Diagnostic & Psychological Services of Saint Johns

03/05/2025

I’m happy to announce that I am now a provider with Step-Up for Students. Evaluations and counseling services are available through the scholarship funds.

10/06/2024

✨ Parents of St. Augustine✨

Youth Crisis Center is currently running groups in your community to help your children develop better self-control, problem-solving skills, and healthier relationships. It is not too late to sign up. We are offering a FREE 13-week program for girls and boys ages 6-11! This program is perfect for children who may be struggling with behaviors like angry outbursts, difficulty making friends and being social, or overall behavioral issues at home and school.

📍 Where: 100 Whetstone Pl, St. Augustine, FL
💚 What’s Included: Free dinners, care for siblings, and transportation if needed!

Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity! Sign up today by emailing hhampton@ycc.org , scanning the QR code in the flyer, or calling (904) 776-3191 for more information.

Let’s work together to help our children grow and thrive!

09/19/2024

"Have you ever wondered why children are no longer taught to write in cursive?"
And no, it is not by chance that they tend to use it less and less.

Writing in cursive means translating thoughts into words; it forces you to not take your hand off the paper. A stimulating effort, which allows you to associate ideas, link them and put them in relation.
Not by chance does the word cursive come from the Latin "currere", which runs, which flows, because thought is winged, it runs, it flies.

Of course, cursive has no place in today's world, a world that does everything possible to slow down the development of thought, to fill it.
I think cursive was born in Italy and then spread throughout the world.
Why?
Because it was compact, elegant, clear writing.

But ours is a society that no longer has time for elegance, for beauty, for complexity; we have synthetics but not clarity, speed but not efficiency, information but not knowledge!
In general, we know too much and too little because we are no longer (generally speaking) able to put things into relation.

Most people can no longer think.

This is why we should go back to writing in cursive, especially at school. Because this is not just about recovering a writing style, but about giving breath to our thoughts again.

Cognitive development
Writing in cursive can help children develop cognitive skills by integrating fine motor skills with visual and tactile processing.

Brain regions
Cursive writing activates different neurological pathways than typing or manuscript writing.

Brain connectivity
Handwriting can increase connectivity between brain regions, especially those involved in memory formation.

Kinesthetic stimulation
The fluid motion of cursive writing provides a different type of kinesthetic stimulation that helps different parts of the brain develop and integrate.

Learning and memory
A study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology found that cursive handwriting helps the brain learn and remember better.

Functional specialization
Cursive writing can help train the brain for functional specialization, which is the ability to work efficiently.

09/09/2024

Can you believe we are 5-weeks into the new school year? I hope you are all settling into the mew routines each year brings. Please reach out if you need to secure counseling sessions or psycho-educational evaluations. I have a few counseling options available and have expanded into providing in home services.

08/16/2024

Wishing your kids all the best for the new academic year. I am available to provide psychological evaluations for IEP or 504 services, should you need them.

07/03/2024

05/21/2024

Tip:Schedule sessions and evaluations now to make the most of your summer relaxation.

08/23/2023

These are great conversation starters 🥰

05/18/2023

This is what specialized instruction was intended to accomplish.

YES! 🙌 Intentional IEP

05/14/2023

To all the moms I know and admire. Have a wonderful Mother’s Day ❤️💜💙💚💛

04/13/2023

This is such important information, “sensory processing” is often associated with ADHD and ASD when in fact it is a part of being human. Understanding sensory processing needs can be life changing for some children.

"Sensory" can be a real buzzword these days, and can be a little bit tough to understand!

There are a few different ways of understanding sensory processing, but Winnie Dunn's "four-quadrant" model is a very helpful one.

It describes how everybody in the world (not just kids, and not just people who have difficulties with sensory processing) has either a high or low tolerance for sensory input, and has either active or passive strategies about getting what they need.

Someone with high tolerance could be called someone with a "big cup". They can tolerate a loooot of sensory input.
Someone with low tolerance could be called someone with a "little cup". They can only handle a little bit before they're overwhelmed.

Someone with active strategies to get what they need will do what it takes to get that need met.
Someone with passive strategies might feel very uncomfortable in their environment but might not know that they can do something to get that need met, or might not notice what exactly is making them uncomfortable.

All people fit into one of these categories. They might even fit into more than one. Someone could have an active, high tolerance for strong tastes and flavors. They eat very adventurous foods and love spicy and sour. But they might have a passive, low tolerance for sound. They don't realize that they're distracted at work by an annoying rattling air conditioner in the background...all they know is that they're distracted.

Understanding sensory processing basics can help us understand how our children have reasons for doing what things they do. They can help us understand ourselves, too.

(Later today, I have a 2nd post scheduled that re-explains this same information, but in a little more depth. This is the sort of "primer" or most basic explanation. Tune in later if you would like to learn a little bit more about the same topic. 😊)

[Image description: A plus sign splits the image into four quadrants. The two axes of the plus sign are labelled "high tolerance" to "low tolerance" and "passive" to "active". In each of the quadrants is the category corresponding to that description: in the high tolerance and active quadrant are the "sensory seekers"; in the low tolerance and active quadrant are the "sensory avoiders", in the low tolerance and passive quadrant are the "sensory sensitive", and in the high tolerance and passive quadrant are "sensory 'missers'". End description.]