Once upon a time, health professionals considered the hair-pulling habit of trichotillomania to be a rare disorder. A person’s urge to pull out their own hair was thought to be a psychiatric condition that affected a miniscule portion of the population. As a result of this belief, there were limited research and treatment options for
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Written By Deb Hopper, Occupational Therapist Planning for Back to School Success Summer holidays are ending here in Australia in the next few days. As parents’ ideas for how to fill in time start to dwindle, and we finish off the back to school shopping, it’s really important to talk to and plan with our
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Whether we are seeing children in our classroom or clinic, there are many sensory processing behaviours, clues and responses that we need to filter as we try to work out: Why are they showing this behaviour? Are they tired? Are they missing a parent who’s away for work this week? Are there any triggers? Is
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Here are some ideas for creating a sensory corner at home using easily sourced and low cost products. ____________________________________________________ I have this room – it’s not private enough for a fourth bedroom, not secure enough for an office or study, and calling it a ‘play room’ is frankly annoying because all I ever see is
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When Kids Play Too Rough Written by Deb Hopper Published in Great Health Guide articles available in Audio: Learning to play and interact with other children or adults is one of the most complex skills that children learn. Play teaches children about developing physical skills and co-ordination, developing cognitive and thinking conception, solving
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Learning with Games at Home Written by Deb Hopper Published in Great Health Guide articles available in Audio: Children naturally love to play games. Play is the ‘occupation’ of children and is how they learn the best. Even though this comes naturally for children, in the past few years TV and other screens (tablet/phone games)
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Helping Hyperactive and Busy Kids Written by Deb Hopper Published in Great Health Guide articles available in Audio: Every child has a different base energy level and this can be impacted from day to day depending on how much sleep they had, what is happening at home or school or if their routine has been
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Travelling with Children Written by Deb Hopper Published in Great Health Guide articles available in Audio: CLICK HERE FOR THE AUDIO VERSION: School holidays are the perfect time to jump in the car and visit family and friends that we haven’t seen for a long time. Often this means a long car and/or plane trip.
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New Year’s Eve starts with a bang and it should. The fireworks fascinates almost everybody. The light, colour and sound adds to their brilliance. It’s definitely intense, complex, unexpected with fast pace movement, and that is why it’s alerting and exciting for us. But for many children, the fireworks can be scary, overwhelming or even
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Well, it’s the holiday season and Christmas is around the corner. Lights, music, yummy food and family all around. It can’t get better than that, can it? But do you fear your kids won’t feel the same? Many children are anxious about the holiday season. You might see them complaining of nausea, stomach problems, fatigue
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