Weekly Updates

CampIN 2025

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 20:13:23 GMT

We are gearing up for CampIN! CampIN is on of our unique programs that encourages each kid to work on their own skills needed to engage in different leisure sports. Each week will focus on a different leisure sports theme.

This years themes include:

✔️SkateIN - skateboarding

✔️Ninja skills - martial arts

✔️Backyard Ball Bash - backyard games such as badminton

✔️KickIn It - soccer

✔️ DribbleIN - basketball

✔️GrandslamIN - baseball

During CampIN OT skills are broken down step by step to enhance: gross motor, fine motor coordination, visual motor skills, body awareness and executive function skills. During Leisure Skills CampIN; Sensory needs will be acknowledged with the equipment available, as well as interaction with your child and their peers. We will meet them at their level and create the just right challenge to promote functional growth mindset!

Why do we think CampIN is so special? CampIN has a different feel to 1:1 occupational therapy that kids receive during the school year. It is truly occupation focused, and we watch our clients build a love for learning and feel great pride in their own growth. CampIN is in a group occupational therapy setting that is supportive and builds meaningful relationships that grow beyond InGym.

Interested in learning more or registering? Reach out to info@ingym.org . Spots fill quickly and we have very limited availability! If you are an occupational therapist that is interested in getting involved with our summer camp program, we want to hear from you, too!

Touch:

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:16:54 GMT

A Powerful Sensory Tool in Regulating the Nervous System & Strengthening the Parent-Child Relationship

One sensory tool that helps strengthen the parent-child relationship and holds regulating abilities is touch. In the Bay Area, where our children and adults are overscheduled and met with high expectations, it is hard to carve out time for healthy positive forms of touch. However, touch from a loved one is an important part of development! This sense has a direct connection with our emotional wellbeing and calm centers of the brain for learning. When a loved one, such as a parent, provides loving, positive touch, the receptors send signals down two pathways in the brain:

1. The first pathway sends signals to the somatosensory cortex, which perceives temperature, pain, texture, speed and pressure (the quality of touch). If someone gives you a high five, you may feel the temperature of their skin, if they have rough or smooth hands, or if they touched something sticky or hit your hand with too much force.
2. The second pathway includes the vagus nerve and sends information to the emotional cortex. The stimulation of the vagus nerve activates the parasympathetic nervous system to decreases the flight or fight response and decrease stress. While the emotional context is given information regarding the positive touch. This makes touch a powerful tool to help calm, regulate, and bond with our children AND why high fives are so encouraging! The fun “clap” paired with a moment of connection bridged by two soft hands is motivating.

Here are six mindful ways we recommend incorporating touch while interacting with your children:

�� provide deep hugs throughout the day
�� massage legs and arms while applying lotion during your child’s bedtime routine
�� cuddle during a family movie or board game
�� pat your child on the back
�� hold hands or give high fives!

��incorporate “rough housing” play by getting down on the ground with your child and tickling, rolling, and throwing them over your shoulder

How will you incorporate touch when you next interact with your child?

Strategies to Set Boundaries with Your Neurodiverse Child

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 23:18:49 GMT

Setting boundaries are an important way to establish expectations and create a sense of security in the day to day for your child. Boundaries teach children how to regulate their emotions and equip them in navigating social situations. They teach our children to respect both themselves and others. However, setting boundaries is not an easy task! It requires a degree of finesse that takes practice — especially with your loved ones and children with diverse abilities. However, the outcomes are are worth it: they instill confidence and increase independence in children. Here are several strategies to set boundaries with a child who is nuerodiverse:

Use concrete, visual language that is clear for children. For example, if you want your child to stop you may incorporate "red light, green light, yellow light" language to slow down their bodies.
Offer options to a child: For example, you may tell your child you can have a healthy snack now or wait until lunch time. It is okay to state "I will not let you have candy for snack, but you can have a fruit pouch or cheese."
Use a visual schedule to set expectations with routines/ new schedules.
Connect with your child. If your child is feeling dysregulated or having a meltdown when you set an expectation, validate that big emotion and give them an opportunity to feel that big emotion. We want our children to know that all feelings are normal. Offering comfort in close proximity (i.e. getting to eye level with your child) and modeling calm a calm, empathetic voice can influence hormones and decrease distress to return to their activity.
Focus on what you want your child to do. Instead of telling your child "do not run in the hallway," tell them, "can we walk like an elephant in the hallway?" Make it fun and playful!
Focus on what you want your child to do part II. Neurodiverse children thrive with setting visual expectations and sometimes do not enjoy being told what to do. Model the behavior you want for your child without words.
Challenge yourself, the parent or caregiver to ask yourself if the boundary is worth it! Choose your battles and question why the boundary is in place. If a child wants to take home an item from InGym, can we practice "borrowing and returning" the item to InGym since that is a skill we develop with friends? Challenge your parenting lens daily to ask, how will this support my child's growth as they continue towards adulthood.

Boundaries are important skills to learn to support social participation and play skills as children grow!

SkateIN and Ninja Skills Return in Fall

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 02:24:12 GMT

Environment Matters

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 23:47:58 GMT

Environment Matters

There is scientific evidence indicating positive learning outcomes when children are taught skills in their natural environment. Children learn and succeed in natural settings, such as learning colors or numbers when they are playing with their favorite toys. OTs are skilled in recognizing the appropriate physical and social environment and even modifying it, to teach children play and performance skills in a place where they feel safe, supported, and will succeed best.

Time by Movement

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 23:46:22 GMT

Time by Movement

Time is a concept that may be difficult to grasp, especially for children with ASD. Using visuals, such as a clock, timer, or stopwatch will facilitate children's understanding of time. Additionally, when reminding children how much time is left before an activity ends or they have to transition to a different place, set concrete goals by quantifying an activity. Instead of saying "one more minute of swinging left," you can say, "you are going to swing five more times" or "five more pushes left on the swing," then present the demand.

Mimic, Mimic, Mimic!

Sun, 28 Jul 2024 23:44:22 GMT

Mimic, Mimic, Mimic!

Mimicking clients' behaviors during sessions allows occupational therapists a chance to build rapport and establish a trusting relationship with their clients. For example, OTs connect with non-speaking clients by imitating their preferred activities, playing with items the same way they do, and increasing "floor time" during sessions. Play is the primary occupation of children, and it serves as a natural medium to teach clients a variety of skills needed for their development. Engaging in their imagination, picking up a dinosaur and making it fly like an airplane, and frog jumping on the floor, will allow for a trustworthy and meaningful relationship between clients and therapists.

Modifying in the Moment

Fri, 26 Jul 2024 23:41:30 GMT

Modifying in the Moment

To ensure clients are provided the "just right challenge" when learning a new skill or working on achieving a goal, occupational therapists will modify an activity or task. It is important to modify tasks as needed to provide a challenging, yet achievable goal for clients. Occupational therapists are equipped with the skill to think and act quickly, adapting activities to fit the client's current needs, skills, and abilities. By modifying tasks in the moment, OTs are setting their clients up for success, which also makes the task rewarding for the client and increases their motivation to participate in therapeutic activities.

Play

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 00:11:54 GMT

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than a year of conversation." - Plato

Play is the primary occupation of a child!

Children use play to build skills needed for every aspect of their development. When a child is limited in the underlying skills needed to play, not only does their functional ability to build with blocks, color, pretend, imagine, and create suffer, but all of the skills they potentially acquire may be limited as well.

Here are just some ways that play is beneficial to development:

Strength
Balance
Visual Motor Integration
Visual Processing
Sensory Integration
Self Regulation
Self-Confidence
Fine Motor Skills
Gross Motor Skills
Social Emotional Development
Stress Relief
Behavior
Imagination
Creativity
Self Control

Read more about the benefits of play at https://lnkd.in/g-jpn78y and @theottoolbox

InGym's therapeutic developmental gym is a great place for children to learn new skills through play. Through our 1:1 and group therapy sessions, and opportunities provided through our camps, kids not only learn and work towards their goals, but have fun in the process by participating in activities that they enjoy!