E86: Body Language, Literally with Pediatric OT, Wendy Pavicic

Wendy Pavicic, Pediatric Occupational Therapist of over 20 years joins us to discuss the importance of involving play and your body in every learning experience (especially as a child). The basics of physical growth and development are directly correlated to literacy. It's as simple as crawling, these seemingly "easy" skills so early on support reading, motions for doing so, as well as writing. Wendy also points out the value of multimodal learning, which is the benefit of learning with multiple senses together which allows children to better retain material. Listen in to find ways to add more play & body work to your little one's day! Join us for this next episode of our series with The Literacy Cooperative, Donate to this amazing organization here. Key Takeaways [00:01:30] The importance of play for children "The opposite of play is not work, it's depression." [00:06:09] Importance of play for adults [00:12:01] Multimodal learning and senses [00:19:48] Pediatric occupational therapy explained "I like to say or like to think that we help kids do what they need to do and achieve their highest level of independence and individual potential regardless of what the skill is." [00:23:48] Movement Activities @ Home "Giving kids opportunity for heavy work, which is proprioceptive input, as well as kind of the calming movement." [00:29:30] All early body development and it's importance to literacy [00:32:20] Healthy boundaries in play "We're a whole person and that social emotional piece is key." [00:39:36] Finding help through word of mouth Where to Find Wendy Instagram – @WendyPavicic Email – [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices