Margo Occupational Therapist - Difficult Children
A child’s diet can be a source of parental stress. How many parents and therapists hear this every day: “I don’t want to taste it! I’m not hungry! I don’t like this!” Firstly, it is important to ha...
Margo- Special Care Counsellor
Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is an evolving type of therapy. In my experience, animals arouse great interest and curiosity when used in intervention work, and they are also appealing. Here is some...
Daily behaviour management
Wether we are a parent or a resource person intervening with children, we all experience at one point a situation where we have to deal with a difficult behaviour. In order to change this behaviour...
Pre-reading skills or phonological awareness!
Children learn to juggle word sounds well before they are able to read. They also learn word recognition and decoding skills well prior to being able to read syllables or even say the alphabet. Pho...
Communicating Effectively with Our Children: Not Always Easy, But Oh So Important!
Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish (www.fabermazlish.com) developed an educational method that has been proven in places all over the world: "Talk and children will listen, listen and children will tal...
How Do We Help Our Children Choose Their Friends?
When I met Jeanne for the first time, I was struck by her personality, her intelligence and sensitivity. Jeanne is a bright young girl and very pleasant to interact with. So I was not surprised to ...
What consequences should I give my child?
It is not always easy for a parent to spontaneously have ideas about what consequences to give a child who disobeys or adopts inappropriate behavior. Often, the first consequences are cutting out v...
MargOT - Cutting
Cutting is an activity that requires multiple skills. It is not uncommon for children to have difficulties in cutting and making crafts, considering the complexity of the task. In fact, the child n...
International Update
Last January, I had the privilege to participate in the 2nd Children’s Physical Activity and Sport Conference (0-12 years) held in Finland. The participants came from 18 countries and I was unfortu...
The rich contribution of men in physical activities
THE UNIQUE ROLE OF MEN IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
Typically, fathers more than mothers foster risk-taking in their children such as climbing unaided on play structures or jumping into the water. In their r...
Quality First Experiences in Physical Activity
The quality of first experiences inevitably develops children’s taste for and pleasure of movement. Whatever the appeal of the activity or sport, one of the key factors influencing the quality of t...
Physical Literacy: An Inspiring Concept!
The purpose of this article is to introduce you to the innovative concept of physical literacy. This global concept inspires more and more stakeholders and organizations to guide their actions on t...
Active outdoor play: "Get out of the way and let them play !"
Very often fall means going back to structured indoor activities and courses. Yet unsupervised outdoor play is essential for a healthy development. There is compelling scientific evidence to that m...
International Update
As I mentioned in my March column, last October I attended the 1st International Congress of physical activity and sport for children (3-9 years) held in Liege, Belgium. Here is a brief overview of...
A New School: Easing the Transition
Moving to a new school is a big event in a young person’s life. Whether it be attending school for the first time or transferring to another school, the transition can cause fear or anxiety for a p...
Margo the Occupational Therapist- My child is being restless. What can I do?
Does your child fail to remain seated or remain attentive during a drawing or do-it-yourself activity? Maintaining the sitting position for a certain period of time is achieved through postural con...
La communication c’est plus que simplement dire des mots
La communication c’est plus que simplement dire des mots. Dès qu’ils sont tout petits, les nouveau-nés communiquent en regardant et en analysant l’expression faciale de la personne devant eux. Comb...
Children with special needs : adaptations in class
The teacher has to deal with children with different types of temperament on a daily basis. In addition more children with special needs require adaptations in class (ex : from children with an att...
Do you know constructive Time Out ?
Questions and concerns related to child education have evolved considerably during the course of the past few years. Yet one subject comes up constantly in my practice, the use of an old technique ...
Les repères visuels
Que ce soit pour chercher les toilettes dans un centre commercial ou encore pour conduire sur la route, nous sommes tous dépendants des signes visuels qui nous entourent. Les repères visuels sont r...
MargOT - Body Awareness
Everyone has in their mind an image of their body, with all its parts. If we close our eyes, we can imagine how our body is positioned in a space. This ability, or body awareness, is acquired over...
Quoi intégrer à son "sac de secours"
Avril est le mois de l’autisme. Ce trouble de plus en plus répandu, mais encore mal connu nous renvoie, souvent à tort, l’image d’un enfant vivant dans sa bulle ou qui fait d’énormes crises. Or, la...
Screening and Diagnosis of ASD
ASD is an abbreviation for autism spectrum disorder. Since May 2013, the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) uses the term ASD which was previously part of the family of Pervasive Development...
Executive Functions and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
What are executive functions? Executive functions are high level mental processes which provide a coordinating role for adaptation to new situations and can only be done through automation. These f...
