First Step Early Intervention Programme

First Step in the Community! We connect with the East Caribbean Conference Community Service and Possibilities Ministries on Sunday. Their Funday was wonderful. First Step assisted in planning for the event. What was most exciting for us was the connections with the little ones in the ‘Sensory Creative Zone’.

First Step was in the community on Wednesday🤩. This time we connected with the Sunshine Early Stimulation Center and their wonderful parents. The topic of choice: Toileting: a Divergent Experience. This topic is personal and unique to every family so we always work to engage with respect and understanding. The PowerPoint was tossed out the door and connections 🥰were made.

Key takeaways 🤔.

The word ‘training’ is used very loosely.

Be compassionate 💕with yourself. This can significantly reduce your stress on this journey.

LOCK & KEY 🔑 into your child’s individual difference around being ready to transition out of diapers. Look for physical signs of awareness. Begin to understand their responses to sensations and shifts in sensations around toileting. Including visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory awareness and sensitivities. Motor control and coordination, interoception awareness, experiences of feeling safe, gut health differences, stomach issues, unrecognized trauma, and communication differences. It is important for children to feel safe.

The journey is bigger than being out of the diaper. Developing related skills such as taking off and putting on clothing and diapers, and hand washing are all aspects of toileting and self-care we never want to overlook on this journey.

Lock into your child's natural rhythms of expelling waste. Any scheduling should be around what is already happening. Although we want to avoid the added stress that a schedule can impose on everyone, some children find it supportive.

Be consistent and calm, potty parties are on a sabbatical. This excitement for some child can create pressure and stress in their nervous systems.

Mirror neurons are vital on this journey as many children may experience a breakdown in communication during this process. Seeing it done can be so meaningful. Using videos and or pictures can be supportive in trying to capture the process. We need to make meaningful connections.

Come and join this day of fun and exciting activities for all abilities. Entry is free!

I came across this post and thought how wonderful it must feel for a child to be understood in their moment of distress. At such time we need connections not lessons.💫

Why not reframe your view of behavior? We certainly have🌸❤️.

This story speaks volumes for us at First Step. We see so many families with similar stories and experiences as Owen. Without knowledge our teachers continue to have expectation that are beyond the level of the children in their care. Often not fully understanding what it takes to be school ready. Organizing your body in space, planning and executing movements and ideas is only one part of the textured puzzle. Meet Owen! Thank you Star!!

Children in preschool & kindergarten across the globe are struggling to live up to expectations from their teachers and are finding it difficult to succeed within their classrooms. Last week we shared Owen's story, who experiences a significant brain-body disconnect and feels his brain gets hijacked by impulses.

Dyspraxic children like Owen, are not yet able to come up with their own ideas about play, to organize their body successfully for new games or new play equipment, or to follow multi-step instructions, often get in trouble for bad behavior. Many do not know how to recognize what is happening, ask for help, or exert any self-control when these impulses happen. These expectations are beyond their capacity at the moment.

In 2016, a study showed that 250 children per day were being expelled or suspended from preschool in the USA. That was on average. In Colorado alone in the 2017 to 18 school year, more than 5,800 students faced such punishment. That's about three suspensions for every 100 students in grades K-2. And this is a global phenomenon.

There's so much readiness necessary for success at school, and in most cases, children are expected to just come to school with these skills in place. Even though we know that development is very different from person to person, and rarely follows a neat and orderly line.

In , parents are told that there is no Kindergarten place for him in his school district. He is put on the waiting list for a special school and offered 40 hours a week of therapy to shape his behaviors. That is his parents' only option.

Owen’s Mom and her sister decide to do a little investigating, and they speak to their local Early Childhood Mental Health Center. The nice psychologist at the center suggests that Owen might need help just being in his body, in space, with other people. She recommends he spend time in a therapeutic classroom before he tries to go back to school.

Owen spends his days at the School Readiness therapeutic classroom learning to master the rhythms of the school day, to slow his body down, to recognize when he needs to go for a walk or ask for help. He enjoys visiting the office of the school principal when his body gets too overwhelmed. She has a magical empty jar on her desk that is full of energy. Owen breathes in the energy and is ready to go back to the classroom. These little regulating, sensory breaks help Owen be successful and build classroom confidence. He is beginning to learn how to stay in his body and use his thinking brain even when he is tired, stressed, or excited. He is starting to believe that he is a good, likable kid and that he can make a positive contribution at school.

Does Owen’s story sound familiar to you? For support with school readiness and/or sensory integration and processing assessment, reach out to your school, local sensory-focused occupational therapy practice, or contact us at STAR Institute and we'd be happy to guide you.

Catch up on , as well as all our other sensory stories here: https://bit.ly/STAROwen

Today, we are asking you to take a moment to consider. What are your sensory triggers? Is it a screeching tire, the dripping of water on a firm surface? A particular smell or taste? Being touched lightly or too firm🤔.

It's October! Sensory Processing Month is here again. We continue to join the movement to bring sensory wellness, sensory processing awareness to the conversation of pedagogy and the classrooms. This is our Jam✨!