Your child loves computers, video games, or anything mechanical.  He or she would love to stay in the house and play on the iPad or computer all day every day.  It [...]]]> Today, we are blogging over at Special-Ism.com.  This is the 4th in a series of blog posts about children, temperament and summer camp.

Your child loves computers, video games, or anything mechanical.  He or she would love to stay in the house and play on the iPad or computer all day every day.  It is unnerving and a little (or maybe a lot) scary to see how absorbed your child becomes in these devices.  You plot and plan how to get him or her outside or engaged in physical activity during the school year.  How will you manage a whole summer????  I know…sign him or her up for camp; a nice out door camp with lots of kids who like to swim, do crafts, play sports, and essentially, like being with other kids.  What a great idea!  But then half way through the first week your child says he won’t go back to camp.  Nothing there is interesting.  The other kids are annoying.  Now what?  Of course, this may be an extreme example of what some uniquely quirky kids and families go through (or maybe not) but here are a few tips to help you and your child get through the camp experience.

Read more here…

Camp seems like the perfect place for an exuberant child who is excited about everything.  However, these are also the kids who may melt down at home or unexpectedly, at camp. [...]]]> Today, we are blogging over at Special-Ism.com.  This is the 3rd in a series of blog posts about children, temperament and summer camp.

Camp seems like the perfect place for an exuberant child who is excited about everything.  However, these are also the kids who may melt down at home or unexpectedly, at camp.  They may seem fine one minute and then explosive the next.  Here are a few tips and suggestions for helping your energetic child have a positive camp experience.

Read more here.

© Photographer: Robertosch | Agency: Dreamstime.com

We released our 100th books4all, I am Invited to a Party by Mo Williems. We decided that [...]]]> We can’t believe it’s been 2 years already!  To celebrate, we have a “goodie bag” for all of our fans and followers.  Here’s what’s inside:

• All of our apps are ON SALE today.

• We released our 100th books4all, I am Invited to a Party by Mo Williems. We decided that Mo has been one of our favorites to address social skills, so a perfect choice. If you aren’t familiar with our books4all please take a moment to check out 100 children’s books (and growing) discussed with therapy ideas. These books are searchable by goal or theme as well on all4mychild.com.

• Here are some summer themed books4all

• Our Talking Train App is on sale all month! This app was featured as a Special Showcase over at Special_ism so you can read all about it there.  And stay tuned for an exciting update coming soon. We are partnering with Lessonpix to bring lots of new images to the Talking Train!

• Check out our exciting new relationship with Mindwingconcepts. We have been HUGE fans on their products for years. Now we are also huge fans of their team, including Maryelllen Rooney Moreau and Sheila Moreau.  We can’t wait to share with you their Story Grammar app which comes out late Spring. Enter here for an iPad giveaway!

• Jill share’s thoughts and tips about Respecting Your Child’s Temperament at Summer Camp. This is the first in a series of 5 blog posts that will run over at Special-ism.com.

We appreciate all of the support over the last 2 years. We look ahead to continued collaboration, development of new apps and products, and… lots and lots of Social Adventures!

The cautious, sensitive, maybe shy and serious temperament can be one of the toughest to manage during these raucous camp days.  Parents want their child to have lots of friends, fun [...]]]> Today, we are blogging over at Special-Ism.com.  This is the 2nd in a series of blog posts about children, temperament and summer camp.

The cautious, sensitive, maybe shy and serious temperament can be one of the toughest to manage during these raucous camp days.  Parents want their child to have lots of friends, fun in the sun and go wild at camp but these kids may have another idea or other needs.

Read more here.

Photograph: Dana Rothstein | Agency: Dreamstime.com

It’s easy to do… just buy the Talking Train app from [...]]]> Nothing means more to a mom than a message of love from her children.  This year, make that message extra special by having the kids record their kind words and send them along with pictures they have drawn using the Talking Train.

It’s easy to do… just buy the Talking Train app from the  and then have the kids draw a picture in each of the train cars to represent something they love about mom.  Press RECORD to record their sweet little voices and then send along to mom.

The message could be something like:  ”I love you mommy because I love the way you reads books to me and make my favorite spaghetti dinner and play house with me.  Happy Mother’s Day!  I love you forever and ever.”  No doubt an actual message from an actual child would be much more adorable

The best part is that mom will have this sweet little message right there on her phone to look at listen to whenever she needs a little lift.  It really is the perfect gift.

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mommies out there!

PS Grandmas, Aunts and other important ladies would also love to receive such a special message

Today we are blogging over at Special-Ism.com.  Please take a moment to read this first in a series of blog posts about kids, their temperament and summer camp.

Every spring parents ask us about summer camps that would be appropriate for their sons or daughters; camps that embrace neurodiversity.   And every [...]]]>

Today we are blogging over at Special-Ism.com.  Please take a moment to read this first in a series of blog posts about kids, their temperament and summer camp.

Every spring parents ask us about summer camps that would be appropriate for their sons or daughters; camps that embrace neurodiversity.   And every year I tell myself I’m going to search the area for the best camps so I have a great resource list.  But each year I can’t seem to get my act together and regret that I wasn’t able to provide that valuable camp list to parents.

Click here to read more…

Jill Perry MHA M.S. OTR/L

On Fridays…Karen, Jill and I plan to post one of our favorite PAST posts.

Here is today’s fave:

LOW TECH SOCIAL FUN

LOW TECH SOCIAL FUN

The tag line for our web site is “Collaborative Tools and Technologies” and I am bursting to write about a collaborative tool that [...]]]> Every now and then on a Friday we like to post one of our favorite blogs.  This week we thought it would be fun to share this one:

LOW TECH SOCIAL FUN

The tag line for our web site is “Collaborative Tools and Technologies” and I am bursting to write about a collaborative tool that is not based in technology. Our group of 5 year-olds just finished an 8-week project that brought much delight to the kids (and, therefore the group leaders). After playing several different board games that involved dice, cards, and spinners, the kids decided they wanted to make a dice-based game. They talked about all kinds of activities and other things they liked until they happened upon something they all enjoyed – pets. We used the side of a cardboard box to draw a game board. The kids made marks on several spaces that served as the “bad things happen” spaces. The “bad things” were a T-Rex, a cage, a dark cave, and a fire-breathing dragon. Each child chose a “bad thing” which they drew and colored on the game board. It didn’t matter that the drawings were roughly depicted. The kids knew what they were supposed to be and encouraged one another.

Pictures of animals were cut out and glued around the game path to keep things cheery. Game pieces were made by stringing small beads on pipe cleaners and closing them in a circle to become pet collars. The kids talked about making a “good thing” square so they glued a star on the board. If you landed on the star, you got to jump to the other star placed further along the path. They decided that everyone should be able to finish the game, so when they reached the end, their pieces were placed on a “bench” drawn by one of the kids, to watch and wait until everyone completed the game.

Pride, simple joy, companionship, feeling supported, being supportive, winning gracefully, losing gracefully, fun, successful, and happiness are all words that come to mind as I picture the little faces of the kids as they played their original game. Oh…and let’s not forget collaboration!

This 8-week Collaborative Project is one of 4 outlined in our Social Adventures Apps. Find our more HERE.

by Jill Perry, MHA, MS, OTR/L

Karen [...]]]> I have been an OT treating children for (gulp!) 25+ years and still enjoy thinking about my clients and planning the “perfect” session. Sometimes, it seems that the best sessions are the ones that happen if I am willing to let go of MY play. Yesterday was one of those days in our Social Adventures group.

Karen and I planned to continue working on the skills we emphasized the previous week with our 5 and 6 year olds. However, when 2 of the 6 children were out sick, the make up of the group changed. In addition, one girl spontaneously began crying and couldn’t tell us why and another tents boy explained that he was tired while a third child suddenly had to leave to go to the bathroom. Karen and I decided to let the kids have “buddy play” time in the gym rather than follow through with our plan since the kids all seemed to need to experience some freedom and success.

I don’t know how, but a camping theme emerged as each child began creating their “tent”. When the girls chose the play tent, the boys began finding items around the room to build their tents. Cardboard blocks, blankets, furniture, and mats all magically became. The kids found items to use for a campfire ring, fishing rods, butterfly nets, and a lake for swimming. They picked berries and cooked, swam and climbed. They worked alone or in pairs at times but always called the others over to share a meal or activity. When it was time to sleep, they made sure everyone was ready to sleep at the same time and to wake up together. The planning, organizing, sequencing, and sharing of all these actions, and using their bodies in space while moving constantly around each other was fantastic! Practice using objects representationally and
sometimes miming as in charades was so helpful to these kids who struggle with visualization and imitation.

Conflicts arose as they usually do when kids play together, however, these conflicts gave us the perfect opportunity to work on all of their goals. We worked with the kids on initiating interactions, helping them ask to join another child’s activity if they didn’t know what to do. We worked with them on advocating and compromising when 2 kids wanted to use the same materials or tent space. The kids practiced negotiating space, as their swim noodles became fishing poles. Throughout the session, each child seemed to need some time alone. We worked with the others in respecting their friend’s need assuring them that the friend would come back when he or she was ready… and they always did! Theory of mind was tackled often from both the cognitive and emotional perspectives. Why is that child mad? Why do you think that friend went to be alone? What do you think that friend wants? We frequently heard, “But I was just going to use that!” and
needed to talk about how other people don’t know what you are thinking.

We could not have planned this activity. The kids generated and executed the plan, which resulted in a tremendous amount of creativity, collaborative play, and feelings of competence. There is nothing like pretend play! Without planning too much, I hope we can do it again next week!

submitted by:  Jill Perry, MHA, MS, OTR/L

*Like the ideas in this post? Check out the Social Adventures App for more activities for children.

Image Credit: 123rf.com #13935185