In this week’s TOPS Tips video, OT’s Lola and Christine talk about the grasping techniques that kids use at different age milestones, fun activities you can do with your child to increase finger and grasp strength and the different shapes that your child should make before writing. While many kids will start to show a preference for a dominant hand as they grow, they generally don’t declare their dominant hand until around age 6. Enjoy!

TOPS Tips video on pre-writing skills in kids under the age of 5

Ever wonder why kids are so wobbly? Ever wonder why the little ones are constantly falling down? PT's Sam and Lindsey talk about how growing affects your balance and some strategies for helping those younger kiddo's succeed in fighting off that pesky gravity from constantly knocking them off-balance!

TOPS Tips video on strategies for improving balance in developing kiddos

Occupational Therapist Christine explains how iLs helped an 8-year old girl who presented challenges with attention/concentration skills, constant seeking movement and tactile input throughout the day, easily overwhelmed and distracted in busy crowded settings, weak core/postural support and becoming frustrated easily.

Do you ever give a 2 or a 3 year old instructions and cannot believe they are not being followed correctly? The directions were so easy and logical, how are they not getting it?? Speech Therapists Heidi and Meg give some advice on how to grab those fleeting attention spans, how many steps directions should be and how to feed a caterpillar cake.

TOPS Tips video that discusses giving directions for 2-3 year old’s

Big and small transitions can be challenging for kiddos. In this video, OT's Mallory and Michaela explain why transitions can be challenging as well as provide some tips to help caregivers make transitions easier for everyone involved in them!

You can view our vide here

Occupational Therapist Lola explains how Interactive Metronome (IM) helped one of her clients with ADHD to improve their reading grade level, demonstrate impulse control, attention, and direction following similar to same age peers, as well as decrease the level of adult support provided during school due to progress with skills.

This week, speech therapist Rachel talks about how intelligible your child should be at 4 years of age. What is intelligibility? What sounds are they working on at this age and what is articulation therapy? Please click on the link to watch a 2-minute video that answers those questions!

TOPS Tips video that discusses how intelligible your child should be at age 4

Physical therapist Lindsey talks through the steps for teaching your kids how to ride their bikes including. How high should their seat be placed, why is it important to start off without pedals and why you should run seated on your bike?

TOPS Tips video for teaching your kids to ride their bike

For children, play is serious work and as therapists, we see it as an important part of their development! In this video, Jenna and Lola talk about the open-ended toys, toy rotations, teaching by example, playing outdoors, imaginative play, limiting screen time and why it's important to let your kids be bored.

TOPS Tips video for getting your kids to play more!

Toe walking can be caused by a variety of different reasons. If you see it, pay attention or ask a parent how often they notice it. It is common for kids to walk on their toes when they first start walking, but toe walking should decrease over time.

Do not expect kids to sit in front of a screen for more than 10 minutes without a movement and eye break. So, what can we do if we notice that our children are exhibiting these behaviors during distance learning?

October is Bullying Prevention Month. Please check out this reposted blog on Bullying Prevention and Remote Learning.

he Minnesota Department of Health in conjunction with the CDC recently revised their Covid-19 guidelines. One of the big changes they have announced is the differentiation between showing a single common symptom of Covid-19 versus multiple less common symptoms and how to react when our children show these symptoms. The image attached to this post is a flowchart of the revised guidelines and below is the full explanation of the tool that the MDHS released to the public. It defines common symptoms and less common symptoms and the steps we should take when they are identified.

There is an amazing SLP, Tara Tuchel, that created a number of social stories regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. As Tara explains “As humans, we all thrive on routine. Children's (and adults) routines have been disrupted over these past several months. Stories can help ALL children understand what is going on around them.”

As a kid grows and develops, their balance grows and develops with them. In order for that to happen, the key parts of balance must develop with them. We like to think of balance as a three legged stool, with all three parts being needed in order to have a balanced stool, or child.

There was a wonderful article written by Janet Lansbury about parents constantly feeling as though they have to be the center of their child’s entertainment, constantly leading playtime. As Janet states “For the first three months of my daughter’s life, I’d been entertaining her nonstop, assuming it my duty to occupy and engage her every waking moment with my activity while she remained mostly passive (which is all I thought she could be).”

Like so many others, Therapy OPS staff have been processing all of the events this past week, starting with the death of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020. In addition to this past week’s events, we are in the midst of a global pandemic that has caused long-term changes to our daily routines that has disrupted our lives. So many of us have been left with raw emotions;

For our latest Screen Free Saturday adventure, my husband and I ventured to Osceola, WI to see and hike around the Cascade Falls. If you have never been to Osceola, it is a quiet, little town – it has a main street, mom and pop shops, and the hidden treasure that brought us there, the Cascade Falls! Not only can you see the falls, but you can feel them too!

While we have been fortunate to have nice weather to go outside for Screen – free Saturday the past two Saturdays, this past Saturday we were met with rainy weather posing “what’s fun that we can do inside without our screens?” After some thought and discussion, we decided when is a better time than to have our own mini- MasterChef bake – off competition?

Hey there, Heidi here! This past Saturday for Screen – Free Saturday my husband and I walked around Lake Harriet. It is one of our favorite places to walk! While there are famous landmarks of the band shell, downtown Minneapolis Skyline, and a Rose garden, there is a lesser known landmark – the home of the Lake Harriet Elf