Sensory W.I.S.E. Solutions Podcast for Parents

Tune in for this short but sweet episode where I interviewed my 5 year old about some of the things we talk about often at home, including

• how she expresses her emotions
• what she thinks about everyone having feelings
• how meltdowns are handled and how she prefers to handle them
• what it's like being sensory sensitive

Links:
Podcast transcript: www.theotbutterfly.com/77
Enroll in Sensory W.I.S.E. Solutions
 
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Do you have a child who avoids, is fearful of, or has meltdowns around sensory triggers related to: 

• wearing certain clothes/fabrics/shoes/socks
• eating a variety of foods
• being around loud sounds/busy environments
• getting their hands or skin messy/sticky
• hygiene tasks like taking a bath, washing their hair or brushing their hair

This episode takes you through my 4 step process (W.I.S.E.) to supporting them through this at home!<...

In this unscripted episode, I catch you up to speed with where we are with emotional and sensory regulation. Spoiler alert- Liliana is THRIVING. I talk about some of the big, foundational, anchoring concepts we focused on that I feel have made a huge  impact in getting to where we are today. 

You'll hear me talk about

• Whether or not I think development/age plays a factor in her progress
• The top 5 game discussions/co...

Educating your kids about how their brain and bodies work can be a game changer when it comes to supporting their regulation. When we give them the cheat sheet to how their brain works, they can start to understand why certain things are hard for them, and why they may have certain quirks or behaviors. More importantly, when we educate our kids about how their brain and bodies work, it can give them the language to self advocate wi...

Dr. Tracy Dalgleish helps empower women and couples to improve their communication and build strong and healthy connections with themselves and their partner through therapy, wellness seminars, and her work outside of the therapy room. She contributes to popular media sites, including Motherly, Huffington Post, and Bustle. In addition to hosting the podcast, “I’m not your shrink” where she dives deeper into clinical knowledge and r...

Today I got to ask Kelly Mahler (aka the QUEEN of interoception) all about the 8th sense and how our experiences of interoception differ so much across individuals, but especially within the neurodivergent community. 

Kelly Mahler OTD, OTR/L, earned a Doctorate in Occupational Therapy from Misericordia University, Dallas, PA. She has been an occupational therapist for 20 years, serving school-aged children and adults. Kelly is ...

Happy OT month! To continue our celebration, I'm re-airing an episode that gives you information on not only accessing OT in the US, but how to leverage and make the most out of the OT services you may already be getting for your child.

Making the most out of your child’s OT services (that you had to fight tooth and nail for, go down very deep internet rabbit holes and stalk the local mom group just to find) is impor...

In honor of Occupational Therapy month, I’m interviewing Dr. Krupa Playforth to help us understand the challenges parents and doctors face when it comes to referring kids with sensory needs to OT. Dr. Playforth and I will unpack from a parent perspective, therapist and pediatrician perspective and give tips on specific questions to ask/what to say in order to best advocate for OT services with your pediatrician. 

Dr Playforth is a b...

It's Occupational Therapy month and we are celebrating by highlighting some of the ways you can get OT support for your children. Today we're talking about OT support through the public school system, specifically in the United States. This episode covers basic information about IEP services and 504 plans, how they differ and how to effectively create a support team that has your child's best interests in mind.
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If you’ve ever worried about your preschooler’s handwriting skills and whether or not they’ll be able to write their name or their ABCs by kindergarten, let us (a pediatric Occupational Therapist and a former teacher with a Masters in Early Childhood Education) put your mind at ease. You might be shocked to realize that some of the expectations placed on kindergarteners and young learners isn’t actually backed by evidence. This epi...

Here’s a quick update on how our sensitivity to clothing journey has progressed, including the most game-changing hack I got Liliana to try (and hope it might save you some meltdowns in the future as well)


Behind the scenes morning routine clothing challenge

Grab the from stressed to dressed clothing guide

Blog post on clothing sensitivity 

Episode transcript: https://www.theotbutterfly.com/podcast

The OT Butterfly Insta...

This week I get to share the great conversation I had with Elizabeth Sautter, an SLP who specializes in social communication, emotional regulation and executive functioning for over 25 years. She strives to provide neurodiverse affirming therapy, training, resources and an online course for parents with a passion to make it simple and sprinkled into everyday life as an “add IN”, not an add “ON” to everyday routines and activities. ...

This is a re-air of episode 20.

All behavior is a form of communication, but sometimes it can be hard to decipher what our children are communicating. When kids hit, kick, spit, punch, throw or push, parents often ask me, “is this sensory or is it behavior?” 

I’m here to end that debate once and for all. Well, maybe not end it, but at least help you reframe it.

Because what the real question should be is “What is ...

Description (buzz sprout & meta):

We all benefit from using sensory supports throughout our day (regardless of neurotype). However, some individuals, particularly neurodivergent individuals with sensory processing disorder need a more specialized, proactive and consistent schedule of sensory input throughout their day, which is often referred to as a sensory lifestyle. 

Listen to this episode to learn: 

• What a sensory lif...

What exactly is proprioceptive input and why do Occupational Therapists keep talking about it? If you’ve never heard of the term proprioceptive input, you might have heard of “heavy work” which is the more commonly used term. Keep reading to find out what proprioceptive input is, and why it’s probably the answer to some of your sensory regulation questions.

Links:
Episode transcript: https://www.theotbutterfly.com/podcast

Th...

I often preach about spending time after the meltdown to help your child “fill in the blanks” for some things you may have to do during a meltdown (like leave the room, hold a boundary). In this episode, I give you a behind the scenes listen to how that actually plays out in ur house and my play-by-play reflection and reasoning for everything I said.

Link:
Episode transcript: https://www.theotbutterfly.com/podcast

The ...

Have you ever heard of interoception? It’s one of the 8 senses and it’s responsible for alerting us of our internal sensations, such as heart beat, hunger/thirst, fullness cues, aches, pains and other miscellaneous sensations. Have you ever said “I have butterflies in my tummy” or “My heart dropped”? Those sensations are interoception signals to your brain and it’s highly linked to emotional regulation. Listen to this episode to fi...

We had our first experience of a family play-date hang out at our house and, it went way worse than I ever could have imagined. I knew meltdowns would be possible, but I’ve never seen my daughter explode completely in front of new people before. In this episode, you’ll hear 2 parts:  My initial, next day raw reaction with very vulnerable thoughts… and then a 2nd part where I come back a few weeks later after having processed my tho...

One of my absolute favorite books is The Out of Sync Child from Carol Kranowitz. If you haven’t read it yet, and you want to learn more abut SPD in a really easy to understand way, then check out this book. 

One of the post it notes that I have from when I still read it was the one with the quote, on page 28, “low self-esteem is one of the most telling symptoms of Sensory Processing Disorder.”  and this is in the section of the...