Little Life Development

24/12/2025

Happy Christmas Eve Everyone!🎄

I just thought I would take a moment to thank you for supporting Little Life Development this year and being part of this little family. This year I have continued to deliver sessions in schools, homes and in the beautiful outdoors as part of my Eco Sensory Therapy offer. I love the diversity of the work we do and how it is constantly evolving to meet the child's needs. 

I have loved working with all of your amazing children, supporting them through the challenges and seeing the progress they make with everyone's consistent approaches and hard work. So many successes this year from improvements in writing, gross motor skills and coordination, to developments in noticing body signals and connecting these to emotions. The increase in confidence for so many of the children this year; being able to advocate for their own needs a little more has been wonderful to see. 

Here are some pictures of the wonderful Christmas creations in sessions from the past couple of weeks. So much creativity, focus and fun! Thankyou for supporting my small business this year and I wish you all a magical Christmas. See you in the new year- I'm looking forward to continuing to support your children to develop what matters to them

Merry Christmas.🎄

16/12/2025

Let's talk transitional items and object attachment ❤️🦆👐🎒

What is a transitional item?

This is an object (usually familiar) that supports a child or person to feel comforted and secure during times of change and transition. This can be when moving between environments (home to school for example) or when the physical environment may be the same but the people or situations may be changing (in OT people are part of our environment). For example a new person may be coming to the house or there could be a change in routines.

A transitional item should ALWAYS be the child's choice. Imposing a transitional item on a child will not necessarily provide security and comfort as the item may not be meaningful to them. Obviously as caregivers we sometimes need to prioritise safety and if your child's transitional item just happens to be a chandelier (I've witnessed situations not dissimilar to this.. My daughter wanted to take a spiky pottery owl to bed with her as her transitional item as a toddler 😂) then we need to explain why this isn't possible and intervene.

With neurodivergent individuals, object attachment (becoming emotionally attached to inanimate objects) can be common. These objects can provide sensory support, significant co-regulation and can cause distress if the object is removed. It stands to reason why this attachment would happen.. after all, does this inaminamite object have social-emotional expectations of the child/person? Would that object expect them to engage in complex communication, answer questions or meet neuronormative demands?

The photos here are from a recent session with Billy (pseudonym). Billy was struggling to engage in the session and was unable to access speech. The duck he decided to bring with him, supported him to seperate from caregivers, supported play and connection in the form of shadow puppets and role play. Engagement in the session after this playful moment took an upward turn. The duck was an incredibly valuable piece within the session.

If your child is struggling with transitions, if you know that situations, routines and environments are about to change with Christmas..Consider transitional items ❤️🎄❤️

11/12/2025

Practising what I preach. It's been hard week or two with some overwhelm with work and general life (yes I am also human and certainly do not have it all together at times even though I am an OT!🫠) . So I decided to stay behind at my Eco Sensory session this morning to complete my project from one of the activities on offer in session with a child on caseload. 30 mins, just for me. In the sunny outdoors with the smell of pine and getting into creative occupational flow. Now I feel more regulated, I can tackle my reports and the mountain of life and work admin there is in the run up to Christmas 💚🎄🙏

Where can you find a pocket of time today to fill your cup?

Ps. Totally thinking of running wreath workshops outdoors next year for families or maybe even just adults to support mental health. Who would be interested in that? 🎄

25/11/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19vKZA7iZf/

New NHS Therapy Advice Lines📞

Get free, expert support from:
- Occupational Therapists
- Physiotherapists
- Speech and Language Therapists

Whether you have questions or concerns, these advice lines offer direct access to professionals who can help.

No referral needed
Quick, practical advice

Find out more here: https://send.essex.gov.uk/search?s=therapy%20advice%20lines&f%5B0%5D=sitewide_search_type%3A23

25/11/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/1FvmaJ1up5/

Looking for practical tips and support?

Join our Peer Educator online sessions this December. These sessions are free, friendly and full of useful strategies you can use at home.

Upcoming Sessions:

Toileting:
Wednesday 3 Dec from 9.30am to 11.00am

Sensory Needs:
Thursday 4 Dec from 12.00pm to 1.30pm

Demand Avoidance:
Monday 8 Dec from 10.00am to 11.30am

Sleeping:
Tuesday 9 Dec from 12.00pm to 1.30pm

Attendance Difficulties (EBSA):
Wednesday 10 Dec from 6.30pm to 8.00pm

Who can join? Parents and carers of children and young people with SEND in Essex.

Why attend? Learn practical tips, share experiences and connect with others who understand.

Reserve your spot today, visit the link in the comments below 👇

20/11/2025

☃️This time of year can be tricky with outdoor work.. Wind and rain and temperatures that some can find hard to manage, with extra layers of clothing and making sure to keep moving to keep warm!

But one thing that always brings joy, connection, curiosity, and engagement is ICE! 🧊❄️🧊

Today these beautiful pieces of ice were the catalyst for all of this:

🧊 Playfulness & laughter
🧊 Use of metaphors for the ice's durability (one block was named the Nokia by the child on caseload today which was brilliant 😂)
🧊 Connecting with nature (let's set the leaf free! 🍂)
🧊 Target throwing using our gross motor, fine motor and visual perceptual skills
🧊 Exploration of our tactile sense with temperature and texture
🧊 Observing beauty in shapes & light (I definitely saw the moon in that last piece and it was beautiful!) 🌝

12/11/2025

Post-carrying out some peer supervision/training with a dear friend and fellow OT.. Apparently my stereognosis bag is comfy 😂 he's an old boy now so I let him get away with things like this ❤️

In between delivering therapy sessions and carrying out assessments, we often have a various meetings like this, and this week we have two other meetings in place to share information between services and other disciplines for children on caseload. Interdisciplinary and collaborative working is an important part of what we do when working with the whole child 💬🧠💬

23/10/2025

WOULD YOU RATHER🦔

From one of our little ones on caseload this week... He would like to know from all our lovely followers:

'would you rather swim in a sea of chestnuts (with the shell on!) or a sea of holly leaves?'

This week we explored our tactile sense whilst foraging for chestnuts which we cooked over the stove and ate (a first try for this kiddo too! 🙌) yum! And it got him thinking.. I wonder what people would prefer?! 🤔💭 We decided we would put it to a vote! Answers in the comments and I will let him know at our next session! 🌳🌰🦔💭❤️