Spending time with your child can be a joy, but the pressure to “do the right thing” and make sure your child is on “the right path” can sometimes seem overwhelming.  This section brings clear insights into how play can support and actually facilitate development not just in the physical arena.  Sensory motor activities can have a strong influence over emotions, attention, stimulating language and establishing pathways in the brain for more complex cognitive processing.  Most important, while you play with your child, you are strengthening that parent child bond and your positive relationship will grow.

Simple activities are reviewed and explained.  With a sensory motor framework,  holding a balloon for your child to reach and bat away will take on a whole new level of significance. Playing the “Squeeze Game” while walking from the grocery store to the car or bus can turn into an interactive activity that strengthens the hands, helps reorganize an over stimulated or fatigued child and build awareness of how to “grade” movement and build body awareness.

I invite you to visit these pages to set a new course in parenting and play.  Feel empowered in recognizing all the simple activities you already do that lead to integration and healthy development.  Expand your repertoire with new ideas.   Enjoy the journey!

Body Strengthening:  A key ingredient to almost all activities, including paying attention at school! is having a stable base, or strong body.  This section reviews simple strategies and activities to help build  strong bodies from birth on.

Hand Strengthening:  From picking up a cheerio to buttoning a sweater to completing the writing section of the SAT, strong muscles in the wrist, hand and fingers is key.  Learn how you can begin strengthening those little muscles from the first day of life on.  Discover how your child can become your “sous chef” and little helper around the house and develop the fine motor control for all table top activities including writing.

Dexterity:  Along with strong muscles in the hand, many other components come into play to develop dexterity in the hands.  Bilateral, eye hand and isolating movement of each finger is required.  This section reviews in depth these components and the corresponding activities to develop each area.

Organizing the Body:  Body awareness leads to coordination of movement at the gross and small motor levels.  It also helps organize the child.  Encouraging a variety of motor activities can “wake up” the brain or help facilitate a calming or relaxation response.  Learn how in this section.

Tactile Exploration and Discrimination:  Some of us are “touchy-feelie” and love to muck around in all kinds of gooey substances.  For others, the thought of immersing any body part into some viscous material is revolting. Learn why each individual has tactile preferences and how to identify your child’s preferences.  Discover how to have your child engage most effectively in developing comfort with tactile materials and develop the ability to discriminate through touch.  Learn why this is important for fine motor development, visual perception, social and emotional well being.

Visual Perception:  We hear this term bandied about but for many, an understanding of what this actually means remains nebulous.

This section reviews the many aspects to visual perception.   Be prepared to jump start this area of development in the delivery room!

Let’s Draw!:  Come Kindergarten, if not preschool, your child will be presented (or confronted) with a CRAYON.  How to get your child ready for this moment, feel confident and enjoy the activity is reviewed.  Put away the workbooks.  Whip out the plant sprayer.

Visit this section to learn more.  If you have an ebullient  Picasso at eighteen months, learn how to support the drawing process so bad habits don’t develop while the hand is still developing.

Bicycle Riding:  Along with toilet training, this is one of the more difficult activities to teach your child.  It requires a relationship of trust and knowing when to “let go.”  This section reviews readiness skills for cycling, along with how to get there.  Safety issues and resources are also provided.

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