep? Can we improve their sleep through less screen time and finding that balance of going outside and doing more nature activities. It's an addiction.
OT Mentee:It is, yeah, it really is.
Jessica:And I think for those kids that cognitively and age wise can have those conversations, that's amazing. Because you're teaching them those self advocacy skills, like yes, you love this and it can be good for you for a lot of reasons, because you love it so much. But let's make sure we're
Rachel:Yeah. meeting your other bodily needs and here's how we can do that. I was also thinking of like creating a quick five minute warm up for your OT sessions, to kind of get them ready to do whatever it is you need them to work on. So you know, for the first five minutes of every session with the kids who are able, they get a drink of water, maybe they grab a piece of gum
Jessica:And then we do like a breathing technique or breathing or a sour piece of candy to suck on, they get up out of their chair, you would get up out of your chair, you guys would do some stretches together. Some inversions. Some yoga poses, maybe you create one that is like visual that you can either hold up for them, or you can put it on screenshare with them. And it's a sequence of like five movements of like, Hey, we're going to arms up, we down, touch our toes, go into down dog, whatever, chair, push a chair, while they're out of their chair. So maybe wall push up. exercise and five minutes of this kind of warm up, and then they can sit back down, get back on the screen with you, and then session of what they need to do. But then you can incorporate talking about how they feel before that warm up session when they first get on with you and then how they feel after that warm up session.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Jessica:Where they're at.
Rachel:If you use zones of regulation, or the Alert program, you could encourage too.
Jessica:Yeah, I love that.
OT Mentee:Sounds good. Okay, and then what would you do if you had a lot of students who maybe have more significant deficits and maybe aren't able to communicate or functionally able to get up and move or able to even understand their sensory needs?
Rachel:Parents are present for this? For these sessions, right? I would run like a traditional OT session, but it would be more of like a parent coaching session. So I would coach the parent on how to set up an obstacle course. So they have like a preferred toy, like a container toy on one side of the room. They have to crawl across the pillows, they roll up a blanket, cross the balance beam if they're able to, and then put the container toy into the container. So they kind of go through like a little obstacle course like that. You could use cookie sheets as like scooter boards. You can use like canned goods for like weights and for like stacking for some heavy work. And I would just go through the session of teaching the parents how to set up like a basically an OT session.
Jessica:Like an obstacle course.
Rachel:And you would go through it. So we do like our warmup activity, kind of like what Jessica mentioned. But some modification.
Jessica:Or that obstacle course could be the warmup.
Rachel:Of course. Then you could lay on the floor. We could do some primitive reflex activities, if possible.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Rachel:You could do maybe some fine motor activities, but I would almost run it like you have, you're in the background and then you're like, Okay, next you're going to do this and you're like teaching the parent what they're going to do with the kiddo. I feel like those are generally more successful when we're like coaching the parents on like what to do. Bubble Mountain is another favorite when we're doing teletherapy. We would do bubble mountain a lot with our kiddos and the parents were like, Oh my gosh, this is so cool and so easy and so you can get pom poms and you can have them blow pom poms on the floor and set up construction paper tunnels, and they have to blow it under the tunnels in order to prepare for bubble mountain. Really just any way to get them on the floor and.
Jessica:Like out of the I think that'd be great for all of them. They're probably in a desk chair the majority of their day for all their schooling. So it's like, can your OT session with them be on the floor? I think that's a great idea for all.
OT Mentee:All right. Yeah, and we have the ability for most of our students, the Assistive Technology Team is pretty good. So I really try to incorporate some alternative seating options for an SDI or something to put in their IEP. So we do have some options there. But it's so hard because you can't really trial things before getting them. So I didn't know if you had any tips on that either?
Jessica:I mean, I like the floor.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Jessica:That I was like, You know what the floor is such a useful tool. The child can sit on the floor. They can lay on the floor.
Rachel:Take advantage of being at home, doing schoolwork and being able to use the floor.
Jessica:You can put things up on the wall to work on a vertical surface. I think as far as like alternative seating, wobble chairs are always kind of a go to for most kids. Let me see.
Rachel:The wiggle seat?
Jessica:Not a wiggle seat. It's a wobble stool.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Jessica:Like it's called wobble stool here.
Rachel:And to me, that's a modified T stool.
Jessica:It is a modified T stool.
Rachel:Wiggle seats for the kids who have more postural insecurity, but they still need to move, and then therapy balls are great for the sensory seekers who need more of that input.
Jessica:And a therapy ball in the house is great for activities too.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Rachel:So we are taking notes as well and we'll send you all of our follow up.
OT Mentee:Okay, perfect.
Jessica:You did talk about some students who struggle with executive functioning skills, and interoception. Are these students who are like who are communicating verbally?
OT Mentee:Most of them, yeah. I don't know if it's just the cohort right now. But we have so many male students who are struggling with executive functioning and interoception. It's like, they are just not anywhere even in the same playing field.
Jessica:Is there an age range that you're seeing it in?
OT Mentee:Teenage boys.
Jessica:I was telling this to Rachel, when we got to the office this morning, I just received a book from an author who books not out yet. This is like the presale version. But it's about raising teenagers. And it's research based and I read the first like section of it last night, and it is going to be very executive functioning based. I will send you the author's name because I can't remember it off the top of my head. But that might be a good resource to look into for some ideas. And teenagers though, they are going through a lot and their executive functioning skills are like really, they should be the focus as teenagers, you know.
OT Mentee:And especially with the cyber aspect of things, a lot of the times, okay, these kids are maybe being left at home alone during the day because they're 15 or whatever 16. And they have to be accountable to go to their class. So it's it's almost like a college base. Like you have to log on to go to your class and it's like you have so many overdose assignments you haven't attended. Like how, like, we gotta get the connection.
Jessica:Do you have a way to see what their schedule is? Like? Can you help them create some sort of schedule?
OT Mentee:Yeah.
Jessica:Do they have phones?
OT Mentee:Most of them, yeah.
Jessica:Because I'm just thinking maybe they could use their phone calendar app as a way to put in their school schedule and set reminders for their classes. So that reminder goes off, five minutes before class starts and it's like a loud noise that alerts them, hey, I need you to log in. Like I don't know how their scheduling works or they have some systems set up through the school or anything. But maybe if they're I mean, if they have phones are probably on their phones a lot.
OT Mentee:I think, yeah.
Rachel:Yeah, that's something that they always have with them. There's a couple of courses on sensational brain that talk about executive functioning with like tweens and teens. And then there's another one that talks about the, I think it's like the coaching executive functioning as well and using a consultative model for executive functioning. Those might be helpful to add more than we can give you right now. But those might be on the list of some more like tangible intervention strategies to incorporate.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Rachel:So definitely check those out.
Jessica:Yeah,
OT Mentee:Yeah.
Jessica:And then my son's 10. So I'm like, What am I going to do when he's a teenager?
Rachel:And then interoception. Are they just struggling to know like, when to go the bathroom? When they're hungry? How to dress appropriately?
OT Mentee:Yes. And I think it's yes, because they don't leave their house.
Rachel:Interesting.
OT Mentee:It's like, they're, like, I never thought I would say this, but it's almost like their schedule is so rigid that I don't know if they would be able to, you know. More of like a life skills kind of component, like, okay, you don't have this schedule to follow from eight to three o'clock. When to eat lunch, when to take a break, when to do this. So everything is kind of like that for them because it has to be.
Rachel:To eat, to go to the bathroom, to prepare their meal.
Jessica:Because they don't have to.
OT Mentee:Right?
Jessica:Oh, that is a tough one.
Rachel:Yeah.
OT Mentee:And it's a fine line to where it's like, I have to kind of like, remember, like, I'm not outpatient. So it has to be school based as well. But then it's like, well, this is like a life skill.
Rachel:Illogical need, ya know.
Jessica:So these are kids who are not. Are they in any extracurricular activities?
OT Mentee:Some of them are. Some of them aren't. Some of them are in lower, like, lower income. Some of them don't have a lot of resource or maybe like lower education, background based families. So that's kind of a barrier too. I'm kind of struggling like how like, even to get them to real I mean, I know that's an executive function skill, but getting them to realize that they don't understand something it's not because they're stupid, or something that they just need to, like, ask for help. Like, they just think they're, they don't realize what their needs as far as.
Jessica:Yeah.
Rachel:That'd be almost have to, like build their confidence up, you know, they're probably being told, like, you know, maybe negative things, and we have to build their self esteem back ups so that wayvthey can advocate for those things.
Jessica:Yeah, I was just thinking interest checklists are really great for teenagers. They're leisure interests checklist. That's what it is, yes, and go through a leisure interest checklist with them. So they can kind of identify, I'm interested in this subject, but I'm not interested in this subject and then once they find an interest, maybe they're really interested in space. And you can help them go through the process of like researching a space topic. Maybe if you're working on like some handwriting, some of them, I don't know, they are writing all of these things down about it to create, like some sort of report or build a project. Expand on what they enjoy, and what they want to learn more about outside of school and in a turn that will build their confidence. Because they'll learn more about it and then maybe the next week, when they join your session, they tell you three things that they learned and three things that they can teach you. And anytime these kids can teach someone else, especially an adult, something new, that's going to build their confidence as well.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Rachel:You can do this with food, too. You could look up a recipe on Pinterest. They could figure out what ingredients they need. They could go to the kitchen and see if they have the ingredients or they could write them on a list and they could go to the grocery store and get them. And kind of like do a meal preparation activity and a meal planning activity too, which would be helpful. I always felt like that was really hard for kiddos to be able to identify like, what I need, how much it's going to cause there's so many things that go into just a simple activity like that. I mean, it could take read sessions to get it all done, but they'd have that understanding of like, this is what goes into it or go look in your fridge and tell me three things that you see that we could use to make a sandwich and put it on them to figure out what's available and what they can do.
OT Mentee:Okay.
Jessica:And again, you have to figure out how to make it fit into school based OT.
OT Mentee:Yes, yes, I'm thinking I probably could get through that by having some executive functioning goals and playing it out from there. So definitely appropriate though.
Jessica:Sequencing planning, prioritizing. Yeah, totally.
Rachel:Yeah. This was so fun.
Jessica:What?
Rachel:This session.
Jessica:Oh.
Rachel:Just this whole, just like chatting about this, and like having that collaboration. I just feel like it's so
Jessica:I think because you're teletherapy with these students, important
OT Mentee:It is and there isn't, you know, I mean, you know, everybody went into cahoots for COVID and then, you know, it's teletherapy kind of has died down a little bit. But at the same time, it's not. So it just kind of depends on your setting. So it's been really hard to find resources. So, but before you guys go, what do you think would be best for continuing ed options with your courses? Do you think the sensory diet course would be more helpful? Do you think that I think there's another course about like, a primitive? Well, the classroom? Oh, the class here, one. I don't? I don't know if the classroom course. I mean, it would be helpful for sure. It's not AOTA approved yet, but it will be. I think that the executive functioning courses on sensational brain are a great place to start. Okay.
Rachel:There's also teletherapy webinars.
Jessica:And then the teletherapy ones as well. I think those are great places to start, because they're very specific for where you are and what you're doing. As far as our Harkla course, I think that the sensory diet and the primitive reflex courses would be helpful to give you, you know, you'll get the sensory checklists that with your students and with their parents. If the parents help them, it'll give you lots of ideas for those sensory strategies to incorporate into their school day to help with meeting their sensory needs, their regulation, their attention and focus. It gives you all of those tools. And then a primitive reflex one is really going to help identify those students that might have those primitive reflexes retained that's impacting their learning, especially these teenagers with executive functioning challenges which can absolutely be related to routine primitive reflexes that are causing them to get stuck in their lower brainstem and their higher level cognitive skills and abilities aren't accessible because their brain and body are still stuck.
OT Mentee:Yeah, okay. Okay.
Jessica:So those would be those are bigger ones than the sensational brain ones, they're longer. But, you know, still valuable, for sure.
OT Mentee:Okay. That sounds good.
Rachel:Well, keep us posted. Let us know. If you have questions. We'll get the recording sent over. We'll get our all of our follow up information sent over to you. And if like you have any questions or anything, like don't hesitate to reach out and connect with us.
OT Mentee:All right. Sounds great. Well, it was nice chatting with you guys and thank you so much.
Rachel:You're amazing.
OT Mentee:Oh, thank you, you guys, too. I appreciate you guys so much.
Jessica:Thank you. We'll talk to you later.
Rachel:Yeah. Thank you.
Jessica:I really loved talking with her about not only her own child, which is super fun and talking about our course that we have for infants and toddlers, but also just brainstorming something different. I'm working in the clinic two days a week, but it's all in person, not providing any virtual teletherapy services. So this was really fun to try to think outside the box on how to provide these students with the help that they need.
Rachel:And we just have to remember that OT is such a collaborative profession. We're not meant to just be doing it alone. We need that mentorship and that collaboration. So sometimes it's helpful to just bounce ideas back and forth, off another therapists head or two therapists heads, and see what we can come up with. So our mentoring is just such a fun, it's honestly more fun for us than anything, just a fun service that we offer. So if you are a therapist, or if you're a parent or teacher, and you're listening to this episode, and you're like, hey, I want to work with Rachel and Jessica, we will put the links in the show notes for you to check out and reach out to us. We only have a few limited spots available each month. So it's a hot commodity.
Jessica:Well basically it means that if you fill out the form to do the mentoring with us just we asked for your patience while we email everyone and get new dates set up and have the availability to give our time and our attention to everybody who would like to brainstorm with us, It is super fun and exciting, but we just we thank you so much for your patience if you are waiting to sign up for mentoring.
Rachel:And with that we're gonna let you go and we hope that you'll leave a review on iTunes or Spotify. Let us know your thoughts about this episode. If you like hearing these mentoring sessions, let us know and make sure you're following us on Instagram at all things sensory podcasts. We love to hang out with you there. Okay, bye. See you later. Thank you so much for listening to All Things Sensory by Harkla.
Jessica:If you want more information on anything mentioned in the show, head over to Harkla.co/podcast to get the show notes.
Rachel:If you have any follow up questions, the best place to ask those is in the comments ,on the show notes, or message us on our Instagram account, which is at Harkla_family or at all things sensory podcast. If you just search Harkla, you'll find us there.
Jessica:Like we mentioned before our podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla. Whether it's for one of our digital courses or one of our sensory swings, the discount code sensory will get you 10% off. That's sensory. Head to Harkla.co/sensory to use that discount code right now. We are so excited to work together to help create confident kids all over the One doctor or therapist may have a different way of doing things from another.
Rachel:We are simply presenting our views and opinions on how to address common sensory challenges, health related difficulties, and what we have found to be beneficial that will be as evidence based as possible.
Jessica:By listening to this podcast you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or your child.
Rachel:Consult your child's pediatrician or therapist for any medical issues that he or she may be having.
Jessica:This entire disclaimer also applies to any guests or contributors to the podcast.
Rachel:Thanks so much for listening