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The Pigeon (and Joey) Go To School!

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     The stars managed to align perfectly, and just when Joey is getting ready to go to kindergarten… Mo Willem’s pigeon is also being sent off to school too. And he’s not happy about it.

About a month ago, I mentioned kindergarten to Joey and he started crying. It was hard to tell if he was crying from the topic, an uncomfortable chair positioning, or something else, but the type of cry and its relation to the sudden topic change made me wonder how Joey is feeling about his upcoming new routine. Going to kindergarten is a big deal, and Joey isn’t able to ask us questions, tell us his feelings, or even hide under his bed and tell us he isn’t coming out and is going to be home-schooled. (This may or may not be what my own five year old has said).  [Read more…]

Taking Steps Toward Kindergarten Success

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I was finally able to introduce Joey to my own five year old daughter. She had been begging to meet him for awhile. Joey lit up when he saw that I’d brought him a friend, and quickly found the words “Hi. My name is Joey. I live in Virginia” on his eye gaze device. When she buried her head into my back, not immediately replying in perfect response to his introduction, I whispered that she was shy. His eyes responded with understanding. It didn’t take him long before he repeated, “Shy. Shy” for emphasis.  [Read more…]

Using Good Dog, Carl to Support Language Development

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I’m pausing in our neuroplasticity series to share the new book that Joey and I are enjoying together.

As a child, I loved the picture book, Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day. The wordless book depicts a mother leaving the house alone with Carl, the rottweiler dog, as the baby sitter. Once the mother leaves the house, the baby climbs out of the crib onto Carl’s back. Carl carries the baby throughout the house – to jump on the parents’ bed, play dress up with the mom’s jewelry, check out the fish tank, dance in the living room, eat a snack and even takes a bath to hide the evidence of the messy snack. Before the mother returns home, Carl puts the baby back into the crib as though nothing has happened. [Read more…]

Connecting through the sensory system – Neuroplasticity Post 2

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In June, Joey’s Foundation hosted Dr. Karen Pryor for a neuroplasticity seminar. This is the second post in a series about neuroplasticity. For last week’s post click here.

One aspect of her talk that struck me was the importance of connecting through the sensory system. Prior to my experience with the neuro-developmental approach in DIR/Floortime, most of my training had been behavioral based – where I had been taught to not take the sensory system into account. I was trained to be aware and understanding of a child’s specific sensory needs, but to work to override these preferences so that the sensory system did not interfere with a child’s learning. The neuro-developmental approach of DIR/Floortime, or as Dr. Pryor describes in neuroplasticity – is the opposite of this. To truly reach children and re-wire the brain, we must engage the sensory and nervous system. [Read more…]

Applying Simple Concepts of Neuroplasticity to Working with Joey – Post 1

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On June 20th, Joey’s Foundation hosted Physical Therapist, Karen Pryor, author of Ten Fingers, Ten Toes for a full day workshop on neuroplasticity. This being one of my personal favorite topics, I was thrilled to be able to attend. 

There is so much of her presentation that I wish I could capture here. It is hard to narrow down everything we learned throughout the day. Some of her recommendations were so simple, and yet have the potential to make such a large, lasting change on a child’s development.

One key  – yet simple – point that she made was that “vision is neurologically connected to over 80% of the central nervous system” (Pryor, 34). If we want a child to master a skill, first we need to make sure we are involving their line of sight. Are we making it as easy as possible for the child to view what they are being asked to do? She even had us test this by walking through a series of exercises, changing where we looked each time. When we looked away, the task became increasingly more difficult, if not impossible. [Read more…]

Saturday Serenade

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Test post for Saturday Serenades https://www.musichealsglennjan.com/saturday-serenades

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