Lucent Occupational Therapy

Happy Hump Day! How’s it going this week? What are some challenges popping up for you this week? Anyone struggling with afterschool meltdowns? Transitions can often trigger the worst outbursts, but you’re not alone! Here are some tips to help with those Transition Troubles.

1.) Oral input such as chewing or sucking can be regulating to our nervous system. Make those after school snacks extra crunchy or give a thick smoothie to drink through a regular straw to calm those nerves.

2.) Auditory input can often be dysregulating. Try holding off on all your questions as soon as you see them. Maybe turn on softer tunes or no music at all for a bit. (Full disclosure: we blasted music in the pick up line and asked 500 questions before the car door closed yesterday. 😬) Every day is a new opportunity to try again, right?

3.) Movement and heavy work are helpful for regulation also. Need some groceries unloaded or furniture rearranged? 🤪 If not you can have them do some pushups, plank, climb a tree… you get the picture. A tablet is not heavy enough for them to hold up to count as heavy work.

*If nothing seems to help try tummy time or a reset bath. (more on those to come.)

Happy Back to School week! Anyone else grieving the end of summer like me? It definitely went by too fast. While we still have warm nights and weekends ahead of us, we can find joy in the fresh starts that come with a new school year!

Today’s tip is about the homework space. There is a lot of great advice out there about creating a well-lit, well-organized space for your student to do their homework, but I would like to add that you pay attention to their body position. If in a chair, their feet and back should be supported. Sitting on a bench or bar stool is not ideal.

Another great option is laying on their belly on the floor. It helps regulate the nervous system and provides stability for writing tasks. Every child has unique needs, though. Pay attention to how often your child shifts their posture during homework time to see if their set-up is working.

The Anxious Generation - Free the Anxious Generation Found on Google from anxiousgeneration.com

It’s time to go back to school which means restarting those routines!! A visual routine is a great way to empower your kiddos and have a positive morning. I’ve never met a parent that loves repeating themselves 500 times. (I’ve also never heard it to be an effective strategy.🫣)

Check out some of our available services by our newest OT, Amanda. 🤗

I can’t say anything more than Greg Santucci, Occupational Therapist already said about this!

Re-posting because we need to continue the conversation about sensory safety and shift our thinking from talking about "low functioning" human beings, to low functioning environments!

A child can't be regulated if they don't feel safe.

If a child's sensory environment is distracting, overwhelming or underwhelming, they won't be able to function at their highest level of ability. We hear the term "low functioning" a lot when talking about autistic children, but before we just start labeling the child, we have to look at the environment. Is the environment "low functioning"? I first heard the term "low functioning environment" from Dr. Kristie Patten, Associate Professor and Chair at New York University, Department of Occupational Therapy when she presented at the NJOTA Annual Conference in 2022.

I have seen MANY kids labeled "low functioning" thrive in a "high functioning" environment. High functioning environments meet their sensory needs and allows them show us what they know and feel safe to try new things.

Is a child struggling in their classroom? It might be a low functioning environment for them!

In order to create a high functioning environment, we must look at the sensory environment. The Sensory Safe Environment Checklist, although not an exhaustive list, is a helpful resource to start looking at a child's sensory environment, especially in school, to determine what supports they might need to feel safe, regulated, participate, and do well. Kids can be set up for success in a sensory safe environment.

This infographic is available for FREE in PDF format at www.gregsantucci.com

L.A.S.T. Call (Like And Share This) so we can create sensory safe learning environments for our kids! The website is listed on the infographic, but please tag this page when you share! Thanks!

There is no better time to introduce our newest Occupational Therapist than OT month! 🤗

We are excited to welcome Amanda Tudeen to our Lucent Collaborative team! She has a passion to serve and is excited to work with those struggling to engage in their meaningful activities. Pop over to our website to check out her bio!

https://lucentcollaborative.com/meet-our-team/

Contact us today for more information!

The questions have been rolling in and we want you to know:
1. You are not alone!
2. This impacts all ages!
3. There is hope!

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you have found rest and created wonderful memories this Thanksgiving holiday. As I reflect on all I’m grateful for this season, having clients that trust me as their OT is definitely at the top! I appreciate each and every one of you!

It’s ADHD Awareness Month! There are some great changes happening in the way we understand and talk about ADHD. Pop over to Instagram to see some great posts from ADDitude

https://instagram.com/additudemag?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Attention young adults, teens and parents of teens: Lucent Occupational Therapy is treating more than children!!

Do you or someone you know struggle with organizing school, work, or making time to do what you love? Are your relationships suffering as a result? Both individual and group sessions are available for adolescents and young adults both with neurodiversities and without. Call today to talk to our OT!

What a great way to end the summer! Our last camp was themed Emotions in the Ocean and it lived up to its hype! We made a ton of crafts, learned about Inky the Escaping Octopus, played ocean bingo, fished and went diving for our snacks, made ocean jello, slime, and most of all memories. See ya later campers!

It was a beautiful day for some nature-based OT. Bilateral coordination, self-regulating strategies, and fine motor skills don’t have to only be seen in the clinic. Meaningful occupations are best improved through meaningful interventions.

Love this post by The Neurodivergent Psychologist - In Training! If you or someone you know is struggling with Food Related Sensitivities please reach out. We would love to expand your accommodations!

Yeah. I think it’s time we stop belittling the “picky eaters” and start recognising it for what it is…sensory sensitivity. I hear no end of mocking over my kids, particularly my son, who has quite a limited amount of safe foods.

But.

By not constantly forcing him to eat things I know he doesn’t like…he trusts me and is starting to try food he never would have before.

Strawberries are a new one for him, he very proudly came home telling me he now like strawberries after trying them at school 🥰

This isn’t a “starter pack” these are accommodations.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month!

Occupational therapists believe that participating in daily activities (your occupations) are vital to your mental health and well-being!

Many people have asked me what would happen with the clinic now that I’ve gone full time at UF. I’m delighted to share that OT services at LCS are now in the very capable hands of Arin Sandora. Arin is my OT soul sister, one of my dearest mentors, and an all around wonderful human being. She was MY little boy’s OT many years ago! If you’re in need of OT services for your kiddo or for yourself, Arin brings a wide range of expertise to LCS.

April is Occupational Therapy Month, and we have a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!

We are excited to introduce our newest team member at LCS, Arin Sandora MOT, OTR/L! Arin is the founder of Milk & Honey Occupational Therapy, and we are thrilled and honored to invite her onto our team.

At LCS, we make it our mission to provide a safe and inclusive environment that facilitates empowerment for each of our clients.
Arin honors this mission beautifully in the warmth and care she brings to all of those she works with. We are thrilled to welcome someone who not only aligns with the values of our team, but brings a unique and thoughtful perspective to the work we do. Arin brings years of experience and training to our practice, and she is passionate about the work she does.

Check out our Occupational Therapy page on our website and read over Arin's bio!

https://lucentcollaborative.com/occupational-therapy/

Happy Thanksgiving!

Such a great message about how little people don’t necessarily think about their thinking.

Metacognition -- the human brain's ability to think about what you're thinking about -- is a really fascinating and really emerging and studied branch of neuroscience.

A lot of adults have a lot of inappropriate expectations of how much metacognition their children already have.

Asking young children "Why did you do that?" is often asking them to guess or invent a reason after the fact, because what they were thinking of before the fact was as simple as "impulse entered brain > followed impulse".

Even on up into teenage and adulthood this can happen! I distinctly remember a time when I was about 16 years old and I was chatting with my mom in the kitchen. While talking (so my brain was distracted and involved in whatever we were talking about), I saw an apple on the counter and picked it up and began fidgeting with it. It's common for me to fidget with my hands or objects while chatting. There were also scissors on the counter. I picked them up too and idly went to snip the stem off of the apple, again, no real thought process involved here. Because of how I was holding the apple, I snipped the palm of my hand with the scissors! Literally in the middle of a perfectly normal conversation. I knew how to use scissors, I knew how to eat apples, I knew how to have conversations, I knew that none of these things really went together. And if somebody had asked me "what the heck were you thinking?"...the only answer I would've had was, "I wasn't thinking. I was just doing things while I thought about something else."

A 6-year-old might not have the ability to even say, "I just *wasn't* thinking" (either because they don't know that they weren't, or because they haven't been allowed to give that sort of a "non-answer" by the adults in their life.)

It's tough to keep that in mind when you're talking with an eloquent small person, because they seem so capable of talking about what they're talking about. But their brains are still so new!

[Image description: A long, single-panel Calvin & Hobbes comic in which at the left side of the image, Calvin's mom and dad are dressed in sleepclothes and pushing open a bedroom door with squinted, sleepy eyes. At the right side of the image, Calvin is sitting in bed with a pair of drums and a horn and an angry look on his face. He is saying, "Geez, I gotta have a REASON for everything?!" End description.]

We have had a few last minute cancellations for camp in the upcoming weeks. We have ONE slot available for camp the Week of June 6th and TWO slots available for the Week of June 13th. If you were on the fence about camp, please reach out. We'd love to have you!

We have camp for our older friends too! Elementary aged students are invited to join us for Camp Connection which focuses on building social, emotional regulation, and executive function skills. We have just 2-3 slots left in each week of camp! Each year, camp is built around a theme....but "we don't talk about Bruno", so you'll have to wait and see! (Hint!)

We are excited to announce a new camp opportunity for our littlest friends. If you have a 4-5 year old preparing to enter Kindergarten, this camp is for you! The camp is designed to provide a supportive and fun environment to introduce kiddos to the routines of the school day and support their academic and social development.

Visit our website at www.otgainesville.org/camp for more information and to register.

Camp Connection is back for our 4th year of fun! Two options are available: June 6-June 10 or June 13th-June 17.
For more information, visit www.otgainesville.org/camp
To register, complete the form at this address: https://forms.gle/J1T5tvN7EY5g4BMJ7

Camp Connection Registration Please fill out all of the questions below regarding your child.

Our summer camps (Camp Connection) have been such a hit! We have many families asking for opportunities to participate year round. Club Connection just launched last Friday, but it's not too late to join! Groups enroll on a rolling basis. Give us a call to learn more! 352-332-6131