As a parent, when you bump into a fellow parent at the community center or local Starbucks, you may find yourself sharing about your child’s firsts…the first time he/she sat up or walked, spoke his/her first words…but not often when your child first held a block or grabbed a Cheerio with a fine pincer grasp….
Essential Foundations of Fine Motor Skills: Activities for Home
Vision Play Ball! Start by throwing a large ball to and from your child, and progress to smaller balls as able. When playing board games, present cards high, low, left, and right to encourage looking and reaching. Using Easels and LARGE paper/posters, create a connect the dot picture or place a vertical column of stickers/images…
He’s not a ‘bad kid’, he has a sensory processing disorder
How our body and brain receives, interprets, organizes, and utilizes sensory information SHOULD be an automatic process that occurs accurately and efficiently, without effort or conscious choice. A sensory processing disorder (SPD) is an “invisible” challenge, characterized by a disorganized way that the nervous systems attempts to understand and make use of sensory information. Considering…
Summer Camps! Just a few considerations…
With low temps and a blanket of snow on the ground, shifting our thoughts to summer may seem unseasonable. Camp registrations, however, will be in full swing very soon. It remains challenging to meet the needs of both parents and children when planning the summer’s activities. Selecting an appropriate camp program is a delicate dance…
3 Family Stressbusters for the Holidays
You walk into the mall and hear the holiday music, see the crowds of families shuffling around carrying bags filled with presents, and smell the festive candles lit at Yankee Candles. You and your children are on your way to see Santa Claus to drop off Christmas lists and hopefully capture a decent photo of…
4 Tips to Survive Thanksgiving with a Picky Eater
Thanksgiving is next week, and if you have a picky eater you may be feeling a little uneasy. While for most, it is a day of family and fun; for the parent of a picky eater, coupling battles over food with the pressure of onlooking family can be almost too much to bear. Fear not!…
Halloween Spooktacular
Halloween is fast approaching, and you want to get yourself and your family into the festive spirit. But your time is valuable and you are always looking for ways to get some extra therapy into your child’s day. Look No Further! Halloween is ripe with sensory possibilities and fine motor fun. Check out these Halloween…
Are you Occupying or Engaging your Child?
Over the summer, I was lucky enough to travel and explore Italy. My new husband and I used every mode of transportation possible- planes, trains, ferries, buses, and taxis to navigate the Mediterranean coast. We had plenty of time to people watch, as we waited at each transfer. The one observation I kept making was…
Preview the July 23rd CMTENY Montessori Conference Keynote!
2015 One-Day Regional Montessori Conference: PATHWAYS TO A PEACEFUL SCHOOL “Peace is what every human being is craving…and it can be brought about by humanity through the child.“–Dr. Maria Montessori Thursday, July 23, 2015 Crowne Plaza Hotel, 66 Hale Avenue, White Plains, New York 10601 8:30am – 6:00pm Aubrey Schmalle and the staff at Sensational Achievements will…
Scoop on Praxis and Executive Function
What is the Difference Between Praxis and Executive Function? Could a Person have Difficulties with Both? Executive function is a general umbrella term used to describe a variety of cognitive skills involving self-regulation, mental control of behavior/decision-making, attention, working memory, cognitive flexibility, forward thinking, planning and organization. Dr. Teresa-May Benson, a well known researcher in…
