Being an occupational therapist, my focus is usually on families who have children with developmental challenges such as Autism, ADD/ADHD, learning disability, traumatic brain injury, or additional cognitive/behavioral difficulties that could include challenging behaviors. I often work with families who have sought an evaluation from a developmental pediatrician or psychologist. If you are on my site and are looking for help to manage your children in your home, I may be what you are looking for.

I offer all families a in-home 45 minute consultation to determine if we are a good fit for each other. If we are, I will initiate an observation in the environment/s that you are concerned about. The observation length varies depending on the families concerns. See "My Unique Approach" for details on my programs

HYPERLINK SENSORY INTEGRATION A "sensory diet" is a term used to describe the daily strategies that are implemented to help regulate your child's sensory system. As discussed in Sensory Integration, a child with sensory dysfunction may struggle with everyday things that seem otherwise inconsequential to others. Examples include eating foods of different textures, brushing teeth, playing with peers at the park, or going into a new environment. When the brain is unable to accurately process these experiences, they appear threatening to the child resulting in over or under reactive responses. These often look like behavior issues. A "sensory diet" involves designated activities that are incorporated into a child's day to keep their system regulated. Example: a child may seek sensory input due to poor awareness of their body in space. This may result in them being very active, rambunctious, impulsive, or socially inappropriate because they stand too close to others, hit other children, or hug too firmly. A "sensory diet" for this child may incorporate suggestions like having crunchy foods at every meal, crab-walking during transitions, rough-housing during play and wearing a weighted belt.

Proprioception is the term used to understand where one joint is in relation to another. It is the brain's way of getting information from the joints to understand where we are in space, how to move through space, and how to grade our movement. As an example, when you look at a glass full of water, you know how far you need to reach your arm and with what force you need to pick up the glass, to ensure you don't spill the water. When our proprioception is inaccurate, we don't have a good sense of where we are in space which makes it very difficult to interact correctly with our environment. Children with low tone and poor body awareness have difficulty with proprioception and may be misunderstood. They could be considered lazy, clumsy, socially challenged (personal space issues), impulsive, or over active because they seek out heavy input from their environment to try understand their body in space.

The visual-vestibular system is our system that allows us to see and move through space with efficiency and accuracy. Many children (Autism, ADD/ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, etc.) have visual-vestibular dysfunction as a part of their challenges. Children may be under or over responsive to visual stimuli or to the movement of their bodies through space. Our vestibular system (movement system) helps us to navigate through our world without falling down or feeling dizzy. Children with visual-vestibular challenges may either avoid many typical childhood activities due to the discomfort/stress it creates (refusing to swing). Or they may seek out more of the input because their systems feel dampened and they need extra stimuli to "wake up" their brains.

Please see Primitive Reflex Integration for details on this area. You can also get more information at http://www.rhythmicmovement.com/