How to combat the mental health crisis among teens is a topic the occupational therapists and mental health professionals at Zier Institute and Amy Zier + Associates have discussed for years. Fast forward to COVID-19 and “post” pandemic lives, there is a heightened demand for mental health services for teens and young adults. A quick...
Pandemic Parenting Pandemic parenting is resulting in parental burnout at alarming rates. Balancing the safety of your family, working from home/office/hiding in the car and hybrid/remote/virtual schooling solutions is difficult for the world’s best multitaskers. Putting added pressure on yourself to handle it all flawlessly is unsustainable. If ever there was a time to go...
Preparing for back to school!?! Why are we bringing this up NOW when we’ve only just begun to enjoy a little summer fun? Because it will – or possibly won’t – be here before we know it. Preparing for back to school will undoubtedly look different this coming school year. Even though it’s only a couple months...
It‘s difficult to monitor screen time anytime but especially tough during a pandemic. Online learning, teletherapy, and normal video games and activities all add up to seemingly a lot of screen time. Dr. Mike Brooks, Ph.D. suggests in “Should You Worry About Kids’ Screen Time in This Pandemic?” that as we deal with COVID-19 screen time needn’t...
Emotional regulation is not an innate skill. None of us are born with the ability to recognize, monitor, and adapt our emotions depending on the situation. The importance of modeling self-regulation is discussed frequently with our families, peer clinicians and the children in our clinic. The earlier regulation work begins, the better but we’ve found...
Childhood anxiety is sneaky. It rarely presents itself in obvious ways, in children or in adults. Challenging behavior, difficulty with emotional regulation, and even sensory issues can all mask the underlying anxiety a child may feel. Likewise, a child may have emotional, social or developmental differences that result in anxious behavior. As much as parents,...
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) affects 34 million children in the US each year, often causing childhood trauma. Nearly half of all US children had at least one of nine ACEs, and more than 20 percent had two or more. The nine areas assessed are as follows: • Somewhat often/very often hard to get by on...
The idea of play being an instinctual need for children is not one readily discussed. When children are young, play is often encouraged but just as often limited in an effort of balancing it with too many structured activities and rules. Unrestricted play is an essential part of social and emotional development. As kids head...
Twenty years ago when my daughter was in pre-school and kindergarten, her teachers repeatedly told us that her severe shyness was “an issue.” This pattern continued throughout her school years. No teacher, doctor or counselor ever mentioned pediatric occupational therapy, (at which point, I had no idea existed nor would I have known how an...
