I have spent many years working with children with special needs and one of the most challenging activities for many of them to initially acquire is the ability to sit by themselves. Once they acquire the ability to sit their opportunities for inclusion increase dramatically. This is the reason why I find this to be a very important topic. In this post, I will focus on the child over the age of 12 months, in this way you can easily know how to integrate the needed skills. Since all children with special needs are unique and possess different complexities I recommend you consult with your child's physical therapist before applying these activities at home. Your therapist can help you customize the activities to suit your child's needs. The activities that I suggest are based on opportunities that with repetition will help your child gain the desired skill. Today I want to share with you a list of the TOP 3 ways to help your child gain the ability...
I wanted to start with this great picture, Never Give Up. Working with children with special needs has taught me to never give up. Just recently I met a young man that has been struggling with his tone as well as moving forward on his skills. This is a common challenge I have seen as the children grow. Their skills plateau and then become stuck on how to continue to move forward. Habit plays a big role in their inability to move forward. We are creatures of habit, where our vision becomes blurred and we lose the ability and sense of how to get out of a continuous cycle. One side of us wants us to have a change and the other side of us becomes scared to make the change. We then end up liking the comfort that habit gives us. I met Derek for the first time when he came to me with his family. He was sitting on a reclined chair with a strong flexed position of his body, almost like a fetal baby position. His family told me that several years before he was sitting by himself while...