How do you know when your child is old enough or big enough to ride without a booster? Check out the following from Today’s Parent that discusses the current guidelines.
Today’s Parent: How to know when your kid can ride without his booster seat
A Guide To Toys For All Children
Toys R Us has published a handy guide for selecting and purchasing toys for children with differing abilities. The guide recognizes that each child is unique, and has a different set of abilities, and therefore makes suggestions based on which type of skill you are looking to build. The guide also features safety tips and a listing of helpful Apps. Check it out to help you find the perfect gift this holiday season!
5 Life Lessons Learned From The Elf On The Shelf
The holidays bring a host of traditions. From the process of getting real trees to decorating fake ones, from putting up lights, buying the right gift, and who to visit when, there is no shortage of ways to be busy in December. However, the most recent tradition is the ever popular Elf On the Shelf. Starting only a few years ago, this toy and book is now ranked one of the leading children’s toys of the season.
If you have one you know the drill. If you don’t it goes like this: The Elf has been sent from the North Pole to supervise children. Every night he wanders back to Santa to report on naughty and nice behavior. When he returns in the morning he is in a different place in the house, or is engaging in suspicious, silly or reckless behavior. With this new holiday tradition comes a Social Media flurry of photos showing the Elf assuming a multitude of positions and behaviors.
So while I am personally “traditioned-out” this time of year and have yet to buy an Elf for our home, I think there are some valuable life lessons we can take from this crafty creature:
Don’t stop having fun. If buying an Elf forces you to be silly, fun, spontaneous, and goofy, go for it. We should never take ourselves too seriously.
Childhood is short, keep it exciting. If having an Elf helps kids to start each day with a smile, an adventurous love for getting out of bed to see where the Elf has landed, or to react for several mornings like they do on those special days of Christmas, Easter, or after losing a tooth, it is all good. After all, in the early years that is their one purpose in life – to be curious, interested in the world, and excited to explore new things.
It’s okay to observe. Sometimes we need to sit back, watch, listen, and take it all in. Whether we are reporting back to Santa, or just soothing the interior of our own soul, reflect, pause and just “be” sometimes.
Each day is new. Celebrate it. If we could all awake with vigor and excitement, and like the Elf use our day to engage in new and challenging situations, to think outside the box, and to gain a new perspective, life could be much more exciting. Assume a different position sometimes, look at your world upside down, take a new stance and see what happens. Maybe moving around a little and trying new things is just the perspective you need to head in a new direction or to better the path you are on.
Don’t stop being creative. Whether your Elf is fishing for Goldfish, doing icing sugar snow angels, or almost falling into the toilet bowl, creativity is a spark of life. In the book “Brainstorm” it talks about how important creativity is for developing minds and how this declines in adulthood. This decline in creativity has become a theory to explain middle-age unhappiness. So, use the Elf as a model for how to stop each day from being repetitive and mundane and find ways to creativity explore and express yourself.
If you have an Elf, enjoy. Or, if you are like me, you have enough to do this season. Either way, take these lessons inspired by the Elf on the Shelf and have an awesome December.
Meet The Newest Muppet
Sesame Street has just introduced a new character to their long-running show. Julia, who has autism, has been introduced as part of the show’s See Amazing in All Children campaign. Sesame Street is hoping to reduce stigma, promote inclusion and encourage conversations about Autism Spectrum Disorder. Check out the following from Global News to learn more about Julia and this great initiative!
Global News: Sesame Street introduces autistic character as part of initiative to reduce stigma
photo courtesy of Autism Speaks
Christmas Gifts That Are OT Approved!
Julie Entwistle, MBA, BHSc (OT), BSc (Health / Gerontology)
If you’re a keen and organized shopper, I’m sure you have the majority of your holiday gifts already purchased, and if you’re anything like my Mother had everything done and wrapped in August! However, if you’re anything like my husband, you are waiting until the 24th to think about Christmas.
Although Santa and his Elves are hard at work building the toys your children put on their Christmas wish list, there may be a few items you still need to purchase.
We consulted our talented team of Pediatric Occupational Therapists and are happy to provide you with some fun but functional gift inspiration. These are gifts that are educational and stimulate child development:
1. BOOKS: Although technically not toys, books make an excellent gift. Fostering a love of reading in children from an early age is essential in development of language and literacy skills, while building creativity and imagination. And so many types of books exist! Beyond regular books, pop-up books, and interactive books, there are even books where you can record your voice, or the voice of a loved one into the story so that person is “reading” to your child. This is great for those people in your life who are out of town and are not able to “read” bedtime stories in person.
2. TOYS THAT MAKE THEM THINK: Look for puzzles, games, shaper sorters, science kits and more. Problem solving through play is fantastic for the mind and will help them become independent problem solvers in life. But be prepared to explore and learn with them. Interactive parent-child time through new learning is also essential to development!
3. TOYS THAT GET THEM MOVING: We’re living in the sedentary age of technology where obesity is on the rise. Try some active toys like a skipping rope, scooter, ride on toy, a bike or winter sports gear like skates, skis or snowshoes. But with all riding toys, include the helmet too! Keeping kids active is extremely important for both their physical and mental health!
4. TOYS THAT BRING OUT THEIR CREATIVE SIDE: Fostering creativity in kids at an early age is important for their development. Looks for gifts that will encourage them to be creative like art kits, dress up clothes or crafts and supplies.
5. AN EXPERIENCE THEY WON’T FORGET: Too many toys to choose from? Why not treat the children to an experience instead. Consider tickets to a sporting event, a play, or musical or a child-appropriate concert. Special events like these create fantastic memories and can strengthen family bonds.
We hope you find some gift inspiration from our tips and with you very Happy Holidays!
Originally posted December 8, 2014
Kids In The Kitchen
Having kids help in the kitchen, baking and preparing meals, is great for improving their relationship with food, reducing picky eating, encouraging healthy eating, and can also help boost math and reading skills. Spending time together cooking is also a great way to bond with your children. The following site, The Family Kitchen, has great tips, ideas and recipes to help encourage you and your family to work together in the kitchen. Check it out and get cooking together!
Kids Take a Stand For Better Health and Better Grades
Across Canada many schools are piloting standing desks for students as opposed to the traditional table and chair. This non-traditional approach, as observed to date, has helped to improve concentration, posture and overall health. Take a look at the following from CTV News to learn more and see if it’s time for your children to “take a stand.”
CTV News: Think on your feet? Schools try out standing desks for students
The Detriments of Screen Time and a FREE “Technology Pass”
Co-written with Brittany So, Occupational Therapist
I was at a school Open House when I saw a mother calm her whining and crying 18 month old child with an iPad. Astonishingly, he knew how to swipe it on, enter the password and manage the menus. He launched a game and sat on the floor completely immersed in his game and oblivious to the parents and kids needing to step over him. Was he just brilliant to manage an iPad like this from such a young age (is there a toddler iPad Olympics?), or perhaps he spends a bit too much time being pacified by technology? I think the latter.
The sad reality is that more and more parents are using tablets as a calming mechanism for their children because it seems to work so effectively in the moment. However, professionals are now concerned about the serious long-term effects of constantly handing over a device to a child in exchange for, as Mr. Costanza puts it, “serenity now”.
Child psychologists and occupational therapists are finding that screen time is stunting the emotional development of children. Children are not learning strategies to self-regulate behavior since they are constantly masking their emotional problems with distracting games. Along with this expensive self-regulating strategy comes delayed development in language and social skills, poor sleep patterns, and poorer performance in school. And, what about the temper tantrum that erupts when the tablet battery dies halfway to Grandma’s?
The Canadian Paediatric Association recommends no more than 2 hours of screen time for children a day. A recent survey showed that children in grade 6-12 spend on average 8 hours a day in front of a screen. Another study showed that one in three children are using tablets before they can even talk. Screen time is becoming a serious addiction for our children’s generation and is associated with poor health related outcomes.
Fortunately, as occupational therapists that help people to regulate healthy behaviors, we have some thoughts and strategies to help eliminate the use of screen time in your household:
• Set strict limits on the amount of time your children can use the tablet or computer each day (2 hours is the recommended maximum).
• Use the tablet or computer as a reward system; it can only be used once the chores and homework are done (Change your wifi or device passwords daily or weekly and the kids cannot receive it until they have done their chores).
• Ensure a timer is set for the duration of the allowed activity – and stick to it! When it “dings” the child knows to return the device.
• For every hour of screen time your children must engage in another activity (i.e. board game with the siblings, a craft, playing outside, going for a bike ride etc.)
• Own one family device that requires sharing rather than each child having their own.
• Make a rule that devices are only to be used in common areas, not in bedrooms.
As a mother of four, I have two household strategies in place: one is a cell-phone contract that my children must agree-to and sign prior to getting their own phone (in our house this is at age 14), the other is our “technology pass”. This “pass” requires our kids to confirm, via checklist and parental inspection, that their chores and responsibilities are done, before they are “rewarded” with screen time. Many of my friends have asked me for a copy of our pass, so I have included this below. Feel free to copy, print, or modify to suit the needs of your family as well!
Being an occupational therapist is a blessing and a curse when it comes to parenting. Our profession is all about productivity, function and self and behavior-regulation. I hope that my firm approach to “OT-parenting” will be an asset to my children in the future.
The Halloween Hangover
Parties, costumes and of course candy: for kids, and kids at heart, Halloween is always fun! But among the pile of candy is a hidden pile of sugar that is detrimental to their health. Now that the fun is over, how do you as a parent limit the amount they consume? Check out these great tips from Kidshealth.org on ways to reduce candy consumption.
Kids Health: 15 Ways To Use Leftover Halloween Candy
The Picky Eating Problem
Do you have a child that is a picky eater? For many this is a common issue and another reason that parents seek OT services for their child. While it is normal for kids to have food preferences and dislikes, picky eating can be very concerning for parents.
Occupational Therapists can work with families to create solutions tailored to the individual child. In general we suggest some of the following tips:
– Remove the pressure
– Allow the child to “play with their food”
– Encourage food exploration on their own terms
– Maintain a consistent meal-time routine
– Introduce changes and new foods slowly – overcoming picky eating is a very gradual process
Watch our video below to learn more on how an Occupational Therapist can help families overcome the picky eating problem and raise healthy, happy eaters.