Minds In Motion, LLC

29/10/2025

The Regulators 4-6yr class has begun! Here is a clip working on deep breathing, and waiting in between drills. These kiddos did an amazing job 💙

14/10/2025

26/09/2025

Sometimes meeting a kiddo where they’re at means:
⭐️ Doing the session in the waiting room
⭐️ Laying down along side them because they’re tired
⭐️ Singing the same song
⭐️ Empathy
⭐️ Slowing down to read their cues, especially when they can’t fully tell you.

Regulation is always first ✨

04/07/2025

We are excited to share that we have moved the office from Va Beach to Chesapeake! This is an exciting time for Minds In Motion to reach more kiddos and families. We look forward to seeing you at this new location !

19/06/2025

Primitive reflexes are present at birth and often integrate through typical motor milestones. However, retained reflexes often go unnoticed and can affect coordination and sensory integration. By targeting retained primitive reflexes through play, occupational therapy can make a big difference for your child! Swipe for signs your kiddo might benefit from skilled testing —>

05/06/2025

Executive functioning skills in this age group can be so much fun! This is when your child is putting together the cognitive skills they have been developing in order to complete real-world tasks. It is so important that we help to foster these skills to support success at school, in the home, and in the community!

Executive functioning skills are all around us! Learning to recognize how to promote these skills in your child’s everyday life can make all the difference!

28/05/2025

Executive functioning skills are cognitive skills that help us accomplish everyday activities! These foundational skills develop throughout childhood. Here are some fun activity ideas to help build your child’s executive functioning skills!

⭐️ Simple experiments with baking soda or food coloring components are great for building sequencing and organization skills. Challenge your child to recall and retrieve a list of materials, or to remember and explain the steps of the activity after it is completed! Have them also help put materials away to promote organization.

⭐️ You can also allow your child to help you out in the kitchen. Yummy snacks and meals can be a great motivation for sequencing steps in order. These sequencing skills will help with tasks such shoe tying or putting on gear before playing outside!

⭐️ Movement games can support skills for attention, inhibition, and mental shifting. Games such as Red Light Green Light or freeze dance are fun ways to practice focusing on a task and responding when needed. These skills will later be used to complete chores, participate in group activities, and stay focused during school tasks.

⭐️ Storytelling can be used in almost any setting, whether you’re riding in the car, playing in the play room, or eating at the dinner table! Asking your child to tell you stories during imaginative play can help build skills for organizing their thoughts and accessing emotional language. Encouraging your child to recount stories from their day can help build memory and attention skills. Strengthening these skills can help with tasks such as completing homework assignments or accomplishing a morning routine.

21/05/2025

Executive functioning skills are important for everyday tasks! These cognitive skills start developing at an early age. Tasks such as putting away toys can lead to organizing school supplies in a desk! Using play is the best way to promote development of executive functioning skills!

⭐️ Arts and crafts can be used to develop the cognitive skills of planning and organization by having your child follow a model or example. Additionally, letting your child have creative freedom with some paint or crayons can help promote self-expression and abstract thinking.

⭐️ Singing songs with actions, such as “Hokey Pokey” or “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” require your child to remember lyrics, sequence, and practice timing. This will help develop working memory and inhibition. Songs with fill-in-the-blanks, such as “Old McDonald” help promote attention and turn-taking skills.

⭐️ Playing in a variety of environments, changing things within the environment, and seeking out new experiences can help to build mental flexibility and adaptability. This could be as simple as going to a different playground or switching out toys in the playroom. These strategies help your child practice adapting to unpredictable situations, such as when a favorite toy is broken or a friend has a new play idea.

⭐️ If your child is ready for pretend play, this can be a great way to enhance creativity and flexibility by letting them create play schemes and adding ideas of your own. Asking your child questions, such as “What are we running from?”, “How does he feel now?”, and “Where should we drive to?” can help promote mental organization and emotional language during playful interactions.

There are so many ways to playfully encourage important cognitive skills! Stay tuned for ideas for other age groups as we continue our series on executive functioning!

14/05/2025

Executive functioning is an umbrella term for many important cognitive skills that help your child perform daily tasks. These include:

⭐️ Shifting / Mental Flexibility: This includes “switching gears,” making transitions to new tasks or environments, adjusting when things don’t go according to plan, problem solving, and more!

⭐️ Emotional Control: This allows your child to regulate their emotions and respond appropriately to situations. This plays into self-control and impulsivity.

⭐️ Initiation: This is the skill that allows your child to start, or initiate, tasks independently. This could include completing a morning routine or following directions given by their teacher. This can also impact time management.

⭐️ Planning / Organization: This includes managing their time, organizing their thoughts to complete an assignment, and organizing their materials on their desk.

⭐️ Working Memory: This skill is used to process new information and use it to complete a task. This can look like remembering the rules to a board game or following a set of directions without reminders.

⭐️ Self-Monitoring: This skill refers to self awareness of task performance. This could be recognizing when they have become distracted during a task or realizing that they need more energy or focus for a task.

Executive functioning skills help set your child up for success in school and at home. They develop over time, so it is important to promote these skills at every age! You can help your child develop and strengthen these skills in a variety of ways.

Stay tuned! Be sure to follow along as we give advice on how to promote executive functioning in different age groups!

16/04/2025

Each type of play is valuable and develops in stages: first sensory play, then object-based play, and finally symbolic play. Sensory play is so important because it addresses your child’s regulation needs, while also encouraging positive communication! Object-based play strengthens back-and-forth communication through playful interactions with the objects your child is interested in! Symbolic play is important because it allows your child to express their imagination, strengthen social skills, and explore their emotions!