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FINDING A MOM-LIFE BALANCE. LEARNING YOU CAN TAKE CARE OF OTHERS ALL WHILE TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF.

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Blog
Easy Healthy Eats
Mini Mindful Activities
Professional
Speech & Language Tidbits
Tiny & Tidy
Wellness

Sarah Ott

I am a Full Time Mom and Part Time Speech and Language Pathologist. Becoming a Mom has brought me to to numerous new life lessons, including balancing self-care with caring for my family, fulfilling my professional goals in new ways, and striving to raise good humans! This page is a space to share my own experiences, successes, and failures, hopefully create a positive space for others to join, and invite you to join me in pursuing happiness in whatever life journey you are on. Our children are our greatest teachers, and looking for us to teach them in return.

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✨New on the Blog <link in profile> . . . OWN IT! I’ve been absent from the blog for a little as life gets busy! My baby has completely turned into a toddler and worldwide there has been a lot going on, which has been leading me to really think about my mindset around choices. Making them, teaching them, responding to them rather than REACTING to them. My toddler is not “terrible”, but she is yearning for independence. She is yearning to exercise what small amounts of FREEDOMS of choice she may have. It is my job to provide them. It is my job to allow her to exercise independence safely. It is my job to be accepting, flexible, patient, and observant. It is my job to practice stopping, thinking, regulating, and then deciding in my daily life. My path is largely laid board by board with my own choices. Learning to make decisions begins with learning to recognize and respond to provided choices. As parents and mentors, we can cultivate decision making skills, as well as leadership mentalities from a young age.

SOUND ON! Joint Attention! It’s SO important as it is one of THE biggest building blocks for language development and social development. Without, or with weak, joint attention it’s hard for children to imitate, which can impact play skills and language development. . . . In this video you’re going to see an example of joint attention, which leads to sound imitation, and social engagement with requesting. You don’t need fancy toys! In fact, touch and silliness benefits both parties! Not just emotionally, but cognitively! It’s also an immune booster! Emotionally charged learning is high level learning! If you have any concerns with joint attention, imitation, or language delay with your little one go with your gut! Speak to your pediatrician and request a referral. Early intervention is the best intervention. . . . Get goofy! During these moments look for meaningful eye contact, work on social requests, and LAUGH! It’s good for the souls ❤️

Monday Morning Vibes where you want to engage your little one, but also want to finish your coffee while it’s hot! . . . . Mini sensory bin fun! You can hide whatever you want in some beans and rice. Obviously supervise closely because....beans in the nose. I chose Mr. Potato Head parts because my daughter has been in to ID’ing body parts! Great for following directions, Body Part ID, fine motor (picking up the beans as they fall out) and locational concepts! BONUS it bought me 10 minutes of sitting in one spot, hanging with my girl while enjoying my morning cup!

Walking into the weekend with the sun FINALLY shining ☀️ I was listening to the @soulfeed_podcast this week and the guest speaker said something that really resonated. She said that some days it’s hard to focus on gratitude, but we can shift to a perspective of thinking about “what went right”. Rather than coming home and unpacking everything that went wrong focus on what went right ✨ . . . For us this week we got to the playground and home before a downpour, tried and enjoyed 3 new foods, and enjoyed some extra cuddles. Was it the most productive week? Not necessarily...but there were a lot of RIGHT moments ❤️ Happy Saturday!

“We all, as adults, tend to react emotionally when kids aren’t doing what we want them to do socially, Bezsylko notes. “Nobody would ever call somebody a bad kid because he gets a word problem wrong. But if he’s impulsive in class and blurts out something to his teacher, then they may get upset.” . . . This is such a great read for any parent. Struggles with social cognitive skills don’t always mean a child has Autism. Social Skills are Cognitive Processes. Children and adults who struggle with executive functioning, attention, non-verbal learning disorders, anxiety, etc. can also exhibit social struggles. It’s so important to know that we can teach them strategies, patterns, and tools to help them better navigate both their social and academic worlds. They are not separate. Children and teens with social cognitive difficulties or learning deficits are more likely to be bullied or bully as well. The goal for us all should be teaching and prevention, not punishment.

I get a lot of questions from parents asking how they can increase their little one’s language so on my IGTV is a little video of me playing with my 17 month old daughter using a combination of child led play, melodic intonation, auditory bombardment, and clinician modeling for language targets including: “my turn” and “open”! Notice I don’t get too caught up in if she participates in the game I want, but I follow her lead in what she chooses (and Amazon envelope provided SO much Language!) I also reinforce any and all verbalizations and signs! She says “oten” for “open” paired with the sign. Follow their lead and be animated! Play is so powerful! You’ll also notice I repeat constantly! This is the auditory bombardment piece! You might get tired of hearing your own voice, but your little one definitely won’t!