The Crap and The Crazy by Little Wooden Toybox: Recent Episodes
Tash Kritter
Let's talk additional needs! Discussion topics around our crazy ASD ADHD PDA household from everyday life to emotional regulation, routines, fine motor skills, sensory play and more! Plus general tips, hacks, tools and strategies to cope and love life with kids with additional needs.
✔ Why it's important to teach and understand emotions
✔ Why it's important to teach and understand emotional regulation and sensory regulation
✔ Understanding our own sensory profile
✔ Understanding our kids' sensory profiles
✔ Explosive meltdowns vs shutdowns
✔ Tools & strategies to calm down and therefore stay calm and regulated
Managing Meltdowns:
✔ Don’t be telling someone that’s not calm to calm down - it won’t end well ✔ Limit talking, questions, demands till another time of day when they are better regulated
✔ Someone in meltdown mode - silent or explosive - is not capable of reasoning or processing. They are maxed out and you talking will be adding to their overwhelm not helping
✔ Meltdowns - not the time for discussions about behaviour or for punishing/discipline - save talking through for later (often hours later)
✔ Learn strategies that work with you & each child (they’ll be different) and have them ready to go when a meltdown happens - meltdowns aren’t the time to test (unless working with a new child)
✔ Ultimately we want our kids to take control & responsibility for staying regulated - teach them rather than always doing it for them (talk through the process - this can take years)
✔ Pick your battles - if your kid keeps calm/regulated by having 4 weetbix at 5pm right before dinner… What are you going to do? What’s more important?
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
- Why it's important to teach and understand emotions
- Why it's important to teach and understand emotional regulation and sensory regulation
- Understanding our own sensory profile
- Understanding our kids' sensory profiles
- Explosive meltdowns vs shutdowns
- Tools & strategies to get going and therefore stay calm and regulated
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
What Skills are involved in everyday Routines?
- executive functioning skills
- time management
- working memory
- fine motor skills
- gross motor skills
- motor planning
- understanding context
- problem solving
Visual schedules
- Reduce the overwhelm
- Reduce the tears, frustrations and refusal to complete tasks
- And set them up to succeed
- Reduces nagging
- Helps keep you sane
- Helps them take responsibility
Visual Aids can include
- Do do lists/picture strips - for the day
- Do do lists/picture strips - for an individual task
- Now/Then - transitions
- Family Planners
- Monthly/Weekly/Daily Planners
- Family rules/expectation
- Classroom rules/expectations
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
Ever wondered why your kid keeps crashing into you, climbing all over you are wanting loads of hugs?!
Proprioception (or movement breaks) helps us to
✔ understand our position in the space around us
✔ calm down
✔ get going
Movement breaks are a great way to:
✔ organise the brain
✔ organise sensory input
✔ improve attention
✔ improve body awareness
✔ decrease defensiveness
Movement breaks include:
✔ Running
✔ Jumping
✔ Climbing
✔ Lifting
✔ Crashing
✔ Hugging
✔ Pushing
✔ Pulling
Emotional Regulation (with Proprioception) Packs: https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/products/training-bundle-emotional-and-sensory-regulation
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
Practical steps, tools and strategies to help you and your family
✔ get organised
✔ stay calm
✔ enjoy life
✔ manage behaviours
✔ emotional regulation
✔ sensory regulation
Today we cover:
✔ fidgets, wobble chairs etc that allow us to focus
✔ iPads - setting up boundaries & family rules and values
✔ meals - healthy relationships with food, this may look different and that's ok
RESOURCES: https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections/emotions-routines
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
Practical steps, tools and strategies to help you and your family
✔ get organised
✔ stay calm
✔ enjoy life
✔ manage behaviours
✔ emotional regulation
✔ sensory regulation
Today we cover:
✔ routines - why we uses them & why they work
✔ labels & getting organised
✔ transitions - timers & Now/Next visual schedules
✔ quiet safe spaces to calm down
✔ spaces for whole body movement to burn energy
✔ co-regulation - finding the balance between your sanity and their happiness
✔ sleep - choosing sleep over scrolling socials
RESOURCES: https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections/emotions-routines
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
Practical steps, tools and strategies to help you and your family
✔ get organised
✔ stay calm
✔ enjoy life
✔ manage behaviours
✔ emotional regulation
✔ sensory regulation
Today we cover:
✔ leads - controversial - hear me out!
✔ resting together - keeping your sanity
✔ stimming
✔ iPads - controversial - hear me out!
✔ meals - what are we teaching them about their relationship with food
RESOURCES
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections/emotions-routines
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
Practical steps, tools and strategies to help you and your family
✔ get organised
✔ stay calm
✔ enjoy life
✔ manage behaviours
✔ emotional regulation
✔ sensory regulation
Today we cover:
✔ routines - why we uses them & why they work
✔ labels & getting organised
✔ transitions - timers & Now/Next visual schedules
✔ quiet safe spaces to calm down
✔ spaces for whole body movement to burn energy
✔ co-regulation - finding the balance between your sanity and their happiness
✔ sleep - or lack of... and instead finding joy in the little things where possible
ROUTINES RESOURCES: https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections/planners
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
Join me as I talk about day-to-day life with Autism; the sucky bits and the wins, plus tips for enjoying life despite the challenges 👇
✔ All behaviour is a form of communication
✔ What if we chose to step back and look at things differently?
✔ What are behaviours communicating? Lining things up, rocking, flapping, stimming, intense focus, covering ears or eyes, hiding, running, tippy toes, meltdowns, being alone/parallel play
✔ Emotional overwhelm
✔ Sensory overwhelm
✔ Anxiety/Excitement
✔ Fight/flight response
✔ Control and order in a chaotic world
Want to know more? Ask me 👇 I'd love ideas for future podcast topics 😊😊😊
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
Join me as I talk about day-to-day life with Autism; the sucky bits and the wins, plus tips for enjoying life despite the challenges 👇
✔ What is co regulation?
✔ Take the time to learn your sensory profile
✔ In understanding your sensory profile, you will build more empathy for what your child is experiencing
✔ Sensory inputs impact emotional regulation which impact our behaviour
✔ Behaviour similar to an iceberg - the behaviour is the bit you can see but there so much going on that you may not be able to see
✔ Invite your child to join your calm, instead of you joining their chaos
✔ Pick your battles, decide where you are will to compromise, decide what is important to you and your family
Either we spend time meeting children's emotional needs by filling their cup with love or we spend time dealing with the behaviours from their unmet needs... either way we spend time - Pam Lee
Want to know more? Ask me 👇 I'd love ideas for future podcast topics 😊😊😊
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
✅ There are lots of reasons for changing therapists - personality clashes, life changes, life stages, kids growing up, refusal, kids stop responding to therapy/ist
✅ Tools & strategies change with age & independence & development
✅ Find your tribe - trusted close friends on same journey - some of the biggest breakthroughs have been from close friends on same journey, tackling the same issue in a different way that I hadn't considered
✅ More than one way to parent & do therapy - find therapists that work for you and your kids
✅ Be ok to change therapists, even when you have worked with them for years
✅ Sometimes a new therapist, new perspective, new ways of tackling things can be the fresh change that's needed
✅ Changing therapists - exhausting & hard, but can be worth it
Want to know more? Ask me 👇 I'd love ideas for future podcast topics 😊😊😊
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
I go off on a slight tangent but I do still get to the point on this one 😆😆😆 Enjoy! ox
✅ Trust your gut - you know you and your kids best
✅ No where in the history of 'and they are fine' was anyone really fine
✅ The work you are putting in now is an investment - you will see results & it won't always look like this
✅ Find your tribe
✅ It's ok to say no
✅ It's ok to set boundaries and have a break from some people
✅ It's ok to set your priorities and stick to them
✅ Priorities and boundaries can change - this is ok too
✅ Do what you need to do to get through each day
✅ What I do for my mental health now (exercise, sleep, food etc) is very different to what I was able to do when my kids were young where I had very little time to spare and 0 personal space
Want to know more? Ask me 👇 I'd love ideas for future podcast topics 😊😊😊
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
Do not depend on your own understanding
Seek His will in all that you do
And He will show you which path to take
✅ Relying on God daily to get through - asking for His strength, joy, peace & grace each day
✅ Knowing I don't have to do life alone - even though God doesn’t magically 'fix' things or make difficult things go away
✅ God can use your crappy circumstance and turn it into something good as He has (or is in the process of doing) for me - life's a journey 💖
✅ God's not waiting to fry you like a kid with a magnifying glass whenever you happen to screw up
✅ You don't have to have all your ducks in a row. I don’t know where my ducks are half the time... 🦆🦆🦆
Want to know more? Ask me 👇 I'd love ideas for future podcast topics 😊😊😊
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
✅ Setting yourself and your kids up for success - doing the ground work before leaving the house
✅ Routines
✅ Being ok with it looking different - hanging out at Bunnings instead of play centres
✅ Find your tribe - people who are on the same journey as you
✅ Sensory tools - clothing, socks, elastic, sunnies, noise cancelling headphones, weighted backpacks etc
Want to know more? Ask me 👇 I'd love ideas for future podcast topics 💖💖💖
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
This is purely based on my experience and how it looks in our family and with children I have worked with. Excuse my ignorance as I learn - I have only been aware of this diagnosis for about 6 months :) ox
✅ What is PDA?
✅ What is ODD? (in case you are more familiar with this diagnosis as I was)
✅ What's the difference between PDA and ODD?
✅ Parenting strategies for PDA
✅ PANDA - see PDA Society https://www.pdasociety.org.uk/resources/helpful-approaches-infographic/
I forgot to mention praise in this podcast. We keep praise limited and low key with my PDA kid as praise is effectively a demand with expectations for them to:
- share your excitement/enthusiasm
- meet these new expectations next time, now that they've shown they are capable of this new task/achievement
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
Following on from 'When Surprises Don't Go To Plan'In a nutshell, I tried surprising my boy with a scooter on his birthday 🤯 It didn't go to plan! 🤣😭🙄✅ Is my child being a spoilt brat or is there something else going on?
✅ Why am I struggling to deal with this?
✅ What could I do differently next time?
✅ Social expectations - theirs, mines and ours
✅ Understanding why surprises may not work so well with kids with Autism
✅ Dealing with expectations as a parent vs reality of parenting a kid with Autism
✅ Being ok with Christmas and birthdays looking a bit different to reduce surprises
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Any requests or feedback?
Email Tash: tashkritter@gmail.com
Hanging out again today with Ishwari Samarakoon from Speech Therapy Services and The Speechie Life 💖💖💖 Part 2
Talking about:
- Sensory profiles & sensory regulation
- Emotional regulation
- Why aren’t all speechies & OTs trained in emotional & sensory regulation?
- Dealing with sensory issues in the environment first before tackling anything else
- Keeping mum (main caregiver) well regulated
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Hanging out today with Ishwari Samarakoon from Speech Therapy Services and The Speechie Life 💖💖💖 Part 1
Talking about:
- What speechies do
- How speechies work with you, your kids & your family
- Value of a good therapy team
- Expectations
- Dealing with change – kids growing up, life stages, changing needs of you, the kids and the family
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
- Sleep advice... when it goes wrong
- It's not always going to be this way
- Melatonin
- It gets better with time
- Pick your battles, sleep when you can
Little Wooden Toybox Pty Ltd
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
- Tags, seams, stitching, elastic
- Sensory overwhelm
- Weighted blankets and toys, headphones, sunnies - coping with sensory overwhelm when out and about
- Pick your battles, trial & error
- Pick your battles
- Separation plates - foods not touching
- Sensory - the colour, texture, temperature, consistency of different foods
- The sucky bits. The meltdowns that don't end
- Not knowing how to manage meltdowns when your kids comes without a manual
- Coping despite meltdowns
- Trial and error when parenting
- When others say your child's meltdowns are manipulative and controlling
- Life behind the scenes in an Autism house.
All things poop... because if we can't laugh, then we'll just sit in the corner and rock and cry 😆
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
✅ What is a Silent Meltdown
✅ Silent Meltdown vs. Typical Meltdown
✅ What to do/What not to do
✅ Sensory Overwhelm
✅ Emotional Overwhelm
✅ Strategies
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
✅ What is a Meltdown
✅ What to do/What not to do
✅ Sensory Overwhelm
✅ Emotional Overwhelm
✅ Meltdown vs. Tantrum
✅ Strategies
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/pages/podcast
✅ Understanding why surprises may not work so well with kids with Autism
✅ Dealing with expectations as a parent vs reality of parenting a kid with Autism
✅ Being ok with Christmas and birthdays looking a bit different to reduce surprises
✅ Meltdowns vs Tantrums
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/collections
Routines require a lot of:
✅ executive functioning skills
✅ time management
✅ working memory
✅ fine motor skills
✅ gross motor skills
✅ motor planning
✅ understanding context
✅ problem solving
Visual schedules to take away the pressure and stress of having to remember what to do and in what order, especially when there so many skills required to complete each task!
Today I talk through how this looks for your kids, your family and for you, and the importance of staying organised, knowing what's coming up next, knowing what to expect each day and how this helps you and your family to enjoy a calmer and more organised life.
Parenting kids with additional needs is tough - here's 5 tips that I have used to help cope & enjoy life, despite the challenges
-
Drop your expectations of others
-
Pick your battles
-
Find your tribe
-
Early intervention is worth the investment
-
Get a cat 😆
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/
Tash Kritter owns Little Wooden Toybox and is mother of two teens; both with Autism, ADHD and PDA.
10 years in early intervention working with the kids’ OTs, Speechies and psychologists has given Tash unique insight into understanding difficult behaviours and why they occur, as well as understanding how emotional regulation and sensory input impacts us and our behaviour.
This insight has helped Tash to design and implement resources & coping strategies to make home life calmer and more organised.
Join Tash as she talks about day-to-day life with Autism; the sucky bits and the wins, plus tips for enjoying life despite the challenges.
https://www.littlewoodentoybox.com.au/