Sprout Children's Therapy Center

04/09/2024

Eclipse-inspired thoughts! 🌒 Will you be checking out the solar eclipse today?

05/14/2023

To all of the moms, doing all of the things. Carrying the physical loads, the mental loads, the emotional ones… We see you. And we hope you find some self-care, kindness and celebration today 💗

05/08/2023

04/19/2023

This is important - 💯
🌐 www.highfive.school

04/19/2023

So excited to be offering this summer group!

03/26/2023

via Unconditional Parenting

03/13/2023

It's Camp time!!!!

02/28/2023

This looks like a phenomenal line up with a lot of fantastic topics and support! We highly recommend checking this out 😍😍😍

WE ARE TWO DAYS AWAY from the DECODING BEHAVIOR SUMMIT!

Join me, along with some of our favorite people, including Tosha Schore, Your Partner in Parenting Boys, Emily W. King, PhD, Emily Daniels from HERE this NOW, Stuart Shanker (author of the book Self-Reg) and so many more, as we talk about what behavior means and how we better support our kids!

Click on the link to claim your FREE spot. The summit is over 3 days (my day is Friday). If you miss it or need more time, there is a paid option, but it's FREE to sign up and listen!

Here is the link to register for the DECODING BEHAVIOR SUMMIT! https://bit.ly/41C88ei

02/15/2023

02/11/2023

Educational Post: This is Leemo, a friend I made for the kinder children I was working with and for this week. Leemo's a sticky toy that creeps down the side of their bottle when it's turned about (I added the eye to Leemo for children to empathise with as a living creature).

The curious thing about Leemo is that they'll slowly roll down the side of the bottle they live in as long as the bottle's tilted or handled gently. The moment someone shakes the bottle, however, Leemo freezes in place and sticks to the inner walls, unmoving and held in place by the agitation.

When explaining this to the children, we discussed how this can happen too with people, when a situation is unsettling for them and it can make them shut down and be unresponsive, essentially a reaction that ties in with flight or fight responses, not that we used those terms, but the meaning of this was understood by the children.

At first, when looking at Leemo, many of the children were curious as to how Leemo moved and responded to their handling of the bottle. Some did indeed shake it to see that Leemo would in fact freeze in place, but only the once. As Leemo's bottle was passed around by some 14 or so children as they sat in a circle, everyone's movements and handling of Leemo became more gentle and considered.

The children spent close to 20 minutes passing Leemo's bottle amongst themselves, and it was only for the first several minutes that any one of them shook the bottle. The remaining time was one of great care and affection with the children even talking in much quieter tones to avoid frightening Leemo.

They reached their own acceptance of knowing that they in fact had some sway in Leemo's reactions based on their own actions, and they made the choice to respond with great care.

This activity and interaction invited the children to consider empathy, how their actions affect others, and how they themselves are affected by the acts of others. The agitation of Leemo's bottle, and how doing so would halt any progress or calm movement, was a good analogy for stressors and how we can respond to others affected by them.

It was absolutely joyuous to see how the children chose to respond with care, even while having the choice to do otherwise 🥰

I'll most definitely be making more of these as teaching aids, but with the addition of care instructions and why they're important.

Edit: I've made a page on my site specifically for Leemo... it has the video tutorial, a broader explanation of Leemo's intent with a PDF version available for educators, and a PDF of Care Instructions to display for children.

You can find the Leemo page here:
brettjcole.com/leemo ☺️

This post has received so much more attention than I expected! Thank you for everyone's interest in Leemo and a HUGE thanks to all who've shared it! 🥰 I'm glad they resonate as a means of teaching children an important message about empathy ♥️

If you do like this post, you're welcome to follow my page as it's a mix of many aspects of my life as an adult Autistic, an educator, and also a writer and artist, including educational illustrated children's books.

01/31/2023

"It's OK to struggle. We need to remind ourselves we can do hard tasks. Learning happens in these moments!"

Check out how teacher Britt models a positive attitude toward difficult moments:

01/30/2023

Our favorite part: “Human beings are designed to do well. They are designed to develop that capacity to do well INSIDE relationship. If your child can’t do well, they need more scaffolding, support, and coregulation.” But read the whole thing… it’s spot on!

Keep reading or listen to a similar topic on the podcast! I’ve been thinking about the word ‘trust’- as in “I can’t trust my child to do XYZ…” (make the […]

01/29/2023

We are hiring! We are looking for a full time or part time pediatric OT with experience/interest in sensory integration and a holistic practice model. Please reach out to dani@sproutctc.com or see our website for more info!

https://www.sproutctc.com/working-at-sprout

10/01/2022

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=644980160317361&id=100044161493128&set=a.337004814448232

Many students are being asked and incentivized to do things that aren't yet possible due to their social-emotional development. That's called the expectation gap, and it's causing needless stress and anxiety for children and their loving parents.