Sparkle Occupational Therapy Project

21/05/2025

Thank you so much to Neurodiversity Ireland for inviting me to contribute to your discussion panel!

21/05/2025

I haven’t posted in a while but look what I got to do this weekend!

Only hang out with my total OT crush Meg Ferrell of Learn Play Thrive 😍😍😍 on a discussion panel at the very first Neurodiversity Ireland Summit!

06/11/2023

It’s Occupational Therapy Week 2023. This is a tiny insight into what I do as diagnosis occupational therapist. 💚💚💚

29/07/2023

I bloody hate hand over hand. I always have. Even in neuro rehab where it can be necessary due to motor skill challenges.

When I say ‘hand over hand’ I am referring to the physical prompting that often happens when some therapists teach kids. These kids don’t have motor difficulties.

Often therapists will say that it’s a matter of not understanding. The kid doesn’t understand which one the star is, or they don’t understand the instruction ‘point to’ or ‘give me’. That might be true some of the time. I would still argue that there are other, less intrusive, more respectful ways to teach our kids.

More often than not, though, this technique is about compliance.

The adult is teaching the child to comply with any and every instruction. A lot of the time the child’s autonomy is removed. They don’t have a choice. They don’t have a voice.

There are massive issues with this.

Our neurodivergent kids are already at higher risk of abuse than their neurotypical peers.

Our ND kids are already up against horrific mental health statistics.

It’s really dangerous to teach our ND kids that they owe total control to adults and authority figures, no matter what. No matter how uncomfortable they feel. No matter how unsafe it feels. We should not be teaching our kids to ignore their needs. Never.

This illustration shows the specific problems.

Here are ways that you can teach without hand over hand:

1. Modelling. Show the particular concept or skill that the child can practice. Model without expectation. That means it is their choice whether they engage with the practice or not.

2. Build the new skills and concepts into natural, authentic play interactions. Our kids learn new stuff amazingly fast when we connect with them through their deep interests and joy.

3. Give the child an opportunity to help a teddy or toy ‘practice’ the new skill or concept. That way the pressure is off the child to get it right.

4. Give the child opportunity to be the teacher and have them teach a parent the new thing.

5. You can always ask if the child wants your help with it. You can offer assistance in the way of positioning their hand, or helping with a difficult toy. If they want your help, fine. Teach them that they have control over who touches their body. Show them how an adult asks for consent.

Bottom line- our kids don’t always have the mental capacity to meet our expectations. This could be for lots of different reasons. If a kid is not engaging with the therapy tasks, consider if the task is appropriate. Think about the child’s strengths and deep interests, and adjust things so that the learning happens in a fun, natural way. If the kid isn’t doing it, change the task. Try different things.

Hand over hand is unnecessary.

Em 🌈🌻✌️
AuDHD SLP

03/07/2023

Sparkle Occupational Therapy Project is 10 years old!

02/07/2023

This blog is 10 years old! I cannot believe Sparkle Occupational Therapy has got to 10. This started as a way of keeping up to date with professional development during my maternity leave and my how this baby has grown! I have come a huge way privately and professionally. Identifying as professional Marmite comes with the territory of being a neurodivergent occupational therapist unfortunately....

This blog is 10 years old! I cannot believe Sparkle Occupational Therapy has got to 10. This started as a way of keeping up to date with professional development during my maternity leave and my ho…

28/06/2023

Another area of shift for me is ensuring that I have fair self-regulation expectations!!! Bringing back this post to remind us how interoception provides that bridge between self-regulation and co-regulation, so if someone has an unclear inner experience, then expecting self-regulation is neurobiologically unfair.

We always need to consider if a person has the underlying interoceptive awareness that is needed for self-regulation success.

We are all born needing co-regulation; where we depend on caregivers to identify and manage our bodily needs. Co-regulation is not coddling! As we grow and interact with our caregivers and the world around us, we might begin to learn about our interoceptive experiences–what our inner sensations mean for us and how we can change the way our body feels.

In other words, we develop Interoceptive Awareness—which is the bridge between co-regulation and self-regulation.

Therefore IA becomes a crucial consideration that needs to come before any expectations of self-regulation. Build IA and build the bridge needed to move between co-regulation and self-regulation.

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Image Description: An outdoor scene depicting two boulders on either side of a river with a bridge in between. There is grass around the boulders and a blue sky with clouds above them. At the top of the graphic, over the sky, there is a title that reads: Build the IA Bridge from Co-Regulation to self-regulation. On the left boulder, the definition of coregulation is written. On the right boulder, the definition of self-regulation is written. There is a purple bridge between the boulders and over the river representing interoceptive awareness. The definition of interoceptive awareness is written on the bridge.

09/06/2023

Mmmm ADL p**n 😍

23/05/2023

When you are just minding your own biz and you look up to see that blue hair is defo the new uniform for cool children’s OTs 😁 What do you reckon The Occuplaytional Therapist? 🥰

28/04/2023

What does a neurodivergent affirming actually occupational therapist do?

What does a actually do?

27/04/2023

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in the UK are failing Autistic young people.

They are turning away Autistic children because of no other reason than their Autistic identity.

Think about it. Autistic children are more likely to experience trauma and mental health issues, but less likely to receive support for their struggles.

And we wonder why such terrible things happen to Autistic people and their families.

https://www.change.org/p/child-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-stop-camhs-denying-support-for-autistic-kids

https://niamhjournalist.medium.com/i-vomit-blood-and-i-am-terrified-bereaved-mum-campaigning-for-a-statutory-public-inquiry-in-e4a43c551b86

https://emergentdivergence.com/creating-autistic-suffering/

https://emergentdivergence.com/2023/02/26/camhs-nearly-killed-me-and-its-not-okay/

https://emergentdivergence.com/2023/03/09/camhs-in-crisis-the-systemic-failing-of-autistic-people/

https://emergentdivergence.com/2023/04/12/camhs-ignorance-of-autistic-children-runs-deeper-than-refusing-to-see-them/

27/04/2023

No one can feel regulated when they don’t feel actually feel safe.

No one can point to what colour they are feeling when they are terrified to get it right or wrong, they will just pretend and point to what they think will draw the least attention.

This will not solve or resolve for the time stretched, over worked,
under resourced teacher either that may be desperate to find a solution.

Our children need more.

Because environmental issues are not about their ability to communicate their distress.
Our children feel trapped and even paralysed by the anxiety.

By an environment where all of it is overwhelming. The pressure, the demands, the sensory, the unwritten rules that everyone understands and seem to manage but when you are autistic it is all unbearable.

But you don’t want to be different, you want to be okay and hang out with your friends.
So you mask.

Appearing fine is the way to get people to leave you alone,
stop asking questions you can’t answer, stop making you stand out from your friends.

Survival, it kicks in automatically as soon as we enter, as soon as that teacher speaks to us “are you okay?”
“Yep fine” (why is she asking me? Have I blown my cover? Do I look different?)

So no, emotional regulation tools while not ‘bad’ I’m sorry to say will not be what our children need in an environment that feels overwhelming.. they need safety.
And that’s learning options, time, relationships, connection (real true connection) tangible learning..

And until then?
Point to how I’m feeling?
As my child said “what difference will it make? I still have to stay there”