Have you ever stalled at starting a project, an essay or a report? Then you know how I feel!
The blank screen has been staring at me all morning, daring me to get started. There’s so much that Lisa and I want to share with you to make life easier and more fun for and with the little people in your lives – the question is where to start?
As some wise anonymous person once said “the secret to getting started is getting started”.So let’s go!
Julia Eggles OTR, BOccTHy(Hons)
Firstly, let me introduce myself – I’m Julia Eggles, I’ve been a paediatric occupational therapist for over thirty years. In that time I’ve worked, spoken and written about child development around Australia and in the USA. During that time, I have worked closely with parents, teachers and other clinicians refining and developing tools and strategies to help children learn, interact and perform better at home and school.
Dr Lisa Hudson PhD BSPThy(Hons)
My good friend, colleague and business partner, Dr Lisa Hudson has been with me on much of this journey. She is a doctor of speech pathology, author, speaker and advocate for children and families. Both Lisa and I will be contributing to this blog along with weekly podcasts that cover the fundamentals of learning and development in practical ways that you can put to work immediately.
Research and experience tell us that children develop self worth with mastery over their world, solving problems that are meaningful to them, particularly in play in the early years.
In order to take pride in their accomplishments and build on them, it means risking failure and overcoming obstacles. It’s not always easy to let this process unfold! The trick for parents and teachers is twofold:
- Making sure that the challenges they face are “just right” – neither too easy (and therefore boring and quickly abandoned) or too hard (so they give up in frustration).
- Children are in the “just right state” – open to explore, learn and achieve.
That might sound simple, but in practice, it isn’t always so – for any child there can sometimes be obstacles to learning that are not at first easily recognized or overcome.
That’s where we come in. We are bringing our clinical experience backed by research in a number of fields to give you and your children and/or students a helping hand along the way.
We consider the 15 fundamentals of development and how they impact the 10 key areas for school performance when providing you ideas and strategies to work things through.
If you’re wondering what those 15 fundamentals and 10 key areas are, stay tuned, as we will be writing and talking about them at length over the coming weeks and months.
To get you started with some great strategies for quick calming, please refer to the link to the right of this article to get your free copy of our booklet “10 Top Tips For Calming Kids Quickly”.
Be sure to give us feedback through our facebook page – we would love to hear from you!
