A Sensory Emotional Lens

In today’s episode, we’re diving into a common theme many families bring up: kids who need to be in control and have things “just so.” Parents often describe their child getting upset when daily routines aren’t followed exactly—like needing to get dressed in a specific order, wanting food served on certain plates, or insisting the bedtime routine goes the same way every single night. We also hear...

In today’s episode, we’re focusing on the Anxious Yet Deeply Feeling Sensory Emotional Personality map. We'll explore the specific sensory and emotional behaviors—essentially the landmarks —that you can expect to encounter on this SEP map. By recognizing these key traits, you’ll be better equipped to understand and navigate your child's world with connection, empathy, and insight.  Just as...

In today’s episode, we’re focusing on the Needy Yet Compassionate Sensory Emotional Personality map. We'll explore the specific sensory and emotional behaviors—essentially the landmarks —that you can expect to encounter on this SEP map. By recognizing these key traits, you’ll be better equipped to understand and navigate your child's world with connection, empathy, and insight.  Just as a...

In today’s episode, we’re focusing on the Confused Yet Full of Wonder Sensory Emotional Personality map. We'll explore the specific sensory and emotional behaviors—essentially the landmarks —that you can expect to encounter on this SEP map. By recognizing these key traits, you’ll be better equipped to understand and navigate your child's world with connection, empathy and insight.  Just as...

In today’s bonus episode, we invite you to join our Take Time to PLAY campaign and experience the transformative power of play! At Great Kids Place (and beyond), we’re encouraging families to engage in Sensory Emotional PLAY for just 15 minutes a day. Whether through creative games, hands-on activities, or sensory motor experiences, play has the power to strengthen emotional connections and boost...

In today’s episode, we’re focusing on the Scattered Yet Intentional and Passionate Sensory Emotional Personality map. We'll explore the specific sensory and emotional behaviors—essentially the landmarks —that you can expect to encounter on this SEP map. By recognizing these key traits, you’ll be better equipped to understand and navigate your child's world with connection, empathy, and ins...

Sometimes navigating parenthood seems like exploring uncharted territory. Just as a map offers guidance through unfamiliar landscapes, understanding your child's Sensory Emotional Personality (SEP) can provide clear guidance through your child’s behaviors and interactions. Each SEP serves as a guide, revealing how children process sensations and navigate their emotional world, and unveiling their...

In today’s episode, I share a personal story about the importance of play in our busy lives. Between running Great Kids Place and A Sensory Emotional Lens, and managing the hectic schedules of my kids—who are now almost 13 and 14—it's easy to forget the joy of play. We spend plenty of time together, like sharing meals, chatting during car rides, and reflecting at bedtime, but these moments aren’t...

Recently, I have been reflecting on gratitude, influenced by my own experiences with my Sensory Emotional kids during some challenging parenting moments. I’m trying to “practice what I preach” by applying a Sensory Emotional perspective to better understand situations where there may be a lack of gratitude. This approach helps me respond to such behaviors with greater understanding. As we find our...

The holidays can be stressful for our sensory-emotional children and their caregivers. That’s why we want to revisit an earlier episode and share resources that may be helpful as we navigate the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. You may have noticed some behaviors resurfacing in recent weeks. The period leading up to the holidays and major events can be challenging for our sensory-emotional...

Personality is a set of qualities that make up a person's character - their way of being. When we talk about someone's personality, we often describe the way they act and interact. For example, "he is the outgoing one who likes to talk a lot and try new things."   Sensory Emotional Personalities describe the characteristics - the way an individual acts and interacts - based on the way they are pro...

We know that the way we take in sensation impacts how we feel and, in turn, how we act and interact. We've discussed the global emotional expressions of body-based experiences - emotions like anxiety, embarrassment, surprise, confusion, needy, etc. Today, we are going to dive into social situations and a topic that's been coming up lately - kids saying things to others that are unkind or saying se...

Potty training can be a rollercoaster of emotions for both caregivers and kids. The pressure and stress surrounding this milestone can feel overwhelming at times. Whether it's the comments from other caregivers or grandparents about it being "time" or the need to meet deadlines for preschool transitions, the pressure to help our kids achieve this goal can be intense. As we chatted about in a recen...

Believe it or not, Halloween can sometimes seem more of a trick than a treat for our sensory emotional kids.  On the surface we can see or sense the different sensory experiences that Halloween brings - lights and sounds of decorations, smells of candy and even decorations sometimes, and costumes of unfamiliar fabrics and textures.   When we consider movement experiences, we can anticipate navigat...

During any big transition or change in routine for our children, we spend a lot of time talking about how to support our kids, and we, as parents and caregivers, put all our effort into this. We focus on understanding the tricky behaviors of our children and preventing and responding to them. What we don't spend time on is what supports us as caregivers during busy, tricky, crazy seasons in life. ...

In this episode, we're looking at sensory diets and sensory breaks through a sensory emotional lens. Sensory diets provide opportunities throughout the day for a child to engage in sensory input to support regulation. In the Sensory Emotional Engagement Model, we know that the way we move our bodies and take in sensation impacts the way that we feel. We also know that children with sensory pro...

Michele and Amanda are back to continue their conversation about supporting our sensory emotional kids in the classroom as we head back to school this year. Getting to know a new school, a new teacher, new routines, and expectations that are different from last year can be really overwhelming. We recognize that we all process sensory information differently and choose different ways of being accor...

Getting to know a new school, a new teacher, new routines, and expectations that are different from last year can be really overwhelming for some. We recognize that we all process sensory information differently and choose different ways of being according to our capacities to process information from the world and our bodies. In school, these ways of being can significantly impact performance and...

Like many common “go to” strategies,  tangible rewards do not always work for all kids - particularly for individuals who process sensation differently than yourself and others.  In fact, an offering of a reward for an expected behavior often has the opposite effect for some kids – again, particularly our sensory kids – and results in further dysregulation and lack of participation.  In this episo...

Social interactions with peers and/or siblings is a common area of challenge for children (and all individuals) with sensory emotional differences. There is often a mismatch in how we think the social experience will go and how it actually goes.  This mismatch leads to decreased success in social interactions and accompanying tricky behaviors when our kids are in social scenarios. This mismatch is...

This week’s episode of a Sensory Emotional Lens builds off of last week’s show on the explorations of new experiences, but this time, we’re putting an emphasis on the benefits of taking risks. Taking risks when done in play is a rich sensory-emotional opportunity and brings several benefits. In addition to sensory-emotional exploration, taking risks brings novelty, ignites problem-solving abilitie...

While most of us thrive on and enjoy routines, individuals with sensory processing and sensory-motor difficulties tend to rely on them more so than most of us. Learn why routines are beneficial and why changes in routines can lead to significant challenges in emotion regulation and social participation. When we understand the body-based differences that occur as routines change, we can better unde...

We all process sensory information and move our bodies differently. Sometimes, this happens in functional ways. Sometimes, this happens in dysfunctional ways. How we process sensation and move our bodies can lead to weaknesses AND strengths. These continuums of function to dysfunction and strengths to weaknesses fluctuate throughout development and the lifespan based on our relationships, environm...

In the last episode, we met Amelia and heard about her perspective on her sensory-emotional journey and lifestyle. As she spoke, I found myself reflecting on her journey through the therapist’s lens—thinking through the clinical reasoning that we used as therapists to support each piece of her sensory-emotional personalities through her early childhood and now pre-teen experiences. Welcome to Behi...

On today’s very special episode of a Sensory Emotional Lens, we are joined by two of our therapists, AnnMarie and Laura, and one of our great kids and her mom. Hear first-hand from Amelia and her mom, Rachel, as they share a bit about their sensory-emotional journey and anxiety.  In this episode you’ll discover: The body-based experiences that cause anxiety for Amelia now, how to recognize them, a...