Wellbeing

Story Dogs🐾

This week, we began our Story Dogs Reading and Wellbeing Program. Story Dogs is a fun and unique reading and wellbeing support program that improves children’s reading and communication skills by children reading to an accredited companion dog and its handler. The children involved were extremely excited to be given this opportunity - there were smiles all 'round. 

'It was so much fun! I can't wait to read to Bonnie again next week!' - Matilda

'I loved reading with Bonnie, she wanted to hold my hand while I read with her' - Lily

'It is such a fun and relaxing way to practise my reading and Bonnie is so cute' - Isla

Tips from Georgina Manning

Teach relaxation and calming strategies

• Learning how to relax and calm yourself down is so important for children with anxiety. As a parent you can role model and directly teach children how to calm themselves down when they feel anxious by using the following techniques:
• Breathing technique: Take in a deep breath through your nose and then imagine you are blowing out a candle or blowing big bubbles that float away. Breathe out through your mouth. Continue to do this for a few minutes,deliberately slowing down the breaths each time.
• Mindfulness muscle relaxation - ‘Tense and Relax’ technique. Closing your eyes,tense and then relax each part of your body starting with your toes. E.g. tense up all the muscles in your toes by ‘scrunching’ them up as tight as you can. Then relax the toes by letting them ‘flop’. Then move up to your feet, ankles, lower legs etc and continue up to your face and head. Take time to tense and then relax each area.
• Finding something fun or relaxing to do. Encourage your child to do an activity that is naturally relaxing for them. This will be an activity that puts them in the‘flow’. Flow activities are activities where you lose track of time and are fully engaged. Flow activities are usually things we are good at or are drawn towards. Each child will be different with their flow activities, and it is easy to pick what they are – just watch your child and take note of when they are fully engaged in an activity.

Some tips from Carley McGauran's  'How your family can thrive and not just survive' seminar. 

Last night Carly shared wonderful strategies on how we can support our little people to manage their emotions.  

• Allow children to feel and express their emotions by naming and taming them. 
• Get curious not furious! 
• Be mindful not to use our own stories to create unrealistic expectations. 
• Setting our children up for success by providing them with opportunities to practise social skills. 

Stuck on a waitlist for Occupational Therapy or Speech Pathology?

Refer now to start today!

Referral Forms