Happy Holidays from Flow Occupational Therapy! I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well.
 
First and foremost, I want to thank everyone for their support this past year. Whether it was engagement with our social media, visiting our website, following our blog posts, or reaching out for a consultation. Thank You. 
 
I started Flow Occupational Therapy with two simple, yet powerful goals in mind - to educate & to empower. Just as life changes, so do you and your child's needs. Our motto of "moving with the needs of your child" represents exactly that - adapting and growing as the needs of your child and family changes.

Whether you reached out to us or utilized our online resources I truly hope that Flow Occupational Therapy was able to help you and your family this year with parenting strategies as well as strategies for parenting a child with special needs.

With 2020 on the horizon I wanted to let you know that Flow Occupational Therapy has a lot planned for the upcoming year. With new blog posts on a weekly basis in addition to a new way to interact and receive answers to your parenting questions, stay posted to www.flowoccupationaltherapy.com Make sure to follow Flow Occupational Therapy on social media as well to be the first to know when new blogs are posted and as new content becomes available. 

2019 saw a lot of growth for Flow Occupational Therapy, and we look forward to continuing to learn and grow with you in 2020.

As always, I welcome all questions and comments. Please feel free to email directly at mike@goflowoccupationaltherapy.com
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I hope you and your loved ones have a truly Happy Holiday and New Year. I truly appreciate your support of Flow Occupational Therapy.
 
See you soon!
Michael Jankowski, MS, OTR/L

If you happen to be traveling this holiday season, I want to give you some tips to make your travel as enjoyable as possible for everyone in your family. I often have parents ask me about the best way to travel with their child with special needs. Also, there may be concerns about taking their child away from their home environment and out of their comfort zone. These are all normal concerns as a result of the busyness and sometimes stress the holidays can bring. 

Give your child advance warning about any upcoming trips and use this as an opportunity to get your child excited about the trip. Let them know how long you will be gone, where you are going, what you are going to do there, what you will see, etc. The more “heads up” we can give our child the better we can make them feel about the trip as we are eliminating as much “fear of the unknown” that we can.

Stick to the routines that you have at home and try to keep consistent mealtimes and bedtimes. At a subconscious level, the consistency of routines helps us feel comfortable as we know what to expect and it allows our brains and emotions to relax and stay calm. This may not always be possible due to travel schedules and other family member’s schedules. But by keeping our routines consistent – especially mealtimes and bedtimes we will be helping to decrease everyone’s stress and anxiety.

Pack comfort items for your child – favorite books, blankets, snacks, toys, etc. Your child may occasionally become upset with the change of routine and any new places you are going to. Providing them with some of their preferred items will help remind them of home, and help provide them comfort and support.

Happy Travels and I will see you soon!
Michael Jankowski, MS, OTR/L

​If your family participates in gift giving during the holidays there may be some tears when a child does not receive the gift they want. Or possibly feelings of jealousy if a sibling, cousin, or other family member receives a preferred gift. You can use this as a great opportunity to teach your child about sharing.
 
Teaching your child to share is one of the foundational skills they will need to learn to be successful in school. Luckily, teaching your child to share doesn’t have to be complicated and can be easily worked on at home with the skill carrying over to the school environment.

1. We want to start by Delaying Gratification (check out our blog post here about Delaying Gratification) for tips and strategies about how to best delay gratification. In summary, we want to teach our child to wait and be patient because when they are sharing an item with someone, they need to wait while the other child looks / plays with it.
 
2. Use “First/Then” terminology (click here to read our blog post about First/Then) Using the phrase “First/Then” lets a child know what is currently happening, what is expected of them, and what will happen next. When teaching sharing we can use “First/Then” language in phrases such as “First you play with the toy, Then it is sister’s turn” or “First your friend gets to read this book, Then it will be your turn.” This way the child understands who gets to play with the toy now, and then when it will be their turn.

3. Use A Visual Timer (click here to read about Visual Timers) Using a Visual Timer together with “First/Then” terminology can be a very useful tool to help teach patience. For example we can say, “First you play with the toy for 2 minutes, Then it is sister’s turn” or “First your friend gets to choose what game we are going to play for 5 minutes, and Then you get to pick what game we play.” 
 
By using “First/Then” terminology and a Visual Timer we are teaching our child two crucial concepts:

• First, that if their friend/sibling/peer is engaged in something they want, they will eventually get a turn to play, but they need to wait until their friend/sibling/peer is done.
• Second, when they are engaged with the item there is a limit as to how long they can play with it before it is someone else’s turn.

 
Remember when teaching sharing this process takes time, so don’t expect your child to understand this advanced concept overnight. Even little bits of sharing with others (even if it is just for a few seconds) are steps in the right direction.
 

Please feel free to email me at blog@goflowoccupationaltherapy.com if you have any questions.

See you soon!
Michael Jankowski, MS, OTR/L

I hope everyone is having a good holiday season so far. This is typically a time of year where there are a lot of things going on for children and their families – from family get-togethers, to holiday parties, to shopping trips.
 
With all these changes and excitement that the holidays bring, they can unfortunately cause increased anxiety and meltdowns for children which can cause increased stress for the child’s family.
 
Here are five quick tips that you can implement right away to help this holiday season be fun, enjoyable, and stress-free.
 
1. Stick to routines 
This is typically hard to do this time of year with all the events and festivities that are going on. However, we want to try as much as possible to be consistent with our routines. This includes things like going to bed at consistent times, waking up at consistent times, eating a consistent diet, and following our typical routines for each day.
 
2. Keep a balanced diet
In addition to sticking to our established routines, we want to try and make sure our child is keeping a balanced diet. This time of year may bring special foods that may have high sugar content (I’m looking at you sugar cookies.) While it is ok to let our child have some holiday foods (as long as their diet allows) we want to make sure that we keep it in moderation, and that our child is eating healthy foods and a balanced diet (not just cookies and junk food.)
 
3. Let your child know what the expectations are
We can prevent meltdowns and tantrums by simply letting our children know ahead of time what the expectations are. For example, if we are going to a holiday party, we can let our child know what behavior we want them to have “We are going to a party, I know you will be so excited to see all the presents. I know you will do a good job of listening to me when I tell you it is time to clean up and time to leave.” By phrasing it this way, we are validating our children’s feelings that they will be excited but letting them know that we still expect them to listen and follow our instructions.
 
4. Acknowledge positive behavior
Did your child behave well at that holiday party? Did your child listen when you told them it was time to leave, and not throw a tantrum? We want to acknowledge and reward our child’s positive behavior to continue to encourage our child to act this way. We can acknowledge this positive behavior by saying things like “when I told you to clean up you listened and I only had to tell you once, Great Job!!!” or “when I asked you to share your new toy with your cousin you did, Great Job!!” By letting our child know that we see and appreciate their positive behavior, it will provide them with internal motivation to continue to act positively.
 
5. Emphasize self-care
Make sure you emphasize self-care for yourself and your family. To help your family stay happy and healthy this holiday season, implement some simple self-care routines for the whole family. For example:

• All tablets, phones, TVs, video games, etc. are turned off at 7:00 pm every night
• Everyone is in bed by 8:00 pm
• Everyone is only allowed one holiday cookie per day

 
By making self-care a priority and making it something that the whole family practices it is easier to hold each other accountable and ultimately follow through with it. These simple self-care practices that we follow can help us stay well-rested to improve our emotional regulation and help keep our immune system strong to fight off any colds or sickness that are frequent this time of year.
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I hope you and your family have a nice, relaxing, and low stress Holiday season. Please feel free to email me at blog@goflowoccupationaltherapy.com if you have any questions.

See you soon!
Michael Jankowski, MS, OTR/L