by Melissa Collier | Feb 8, 2021 | Having Fun/Engaging, For Parents/Caregivers
Understanding how movement and neurological systems impact self-esteem, our organs, behavior, and relationships helps us realize the importance of daily exercise. In addition to helping keep the human body physically healthy, motor is one of the earliest forms of...
by Melissa Collier | Jan 24, 2021 | For Parents/Caregivers, For Educators
Help for students struggling in school typically begins with advice about creating distraction-free study spaces, organization, and tutoring for the subjects in which your child is falling behind. We approach academic success for teens, tweens, and elementary-aged...
by Melissa Collier | Dec 29, 2020 | Inspirational
Growth may not be the first word that comes to mind when thinking about the challenges, plot twists, and bewilderment of 2020. However, when reflecting on the year, we’ve seen and experienced incredible growth despite the extraordinary circumstances. Everyone was so...
by Melissa Collier | Dec 11, 2020 | For Parents/Caregivers
Teenage Anxiety Disguises Itself in Many Ways – Here’s Five: 1. Anger Many junior and high school students miss daily interactions with their friends and the normalcy of pre-COVID life. The pressures of semester finals and the holidays are piling up. Kids...
by Melissa Collier | Oct 22, 2020 | For Parents/Caregivers
Pandemic Parenting Pandemic parenting is causing parental burnout to spike at alarming rates. It’s difficult to balance the safety of your family with a variety of working/working from home and hybrid/remote/virtual schooling solutions. It’s unsustainable to put added...
by Melissa Collier | Sep 22, 2020 | DIR/Floortime
DIR Floortime is a multi-component intervention to help children with social-emotional, educational, mental health, or developmental differences. When a new family starts treatment at Zier Institute, we love explaining how DIR Floortime helps children and families...
by Melissa Collier | Aug 14, 2020 | For Parents/Caregivers
Back to school study tips during a pandemic vary based on if students are returning to a traditional classroom with additional safety measures or virtual learning at home. For some families, it will be a mix of the two with hybrid learning. How students return to...
by Melissa Collier | Aug 5, 2020 | For Parents/Caregivers
Eating Therapy at Zier Institute is important for children and teens who have a complicated relationship with food. Picky eaters. Anxious Eaters. Worried eaters. There are plenty of labels for children and adults who struggle with eating or trying new foods. It’s...
by Melissa Collier | Jul 22, 2020 | For Educators, For Parents/Caregivers
The importance of sleep for kids and teens is a widely researched topic. Good sleep habits promote healthy development during the formative and adolescent years. Sleep programs find that sleeping like a well-slumbered baby is nice but sleeping like a fourteen-year-old...
by Melissa Collier | Jul 1, 2020 | For Educators, For Parents/Caregivers, Uncategorized
These anti-racism resources for kids and families have been collected by our occupational therapists in Omaha and Chicago over the past six weeks. Just as we shared resources about talking to kids about COVID, we‘re sharing resources/action-steps for kids in order to...
