All Things Sensory by Harkla
Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, AC & Jessica Hill, COTA/L
Rachel Harrington and Jessica Hill, are two passionate Certified Occupational Therapy Assistants who answer your questions related to all things sensory, occupational therapy, parenting, self-care, nutrition, and health, from a therapist’s perspective. Providing raw, honest, fun ideas, and strategies, for parents and families to implement into daily life. Great for those who work with children with sensory processing disorder, special needs, autism, and ADHD. This podcast is brought to you by Harkla. At Harkla, our goal is to help those with special needs live happy and healthy lives.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 16, 2022 • 49min
#195 - Sensory Meets Fitness with Matt Sloan, COTA/L
Matt Sloan is a certified occupational therapy assistant specializing in sensory integration therapy. Matt is also a fitness professional, coach, and has worked as a special education teacher and adaptive PE teacher. Matt has been involved in education for over 25 years working with kids and adults of all abilities in a multitude of settings.Matt now runs Sensory Fitness - a program developed to incorporate sensory integration therapy and fitness that is intentional about exercise, games, and...
Mar 9, 2022 • 26min
#194 - The Just Right Challenge for Sensory-Based Activities - Just How Far Should You Push?
We got a question on instagram that we’re going to answer in today’s episode!When doing sensory activities, should I continue the challenging activities or push through them with my child when my child has adverse reactions? Such a great question! We dive into this topic and discuss the ‘just right challenge’ as well as provide some examples of what this looks like for different situations. We give you our fav. tips and tricks for navigating the ‘just right challenge’ as well as ans...
Mar 2, 2022 • 32min
#193 - Primitive Reflex Q&A with a Fellow Occupational Therapist
Today’s episode is a 1-on-2 with a fellow OT where we dive into all things primitive reflexes! We talk about a variety of challenges related to primitive reflexes as well as we really got to nerd out on all the activity ideas! If you’re a therapist working with children, this episode is GOLD! But don’t shy away from this episode if you’re not a therapist - there are some great ideas for kiddos who are struggling with anxiety, how to help kiddos move into a variety of positions ...
Feb 23, 2022 • 26min
#192 - When Should Children Establish Hand Dominance?
This podcast discusses the importance of establishing hand dominance in children and its impact on fine motor skills. They provide tips and tricks for helping children develop hand dominance and address pinching behavior. They also mention upcoming episodes on crossing midline and self-injurious behavior.
Feb 16, 2022 • 53min
#191 - Toilet Training Tips for Everyone with Jessica, OTR/L from Rooted in Routine
Jessica Irwin is a childhood routine expert, pediatric occupational therapist, and lover of all things child development. She has worked in pediatrics since 2014 in a variety of settings including daycares, preschools, elementary schools, private practice, and pediatric home health. She founded Rooted in Routine in 2019 to help parents learn simple, easy to implement routines for optimal child development at every age. Her approach is largely rooted in going back to the basics ...
Feb 9, 2022 • 41min
#190 - 10 Simple Hacks for Handwriting
In this podcast, Rachel and Jessica discuss strategies for improving handwriting and fine motor skills. They provide 10 sensory hacks for different age groups, including activities like crawling, weight-bearing, and visual perception exercises. The importance of teaching positional words and sequencing in handwriting is highlighted, along with tips for developing a sensory diet and using the Handwriting Without Tears program. They also explore the connection between life skills, handwriting, and biting behavior, and provide strategies for managing frustration in young children.
Feb 2, 2022 • 35min
#189 - 5 Do's and Don't's with your Infant & Toddler from an OT Perspective
We want to give you our top tips for infants and toddlers - based on our clinical, professional experiences as well as our personal experiences! Our goal is to share information, no shame involved! Take what works for you and share with anyone you think can benefit! We also answer a couple of listener questions at the end, so stick around! Check out the links below for a bunch of our fav. products, our Free Primitive Reflex Webinar, and our full length course! Be sure to check ...
Jan 26, 2022 • 52min
#188 - All About Stuttering with Lauren Brown, SLP and owner of Stutter Free Kids
Lauren is a pediatric speech pathologist and has been practicing for over 13 years. She specializes in childhood stuttering and is the owner of Stutter Free Kids.Lauren takes an integrative approach to stuttering that both treats directly but also teaches how to support greater fluency through play, connection, brain care and managing high sensitivity, which is common among children who stutter. Lauren believes strongly in early intervention and advocates for a 'support and see' approach...
Jan 19, 2022 • 25min
#187 - What it Means to "Meet the Sensory Threshold"
Meeting the sensory threshold is the first step in helping a child feel more regulated. But do you know what that means?!If not, this episode will give you all the details on what, why, and how! If so, this is a great episode to refresh and send to everyone you know! We also answer 2 listener questions, so stick around to the end! Also, check out the links below for even more amazing content, articles mentioned in the episode, and MORE! LinksYouTube Video - What is th...
Jan 12, 2022 • 41min
#186 - A Unique Approach to Speech Therapy with Kian McBurnie, SLP-CCC, a PROMPT Certified, Long Island Therapist
Kian McBurnie is a Speech Language Therapist from Long Island, NY (SLP-CCC, PROMPT Certified). She graduated in 2012 and has experience with students 3-21 years old across settings such as homecare, a school for the Deaf, and various school districts. She is PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Phonetic Motor Targets) Certified and passionate about all things motor.Be sure to check out the show notes on our blog at Harkla.Co/Podcast.Brought To You By HarklaThis podcast is brought to y...
