Viva Kinect - Occupational Therapy & Dance Movement Therapy

25/10/2025

It's about getting the level of support that you need.

Some of our kids need more support in order to do the things that others can already do.

It's not giving them an advantage.
It's creating a more level playing field.

Yes?

Em 🌈

23/10/2025

Some children are constant reporters. "She cut in line!" "He didn't pack away!" "They said I couldn't play!" Meanwhile, they miss the three friends who smiled at them, invited them to play, and laughed at their jokes.

Their brains are stuck in threat detection mode. Researchers call it negativity bias under stress and here's what we want children to know: we've got this. We, the educators, see the mistakes and learning moments. That's our job. Their job? To be a child. To notice the clouds, the birds, the friend waving across the room.

So we redirect their attention.

When they report something negative: "I've got that sorted, thank you. Let's now spot three kind things friends do today?"

Make it a mission: "Let's be kindness detectives. What friendly moments can we catch?"

Model it: "I just saw three friends make space at the art table. That's what welcome looks like."

Attention is trainable. The more we point out positive social cues and take responsibility for managing the room, the more kids relax into being kids. We're teaching their brains to recognise safety and belonging.

Encourage families to try kindness spotting everywhere.

Suggest a sensory reset at pickup before the questions about their day begins.

When children hear "look for the good, we'll handle the rest" at kindy and at home, they start trusting that adults have their back.

Let's encourage children to trust that we're watching, so they can enjoy exploring and playing.

22/10/2025

Many adults want those top few levels from their neurodivergent kids.

To get to those higher levels, we need all the lower levels solidly built up.

If you have concerns about any of those higher skills, work on the blocks underneath.

Maturity and life experience also help with building this tower. Many of our kids will need accommodations in place to support some things, such as the purple level (executive function skills). Needing accommodations is not a personal failing- not for the kid and not for the parent. It's a sensible, practical, and necessary support.

If you are accommodating your ND kids, your ND students, your ND employees- you are amazing. Thanks for showing the world that it can be done.

Em 🌈

20/08/2025

Just read this pearl of wisdom from Marko at Strategic Parenting

Great strategies, might just use them on myself :)

For a child with ADHD, initiating a task is often harder than the task itself.

It’s not that they don’t want to do it. It’s that there’s a moment between intention and action where their entire system stalls.

Their brain hesitates. Their body doesn’t move. Their will is there, but the bridge to action isn’t.

This is called a physiological delay. And the more we understand it, the more we can stop the cycle of frustration and actually help.

Here’s what you can do (not to force action, but to make it possible in the first place):
1) Shrink the entry point

❌ Don’t say: “Go get ready for school.”

✅ Say: “Stand up.” Wait. Then: “Now walk to your room.” Then: “Pick up your socks.”

This is called task activation. You’re doing what their prefrontal cortex can’t do efficiently: starting.
2) Anchor the task in the room, not in their head

Forget charts and lists (for now). They might work eventually, but what helps most in the moment is anchoring the next step in something physical.
• Point to the object

• Tap the chair

• Hand them the shirt

The more the task lives in front of them instead of inside their memory, the more likely it is to happen.
3) Acknowledge motion, not perfection

Don’t wait for the job to be done before you notice. Catch the first movement: “There you go. You started.” 🎉

It sounds small, but for a child used to hearing what they’ve missed, being noticed for what they’ve started feels like a breath of fresh air.

It says, “I see your effort.” And effort (not outcome) is what rewires the brain for follow-through.

Where most parents slip (and this is entirely human) is assuming their child is choosing delay.

We assume they’re being lazy, or oppositional, or that we haven’t been strict enough.

So we raise our voice, take away privileges, try to light a fire under them.

❌ But punishment doesn’t build a bridge.

❌ And shame doesn’t spark action, it shuts it down.

The child doesn’t move faster, they just feel worse. And over time, they stop believing they can begin. That’s the real risk. ⚠️

So instead, imagine their nervous system like an old engine on a cold day.

You don’t fix it by yelling at it. You warm it up gently. You support the ignition, again and again, until one day they can turn the key themselves.

If you begin to see their delays not as character flaws, but as missing infrastructure, you’ll approach everything differently.

You’ll intervene sooner, not louder.

You’ll adjust the task, not your temper.

You’ll stop interpreting their stuckness as refusal, and start offering them ways to get unstuck.

And what happens then?

They start to move, slowly… then more often.

They start to believe that motion is possible, even when it’s hard.

And you start to experience something that had felt so out of reach: mornings that work and evenings that don’t end in tension.

You experience a relationship that isn’t built on reminders and resentment.

Because when a child finally learns to begin on their own, it’s not just a task they’ve completed…

It’s a belief they’ve reclaimed.

Keep going. You're doing more right than you think,

Marko Juhant
Parenting Coach & Bestselling Author
StrategicParenting.com

29/07/2025

Great tips!

Image:

28/07/2025