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Shoe Tying Tips & Tricks

I have to admit that my daughter who recently turned 6 has not learned to tie her shoes. My mom tells me that when I was in preschool I was the kid tying other kids shoes under the table (not sure why we were under the table but thats besides the point!). I would have been four years old in preschool. It seems that kids these days are learning some of these skills later in life. Is it because of the invention of velcro shoes or are we just not teaching them these skills when we used to? Since my daughter is starting grade 1 really soon I thought now is the time to focus on teaching her to tie her shoelaces. Today I used the video below for the around the tree method and a lacing card I made (picture below) and she picked it up very quickly!

Here are some general tips and tricks I have compiled for children learning to tie their shoes or those that are needing some extra help learning:

  • Replace thin, round shoelaces with soft, wide (but not too wide) shoelaces that are easier to grip (also they stay tighter when tied)
  • Cotton or other natural fibres will be easier then slippery synthetic shoelaces
  • Use shoelaces that are designed for learning – half one colour and half another colour (can make them by cutting two different coloured laces and sewing or tying them together)
  • Try using a double starting knot to keep the shoelaces tight
  • Knot the end of each shoelace to prevent them from slipping through the loops
  • Have the child start practicing with the shoe on a table or on their lap so they are in a good, comfortable position
  • Help your child to make their own shoelace tying practice board out of cardboard

                                            

  • There are commercially available products to help with practicing (e.g. Melissa & Doug lacing sneaker)
  • Try out different methods to see which works best for your child:
    • Standard shoelace knot (around the tree method) – see video here
    • Two loop shoelace knot (bunny ears method)
    • Ian knot – see video here
  • Make sure your child’s shoes are untied every time they take them off so they can practice each time they put their shoes on – repetition is the key to success

Good luck!

 

What do OTs do?

What do OTs (Occupational Therapists) do? Many people have no idea what an OT is when I tell them what I do! Many people think that we help people get jobs, but that is not the case (mostly anyways!). OTs focus on the areas of self-care, productivity and leisure. So depending where an OT is working they are helping people with very different things. OTs are trained in the areas of anatomy & physiology, neurology, child development, mental health, counselling, older adult disabilities, among other areas.

In acute care (hospitals) we focus a lot on self-care, helping people to be independent in their basic daily activities such as getting themselves dressed, having a bath, preparing a meal or moving around their homes/community. We prescribe equipment and provide education about how they can become more successful completing their activities of daily living in a safe manner. An independent study by health policy researchers published in Medical Care Research and Review (Rogers, Bai, Lavin, & Anderson, 2016) found that “occupational therapy is the only spending category where additional spending has a statistically significant association with lower readmission rates” for the three health conditions studied: heart failure, pneumonia, and acute myocardial infarction. Yay OT!

When working with children as we do at Bright Horizons OT, the focus looks very different. We use play as a means to achieving the child’s/family’s goals. In order to achieve the goals, we either use remediation (treating the underlying deficit) or compensation (adapting activities or environment) to make the child more successful in their everyday activities. The goals of OT can be many different things, here are some examples of general goals:

FINE MOTOR:

  • Increase ability to pick up small objects and release them
  • Increase ability to use both hands together (e.g. stabilizing the paper while writing with the other hand, holding a jar while using the other hand to twist the lid, etc.)
  • Increase handwriting legibility and/or speed
  • Increase accuracy while cutting with scissors

GROSS MOTOR/CORE STRENGTH:

  • Increase core strength/postural stability in order to increase gross and fine motor skills
  • Increase the child’s support while sitting in a chair at school (proper seating in order to maximize their ability to complete school activities)
  • Making adaptations in gym class/sports/leisure activities to increase participation

SELF-CARE:

  • Increase self-care abilities such as getting themselves dressed, doing up buttons, zippers, tying their shoes, etc.
  • Provide adaptive equipment/education to help make bathing independently or with assistance easier

FEEDING:

  • Increase self-feeding abilities (using a spoon, fork, knife, open cup, straw cup, etc.)
  • Expand the number of foods a picky eater/problem feeder will eat

SENSORY PROCESSING:

  • Decrease sensitivities to sensory input (lights, sound, touch, etc.) and/or make environmental adaptations to help them cope with these sensitivities
  • Increase the child’s ability to engage in hair brushing, hair washing, hair cutting, etc. for those that are sensitive to these activities
  • Make adaptations/find clothing that the child will wear without being bothered by tags, seams, fabrics, etc.

SELF-REGULATION:

  • Increase on task behaviour in children who have attention difficulties (teaching self-regulation skills)

These are just some examples of the things that are addressed when you see an OT. One of the greatest parts of our job is we get to look at such a wide variety of areas!

Preventing Food Jags

What is a food jag? It is when a child (or adult for that matter!) eats the same food prepared the same way everyday or at every meal.

The problem with food jags is that kids get tired of these foods and may eventually avoid them permanently.

Tip for preventing food jags:

  1. Make a list of all the foods the child eats regularly.
  2. Put these foods in a menu format where no food is repeated across 2 days.

For example*:

Meal Day 1 Day 2
Breakfast Oatmeal with Bananas Toast with Peanut Butter
Snack Yogurt & Strawberries Applesauce
Lunch Ham Sandwich & Pickles Soup & Salad
Snack Hummus & Carrots/Crackers Muffin
Supper Spaghetti with Meat Sauce Chicken & Rice

The idea behind this strategy is that by not offering the same foods everyday, the child will not get stuck on eating one food all the time and will expand their number of accepted foods.

For children who are very picky eaters and have a very small number of accepted foods, try to not repeat a food over a 2 day period (as shown above). For children that accept more foods, you can try not offering the same food over a 3+ day period.

*This is an example to illustrate how to make a menu, please do not take this as nutrition advice, for that please see my colleague Lacey at Beyond Baby Nutrition!

Please contact me if you have any comments or questions about your child!

Practical Sense in Sensory Integration Course

Over the past couple of months I have been focusing a lot on continuing education related to sensory processing. I came across Julia Harper’s online courses on sensory processing and was hooked immediately! Julia is a knowledgeable and dynamic speaker. She provides so much physiology to back her treatment, it makes me excited! I have completed part 1 (modulation) and part 2 (self-regulation) of her courses and I know I won’t stop there. Here are a few of the basics that I have learned:

  • There are four different types of sensory processing disorders:
    • Modulation – expressed behaviourally
    • Self-Regulation – expressed with inconsistent behaviour and skills
    • Postural & Discrimination – expressed with poor quality and/or quantity of skills
    • Integration & Praxis – expressed with skill refinement deficits
  • The type of sensory processing disorder is determined by where the breakdown occurs. That is, where the sensory information gets stuck and is not processed appropriately (lower brainstem, upper brainstem & cerebellum, midbrain & cortex).

I would highly recommend any Occupational Therapist working with children take Julia Harper’s courses. They are a good value for your money, especially since they are online and you don’t have to pay for flights and hotels!

The website is: Therapeeds

Mr. Ball – Increase Hand Strength, Pincer Grasp & Coordination

Mr. Ball activities are great for working on:

  • Hand strength – helps develop the arches of the hand
  • Pincer grasp – picking up objects with thumb and fingertips
  • Translation skills – moving objects from the palm to the fingertips
  • Bilateral skills – using both hands together

How to make Mr. Ball:

  • Make a mouth by cutting a slit in the middle of a tennis ball using an utility knife (be careful!)
  • Decorate your Mr. Ball with googly eyes, hair, anything you want!
  • To make the activity easier – make the slit larger
  • To make the activity harder – make the slit shorter

Activity ideas:

  • Feed Mr. Ball by squeezing his mouth open with one hand and feeding him objects with the other hand:
    • Coins
    • Pom poms
    • Marbles
    • Buttons
    • Beads
    • Dried beans
    • Pieces of paper
  • Make Mr. Ball talk and play with other Mr. Balls

Ways to change the activity:

  • If it is too hard – place your hand on top of the childs and help them squeeze the ball
  • To work on translation skills – have the child pick up more than one object and feed Mr. Ball one object at a time
  • To work on colours – ask the child to pick up a certain colour object and feed it to Mr. Ball
  • To work on letters – use letter tiles/magnets and ask the child to feed Mr. Ball a certain letter
  • To work on counting – ask the child to feed Mr. Ball a certain number of objects
  • To add a resistive component – hide the coins in putty and have the child take it out before feeding it to Mr. Ball

Tips for Kids Who Like to Chew on Everything!

Do you have a child or know a child who loves to chew on everything? There are some kids who love to chew on anything they can get their hands on – shirt collars, shirt sleeves, hair, nails, pencils, erasers, papers, toys, power cords, you name it and I’m sure there’s a kid who’s chewed on it! Often these children don’t even notice they are doing it. They naturally gravitate to these items and put them into their mouths without even thinking about it. It can be calming to children (and adults) to chew so you may notice that they do it when they are in difficult or stressful situations or when they are tired at the end of the day.

Mouthing objects is a part of the normal developmental sequence. One of the reasons babies and toddlers put objects in their mouths to learn about them. As children get older many of them will stop mouthing objects but there are others, especially those with Autism, developmental delays or sensory difficulties, that will continue. As children get older it becomes less socially acceptable to mouth objects and can be a hazard to their health if they are chewing on dangerous objects.

Here are some tips to help curb chewing on everything and maybe save some clothes!

  • Gum – if the child is old enough allow them to chew gum as it can provide the same calming effect
  • Electric Toothbrush – increases the amount of proprioceptive input to the mouth which can be calming and fill the need for that deep pressure in the mouth
  • Heavy Work – provide the child with daily heavy work activities (blog coming soon) which gives the body the proprioceptive input that they may be seeking through chewing

Sensory Friendly Clothing

Do you struggle to get your child dressed every morning because they refuse to put anything on? Does your child hate tags, seams and uncomfortable fabrics? I’ve compiled a list of online stores that cater to kids that are sensitive to clothing. All of these stores either have Canadian retailers or will ship to Canada.

Calm Care

  • sensory clothing

Website: https://calmcare.com/collections/all

Sensory Smart Clothing Co.

  • focuses on sensory friendly clothing

Website: https://sensorysmartclothing.com

Smart Knit Clothing

  • seamless socks, underwear, bralettes & compresso tees

Website: www.smartknitkids.com

Canadian Retailer: www.toolsforkids.ca

Independence Day Clothing

  • created for children with Autism and those who are sensitive to clothing
  • no zippers, buttons or tags
  • flat seams
  • clothing is easy to put on and can be worn frontwards, backwards and inside out

Website: www.independencedayclothing.com

Hanna Andersson

  • soft, comfortable clothing

Website: www.hannaandersson.com

Lucky & Me

  • soft, smooth fabrics that are free of harmful chemicals

Website: www.luckyandme.com

SOS Approach to Feeding Conference

I recently attended the SOS Approach to Feeding conference in Edmonton, AB. What a fascinating 4 days jam packed with information about kids who are picky eaters and problem feeders! Here are a few things that I learned:

  • most picky eaters are picky because they either do not have the required oral motor skills (ability to chew, move their tongue, close their lips) or have difficulties with the sensory input (taste, texture, colour, shape, sound, etc.)
  • it is important to assess if there are any medical reasons for the picky eating behaviours (e.g. reflux, food allergies or intolerances) as a child will not want to eat if it makes them hurt or feel uncomfortable
  • it is very important to introduce foods at a pace that the child is comfortable with, stress actually turns off a child’s appetite so it is counterproductive

An OT can help assess your child to determine the underlying skills that they need to work on in order to be more successful in their eating. Please contact me if you have any questions or would like more information on the services I provide.