Are sensory difficulties affecting your child’s behavior? Wendy has Alisha Grogan back on the Fresh Start Family Show this week to help parents understand and detect sensory challenges in their children and give ways to manage and improve them.
Alisha helps families to remove the stigma behind sensory challenges and find real solutions to sensory issues through her organization, Your Kids Table and brings that wisdom to the Fresh Start Family audience today!
You’ll learn what “sensory challenges” look like & why they may be a big contributing factor to hyperactivity, meltdowns, sensistitives, etc. with your kiddo.
3 takeaways from this episode:
- Any child can have sensory issues and range from mild to moderate.
- Sensory issues can be hard to detect. It’s important to know some of the big signs.
- Sensory issues can be managed and improved.
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*Firm & kind strategies to navigate challenging behavior with firm kindness & connection (vs. fear, force, yelling, threats & bribery)
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Episode Highlights:
- Breaking down the layers of sensory issues
- Understanding sensory difficulties & how they can affect ANY kids
- Sensory difficulties can fluctuate
- the 3 lanes of sensory difficulties
- Knowing what signs to recognize in our children
- Managing & improving sensory issues
- Finding real solutions to sensory problems
Resources Mentioned:
Not able to listen or want to read along with us?
Here is the episode transcript!
Wendy:
This episode is brought to you by the firm and kind parenting blueprint, a Fresh Start Family program that will teach you four steps to setting strong limits and sticking to them with consistency and kind of firmness. You can learn more at firmankindparentingblueprint.com.
Well, hello listeners I’m so happy that you are here for a new episode. I am your host, Wendy Snyder, positive parenting educator and family life coach. And today on the show, we have Alisha Grogan, licensed occupational therapist and founder of Your Kids Table, who is going to be talking to us about sensory challenges with kids in particular, Hidden Sensory Issues That Parents Often Miss. And you may have heard, or remember when Alisha has been on our show before she was on back, back back a while now it’s been awhile.
Wendy:
It was episode 47. We’ll make sure we put the link in the show notes for this episode also, but a FreshStartFamilyonline.com/47, but she spoke to us originally about picky eating. And she does a lot of phenomenal work in the world and has many, many programs to help families who feel like they have picky eaters or really big challenges around food and eating. And she’s just incredible in that space. And she’s also incredible in the sensory processing and differences space. And this conversation is just really, really good. So I’m excited for you to listen to it. It was especially meaningful to me because I look back after I rerecord this episode.
Wendy:
I look, I was thinking about it and I, you know, when I look back to when Stella was young, so Stella, my oldest is 14. Now my youngest is 11. And back in, in the season when I found positive parenting and things were really, really dark for me, if you’ve never heard my story, Terry And I story about how the poop really hit the fan before things got better for us, make sure you listen to episode one of the Fresh Start Family show, FreshStartFamilyonline.com/1, or just scroll all the way back to the beginning. But Terry and I really talk about that season of life and how dark and challenging it was before we found this work that I teach now that really just changed everything for our family.
Wendy:
But one of the things I remember is just how like physically challenging it was with Stella and also just how sensitive she was. So for example, I remember I’ll talk a little bit about, you’ll hear in this episode, but we used to take, I used to take her to gymnastics class when she was three and she just was the kid who was hyperactive. She was not able to keep her hands to herself. She tackle, hugged her friends, like literally slamming them to the ground. No, thank God. There were mats there, but it was just really challenging. I just remember some of my worst parenting moments were at that gymnastic center. If you’re, if you’re never heard me tell the story about some of my biggest, my biggest punishment regret was at that gym gymnastics center after I’m sure one of those days when I was just like, why can’t you just chill out?
Wendy:
Keep your hands to yourself night, not be so hyperactive, not have so many meltdowns. I actually tell that story. Usually when I teach my compassionate discipline class. So if you’ve never been to that, I’d highly recommend you join me for that workshop. Fresh Start Family, online.com forward slash discipline class. We’ll always make sure we put the, all the links I mentioned in the show notes page, but it was just a really challenging season. And then on top of that, combined with how many times she had a meltdown over how hot she was in her pool up, or she would not like, you know, we buy these Easter dresses that she’d be so excited about, and then she’d have a meltdown on Easter morning cause she couldn’t wear it because it was too scratchy.
Wendy:
And then I would get frustrated. And it was just, there was so many times that I look at it and I’m like, holy smokes. I think there was a giant sensory issue going on. And I just think, man, if I would have had Alisha back then or known about her programs and being able to fill up my toolkit in that area to understand what I could do to help my little girl, in addition to the positive parenting I was learning, Ooh, it just would have been so helpful. And I think I probably would have avoided regretful parenting moments that I had. But so anyways, as, as you listen to this, if you have a child where you can relate to some of the things that Alisha is talking about, you’re not alone still to this day.
Wendy:
I look at my amazing Stella bird and even the way she pets the dog or hits the volleyball or drums or whatever it is, I’m like, okay, I see that she just has certain sensory preferences and thank God over the years, we’ve, we’ve learned how to, how to support her with those. And also I’m still learning, like, you’ll hear me talk to Alisha today. I’m just, I’m just still really learning about this. And I’m excited to bring this to you guys today. So again, if you are exhausted, frustrated, confused by your kiddos, maybe they have poor focus. Maybe they’re hyperactive. Maybe they have a lot of meltdowns. Maybe they have a lot of sensory sensitivities or sensory issues.
Wendy:
Then this episode is for you and then make sure you also join Alisha for her free challenge. You guys know how much we love challenges here at Fresh Start Family. We do one ourselves twice a year, the Fresh Start parenting challenge, but she is hosting one called thriving with sensory, which is a seven day challenge. So you can join her by going to Fresh Start Family, online.com forward slash sensory. And I’m going to be doing it too, because again, I’m really as an educator and a family life coach, I’m really looking to expand my knowledge about sensory because I think again, it’s just another tool or many tools we can put in our tool bucket that perfectly compliment the work we do when it comes to positive parenting and mindset work and all, all the good stuff.
Wendy:
Okay. So make sure you join Alisha for that free seven day challenge that she’s hosting very, very soon. Let me know your thoughts and without further ado, you guys enjoy this episode. Thank you as always for listening and supporting the Fresh Start Family Show. I love each and every one of you.
Stella:
Well, Hey there, I’m Stella welcome to my mom and dad’s podcast. The Fresh Start Family Show. We’re so happy. You’re here. We’re inspired by the ocean Jesus and rock and roll and believe deeply in the true power of love and kindness together. We hope to inspire you to expand your heart, learn new tools and strengthen your family enjoyed show.
Wendy:
Well, Hey there, families and welcome to a new episode of the Fresh Start Family show. Welcome Alisha. Thanks for coming back to the show. We’re so happy to have you,
Alisha:
Oh Wendy. I am so thrilled to be here. Thanks so much for having me back.
Wendy:
Yes. Our community Alisha is like dying to hear this information that we’re going to talk about today when it comes to sensory processing and sensory issues and community. What we are talking about today is Hidden Sensory Issues That Parents Often Miss. And Alisha’s gonna hit on three points for us that I think is just gonna be so helpful because every single week we get questions that me and my coaching team, you know, we, we look at each other and we say, okay, here’s everything that we can help this family with. And I think that there’s probably a hit of sensory in here. And I will tell you on the show that I have had sensory experts on the show and I still have trouble understanding what the sensory processing stuff is.
Wendy:
So I’m just so excited to gleam your, your wisdom today. And to hear you speak about this and hopefully soak in more and more of it, because it does kind of feel like a confusing subject, but at the same time, it’s so powerful, right? To alleviate stress in the home and help children be able to self-regulate and have more peace and calm in their right in their life, right?
Alisha:
Yes. A hundred percent. And you’re totally right. And you are not alone. That is what we hear from so many people. It is my experience as an OT that I cannot tell you how many people’s homes. I have sat in the thousands of comments that we have gotten on our blog over the years from people saying, I don’t understand what that is, or I don’t really know what that is or misinformation, confusion or a total lack of information. And that nobody has ever even said this to a parent whose child is clearly struggling with sensory issues. So I think some of the problem is that sensory processing is a neurological process that we cannot see.
Alisha:
So it’s happening in the brain and you know, it’s more logical processes and there are so many layers to sensory issues that unless you’ve really been trained in it, it can be very difficult to wrap your head around, which is, you know, our mission at Your Kids Table is to kind of take away that confusion. So we work really hard on our blog. We work really hard in our program. We have a new challenge that’s coming out and is truly with that in it that it’s, you know, a free resource for parents to truly understand what the heck the sensory thing is, how it affects their kids and what they can do about it, because there really is such a gap in the information and understanding.
Wendy:
Yes. Yes. Okay. Well, let’s jump right into it then. And talk to us about when we’re talking about these Hidden Sensory Issues That Parents Often Miss. Because a lot of times like, you know, parents will have misbehaviors start arising or challenging, you know, stuff that’s going on with their kiddo and they take their kid to the doctor and one says, one thing another says another. And then of course, they’re just looking for resources everywhere. And like you hit on a lot of times, the sensory part is just missed. So number one, talk to us about how any child can have sensory issues and they can range from mild to moderate,
Alisha:
Right? So this is, I think when we hear the word issues, which is the word that most people are using, you know, I can, I can see in traffic to our website, that would be where you ugly sensory issues. That that’s the thing that we’re saying. But I really think of those as like, it’s like a sensory processing difficulty. It’s the same thing as like, you know, your child, isn’t good at math or they’re not good at reading. Like that’s because of the way their brain is wired. They are having difficulty with that task. It’s the same thing with sensory processing. If we can just think about it on a really basic level, without getting into all of these complexities, the brain is just having a hard time taking in all of the sensations.
Alisha:
Endlessly. We are bombarded with like thousands of sensations a day. There are so many sensations you and I are experiencing right now that we’re not even paying attention to because of our sensory processing, you are paying attention to me like my voice and hearing that you’re looking at me on the screen. So those sensations are coming in, but you’re probably not paying attention to the way that your shirt feels on your back or the way that your chair feels under your, under your bottom. Like, because your brain is doing this completely sophisticated process of what do I need to pay attention to? What do I not need to pay attention to? What’s important. What’s not important. So just like anything else in our brain, any other delay that a child can have?
Alisha:
The same thing happens with sensory processing and sometimes the brain gets it mixed up and they’re paying too much attention to the wrong sensations, or they’re not paying attention enough to other sensations. And that’s why we can see this huge range of sensory issues in kids because it, it varies. It’s unique, just like every single child is unique. So some kids have very mild sensory processing issues, which I would say is one of my sons falls into that category. You know, he is a little particular about some textures. He doesn’t always like to get messy, but it wouldn’t prevent him from finger painting with his classmates. You know, it’s not his favorite thing to do, but you know, he can push through it and do it that there, that is because of his sensory processing kids should be ready to fully put their hands into finger paint, or jump in the sandbox or run across the grass and their bare feet.
Alisha:
And when we see that there are not, that is assigned some things going on there, sensory those, those things, depending on how much they’re impacting their life, kind of puts us on a place of, is this a mild issue or is this moderate, or is this a severe issue? Because we kind of determine that by the impact it’s having in his life, I say, my son, one of my sons has very mild issues because it doesn’t really prevent him from doing anything. It’s not causing a huge issue in his life. He might verbalize that a little bit here and there, but another child may have a meltdown in the middle of their kindergarten classroom because the finger paints came out and they are terrified that they are going to have to touch it.
Alisha:
That is impacting their life. And what does the teacher see? The teacher sees a child is having a meltdown. He’s not listening. He’s not doing what the other kids are doing. So now, now it is an issue. Now we have an issue. And again, it can, the more sensory processing difficulties, a child has really the more issue they become in their life because they start to affect all sorts of areas of their life. Like they, that can affect their sleep that can affect what they’re eating. It can affect how they communicate. It can affect how they pay attention or follow directions, or, you know, socialize with their peers. Because if they’re so distracted by these sensory difficulties, they might not be able to focus on interacting with their peers or paying attention to what the teacher is saying or finishing their homework.
Alisha:
So I think that one of the things that’s most misunderstood is that when we think about sensory issues, if you’re aware of them is that this is, this is for kids that have really severe disabilities or issues, but really any child can have sensory difficulties. And I see it, I see it all of the time in kids, in the grocery store and kids, I, you know, I volunteered at a classroom event at one of my kids’ schools and I’m like, oh, sensory, sensory. You know, I see it everywhere. And these are typical kids sitting in a, you know, so it’s really a very wide range.
Alisha:
And I want to take away the stigma that sensory issues are only impacting kids that have special needs.
Wendy:
Yes. All that. So should have been taking notes. I have so much that I, hopefully my brain will remember to ask you here. Okay. Yes. And I love this because we’re bringing awareness to this just helps. Like you said, it affects everything because I so often see that, that when, you know, let’s say teachers or parents, aren’t able to get curious and get, get kind of underneath what’s happening with the misbehavior. Then it turns into a relationship problem. Right. And so that’s where it’s like where my work specializes in is relationship connection based from a kind parenting where you can support your child, seek to understand, and also set firm limits. But if you’re just assuming that they’re not listening, if you’re assuming that they’re just misbehaving and being batter or not doing what they’re supposed to, that then affects everything else.
Wendy:
When really a lot of these kids, it sounds like they just need someone to see what’s actually happening. Get curious to see if there’s actually sensory stuff going on. So let me ask you this other the, so it makes sense to me. And again, I’m just trying to dumb this down because I cannot be, you know, like you said, this is very common, right. To be confused by it. And we’ve had so many amazing sensory experts on the show. So it makes sense to me like the avoiding of things. Right? So like Stella, my, my 14 year old was like this when she was young and she’s actually still has some of these, right? Like these mild things you talk about. So the clothing, like we have so many funny stories about how her, her pull up would get so hot. She thought she was so hot that she would be like, it’s hot to bot.
Wendy:
And she would freak out. Like she hated having her hair brushed. She was so like sensitive to everything. Never really liked being touched and hugged. But at the same time, then she would like go tackle, hug her friends at gymnastics class, which I’m leading into. So the, the clothing and the tags and the, the mushy food or the paint, like that makes a little bit more sense to me. And then there’s the behaviors that I feel like I hear you speak a lot about, that’s like the seeking, the seeking of the roughness, the seeking of the prickly, the seeking of the like loud noises. And that one is a little bit harder for me to understand. I’m like, so you want to be tackled.
Wendy:
And that feels good. Like, because Stella was the kid where she could never sit still in the gymnastics class and say when she was three and four, some of my worst parenting moments for, at the Y YMCA domestic center. But, but she like, and she just, when she hugged her friend, it wasn’t just a hug. It was like a tackle hug still to this day when she like pets the dog, it’s not usually like a mild pet. It’s like a very rough shaking, but at the same time, she doesn’t like to be touched. Like we just slept together in Kansas city. We ended up having to share a bed at her tournament. And she like is like, mom do not touch me if I even touch her.
Wendy:
She’s like, mom, get away from me. Like she just, and with her friends and everything she’s okay. But with me, it’s like, or, you know, she just has this preference of like, don’t like not a big hugger, all those things. So can you just talk to me for a minute before we go on to the next point of like those, how to understand that when they’re seeking something that they’re not getting over trying to avoid something, does that make sense?
Alisha:
Yeah. A hundred percent. So, you know, when we were talking about sensory issues, we’re mostly talking about what’s called sensory modulation issues. So it’s, it’s our ability to like, in our brain modulator, all of these different sensations that we’re getting. So number one it’s important to know is that sensory processing issues can fluctuate all the time. So you might see these kinds of trends, but they can be bigger or worse on one day versus another day or something that would like set them off one day is like, wait, not as bad on another day. And that’s because it depends on how well our brain is working that day.
Alisha:
So if we’re more, if your child is more tired, if your child is more, if they’re hungry or they haven’t eaten well, you know, if they’ve been eating like candy all day and no judgment, I mean, I’m just saying like, you know, they just have like a really poor nutrition day, which happens for all of our kids. The we’re going to probably see like those heightened sensory issues, because the brain just as like is, you know, there’s already a problem there and now it’s like really sluggish and not working as well, but,
Wendy:
Or maybe relationship drama, right. Sorry to interrupt you. If there’s relationship drama with the parents and they’re stressed and there’s been like tension there that could even contribute to like, if that makes sense. Yeah.
Alisha:
Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Or, you know, overwhelming school from like learning, you know, like you’re at school and you’re just like, I’m overwhelmed. This is a very difficult concept for me to grasp your brain is using so much of its power. So that part that’s like constantly working to keep the sensory processing going well, just starts to get diminished. You know, it’s just like not working as well, which is why a lot of sensory kids, I mean, one of the reasons why so many sensory kids come home and they have meltdowns, as soon as they get home from school, you know, it’s just, it’s, it’s just so much there. You know what we would say the clinical term for that is dysregulated. So they’re like, they’re out of balance. They’re out of sync. So when we look at sensory modulation, there’s really kind of three different lanes that kids can go into.
Alisha:
One is that avoiding that you talked about? So that’s when they have like extreme sensitivities to different sensations. Another is when the sensations aren’t really registering at all, this one is the least common. And it’s usually like, kids are kind of sluggish. They’re, they’re out of touch. We call it low registration. They’re not really there. We don’t see this one as often, but I’ll mention it in case it resonates with anyone in your audience. And then we see the seeking behavior, which is when they want more of it. So what’s happening is that it’s like the sensation is getting lost in transit. It’s like, it’s just, it’s not fully registering in the brain. And a child tends to want more. Ah, there’s something that’s really calming about that behavior.
Alisha:
So they’re seeking it out. Now. I said, there’s three lanes, but it’s extremely common to see a combination of these, which is what you’re seeing in your daughter. So she has like some of these avoiding things which gets confusing. And some of these seeking things. Now, other kids, you will look at it and they’re like a seeker through and through. They’re an avoider. It’s very common to see this kind of mashup of they avoid these types of things, but they really accessibly seek out these types of things. And again, it’s something that’s going on in the brain. That’s making them feel like they need more and more and more of it. It’s like the brain isn’t getting enough because kids, every single child is wired to participate in sensory activities.
Alisha:
It is literally a foundation of learning and they need that to be able to, to experience and participate in higher learning. So if they feel like they’re not getting enough of it neurologically, they’re going to want more. They’re going to want to crash, run, jump all of those things to get more of that input.
Wendy:
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Wendy:
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Wendy:
Okay. That is so helpful. And it’s very, it sounds very similar to what, you know, what I teach what it’s founded on, right? Like the needs, like every child has the need to belong. They need to feel powerful. They need to feel like they are safe and they are valuable. Unconditional love all these things and they will go seeking it. If those buckets aren’t filled up for them, so to speak so I can relate to it in that manner. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And that makes sense that they can be a combination, right? Like again, similar in my work, it’s like there’s four different categories of misbehavior that we teach about, but really kids can fall into all different buckets depending on what day. And many of them are one, one later as well.
Wendy:
A girl is a power girl, for sure. My little guy has a tendency to be more attention or inadequacy, but of course they, they go all around and it also makes sense to me. Why, and let me just verify this. So if there’s some sensory issues that show up in one lane or two, like they’re going to maybe show up all over the place, right? Like, so if you have a child that you’re like, oh, there’s some stuff going on there. I listened to this episode and I’m realizing there’s some stuff it’s going to show up in other places. Right. So that, it makes sense to me why Stella became such a thriving drummer, right? Like, so she was the tag avoider, but then she was the physical, like seeking. She’s also like a thriving, competitive volleyball player now.
Wendy:
And she like the sensation she gets when she smashes that ball or those drums. I can imagine it’s fulfilling something within her brain. Is that accurate?
Alisha:
Yeah, totally. A hundred percent. And it’s very, and it’s calming. It’s like filling in a gap for her. And what we will see again is adults that have like these kinds of sensory issues. They, and we’ll see this for some children moving into teens again, when their issues are milder, they tend to gravitate towards things. Like they might work out a lot or they become runners or they find very appropriate things to put in their life. And you will even hear adults say sometimes like, I am not, I am not right. If I don’t get my workout in, in the morning or before bed or whenever it is that their body really needs it.
Alisha:
And obviously there’s multiple benefits to those kinds of exercises, but you can kind of hear it in the way some people talk. Like I just don’t, I don’t feel, I don’t feel like myself. I haven’t run. It’s not like so much of a mental health. It’s more of like this kind of physical need, but like I need to get this out. So we all, we really, truly all have some sensory issues. We all have sensory processing. We all have preferences, but I think what, what you said, and when we really focus on is that we need to kind of look through this lens for our kids when they’re starting to show some of these signs. And I think some of that awareness is knowing what some those signs are.
Alisha:
And I know I’m kind of like leading us into the second point there. Yeah.
Wendy:
We’ll talk to us about that. Sensory issues can be hard to detect. It’s important to know some of the big science,
Alisha:
Right? So I think if we can create more awareness, which again is, you know, so much of what we’re trying to do in our free challenge. And I know you have a link for your audience. Remind me what it is again. Okay.
Wendy:
Yes. Fresh Start Family, online.com forward slash sensory.
Alisha:
Right? You guys. So that is starting this week. This is the first time we’re doing it. It’s going to be great because we’re going to talk a lot more about the signs that you see and kind of what to do when you’re, what happens when you do see these signs and steps you can take to start actually helping your kids. So when we’re talking about, let’s talk about some big signs here that I think are some of the obvious ones we’ve already hit on, hit on some of them. And I think number one is it is a hundred percent a red flag. If you see your child avoiding something, this is, and I think sometimes people dismiss this because they’re like, oh, they don’t like that. But it is not a typical part of a child’s development to be incessantly bothered by a tag.
Alisha:
We all get bothered by tag. There are some tags on the back of a shirt that are so annoying, but if your child is having a meltdown in the morning because of what clothes they’re going to put on, or they don’t want to put any clothes on, or they can’t find any clothes to feel okay on their body, that is a red flag. And again, that’s another area that sometimes people think a child is just being defiant here. Like they don’t want to get dressed. You know, they’re trying to make my life difficult and they just want to run around naked. Yeah. And it’s, and it’s, and it’s understandable why we do that because we, you don’t know what you don’t know. And if you don’t know that there’s sensory it, like there’s these sensory difficulties, then that’s the next reasonable conclusion.
Alisha:
You know, they’re trying, you know, they’re being bad, they’re being bad, but any time your child is avoiding anything, and this can happen with any of the senses, it can even happen with movement. You know, some kids, or if your kid is scared to get on a swing that is not typical. Part of development, children should be wanting to participate in these activities. And if they are not, it is definitely a sign. There’s something going on with their sensory system. And, and the thing is, is that there’s like, we’ve been talking about this filters down and affects other areas of their life. So a child that has difficulty with movement, let’s say, but they don’t want to get on the swing.
Alisha:
Like it’s just very, it makes them feel ungrounded. Now this isn’t normal for adults, our sensory systems change. As we get older, we get more sensitive to movement. We tend to get more motion sickness. Like the older we get that is normal, but as a child, we should not already be seeing that. And we actually know that those difficulties with that kind of movement are actually linked to difficulties with reading because the census kind of overlaps this stuff starts to go really, really deep. So it’s easy to dismiss and be like, well, I don’t care. They don’t have to ride the swing, but it’s all connected. Because again, this is the building blocks of learning.
Alisha:
So if they’re not processing this information, well, it’s probably going to trickle up into something and do something else. So avoiding, that’s a huge one that you want to watch for. Number two is kind of general. Distractability poor attention and focus. That can be a variety of things. But what I’m asking is that that’s assigned for us to at least consider if sensory is a component because sensory strategies at least can probably help. Even if the cause is something like attention, deficit issues, sensory activities can usually help a child in those situations.
Alisha:
So we want to be considering, is this a component of the problem? Because our kids that are those seekers that we were just talking about, that is one of the most classic signs, because they have such a need to move or to seek out more movement climbing, jumping that pounding that you were talking about. They want that. It’s very difficult for them to sit in school for six hours. It’s very difficult. You know, if a family is saying, I w like it’s dinner time and we’ve just been in a long car, ride home after daycare or after school care. And you haven’t really had a chance to move. And now I want you to sit at the table for 30 minutes and have a nice sit down dinner.
Alisha:
Listen, I will tell you, you know, Wendy, I am like, yes, sit down for dinner. Like we need to sit down for dinner, but we might need to back that up because this isn’t about your child necessarily not wanting to eat or having a hard time, like trying to be defiant at the dinner table. This might be, I am seeking movement and I haven’t had any chance to move my body. So they, we need to recognize that first. So again, you know, distractability poor focus. And then I would say the last big category is anything. Your child is excessively seeking out. So if your child is like touches everything in sight, they smell everything around the room or everybody, these things start to seem weird and we, again, they can kind of get embarrassing, but they’re signs of sensory processing difficulties.
Wendy:
Yes. Okay. So helpful. And then like hitting kicking, those types of physical things can be related to. Right. Cause I know those are so triggering for parents, but when you just at least start seeking, like, what is, this could be three related. It’s probably one of those big ones. People miss too, right?
Alisha:
Yes, absolutely. You know, one of the moms in our program was actually just telling me recently that her, her for so long would make her, would make her crazy because he would come up and tug on her arm all the time. And she thought it was like this nagging thing that he was being rude or disrespectful. I mean, she just, again, you don’t know what you don’t know. So it’s like, why would he be doing this? And he wasn’t, he often wasn’t agitated or even had anything to say. And then it was upsetting her sensory system because she’s having this, this tugging. So her, you know, her tolerance is going down because it’s irritating her.
Alisha:
And then, you know, as soon as she learns and like puts all these pieces together, she’s like, oh, he’s seeking this type of input. And we can find other things to replace that with it’s going to meet his name’s like, you know, for your daughter, she like found playing sports and banging on a drum, but there are so many other things that we can do in our, in our daily activities to help these kids.
Wendy:
Oh, that’s so cool. Yeah. Yep. And I love how it’s all complimentary, right? Like I, you know, all of us who are focused in and really love serving families in our own way, we all are complementary to one another. Right. I know I saw you just did a big thing on Instagram the other day about, you know, like helping parents just see like, okay, if you’re wondering if your child has add or ADHD, let’s talk about that and how sensory can often be related. And then I just love how like all the different helpers out there, whether it’s an ADHD specialist, a sensory specialist, a parenting specialist, even psychologists or psychiatrists, I really believe we’re all complimentary. Right. And if a parent can find different things from different helpers that support their family and help their children, it’s just wonderful to kind of layer on top of each other.
Wendy:
So, so good.
Alisha:
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Wendy:
Okay. Well, all right. Talk to us about this third point. And then I do, I pulled a few questions from my community just to ask you, after we talk about this last point, like, Hey, Alisha, could, could this be sensory? And so we’ll, we’ll do that in a minute. Hopefully we have time. I think we will, but let’s talk about the last point of how Hidden Sensory Issues That Parents Often Miss are. And the number three is sensory issues can be managed and improved. So yeah. Talk to us about that. Talk, talk to us about some success stories that you’ve had. I’m sure you’ve had a gazillion in your community.
Alisha:
Yeah, absolutely. So this is important because I think once people realize that sensory issues exist, that their child might have sensory issues, you know, then the next conclude conclusion as well, this is my burden to bear. This is, this is, this is the struggle. My child faces. It is a challenge. But as an occupational therapist, listen, the good news is that sensory issues can be dramatically improved or worked around. So again, we’ve talked about a couple of mild examples and sensory issues can have a very severe impact on a child’s life.
Alisha:
And even for these kids that are really severe, we can improve it by using specialized like sensory activities and giving them specific strategies. And what that does is it actually rewires the brain. So I’m going to geek out a little bit and I’ll keep this super basic, but anytime we learn something new, we, our brains like the cells connect and make a new connection in our brain. It’s called a new pathway. Now, if that is new, like let’s say, I don’t know. Last, last week I learned a couple of German words. Well, there was a connection there it’s pretty weak. I didn’t practice that again.
Alisha:
And right now, like I would have a hard time recalling it. I did not learn a couple of words in German, but something that would be difficult for us to think of that. But like, it would be difficult for me to recall that, however, if I kept practicing those words, every time I do that connection is getting stronger and stronger and stronger. It’s kind of like exercising a muscle, like, okay, like I remember what that is because more and more cells keep coming together and we need this pathway super strong. So what happens when we give our kids the right sensory activities? And I, I do say the right, and this is actually with the huge emphasis that I’ll be teaching on in the free challenge is when we use the right sensory activities to match your child’s sensory issues.
Alisha:
Cause as we were talking about, there’s a variety of sensory issues and it’s so important to know what your child’s sensory issues are to understand what that means. You can match the right activities and you can either one learn how to manage them so you can work around them. And that they’re not a huge issue. So there’s all kinds of like tricks and tips that we can use to kind of minimize sensory issues in the moment. But there’s also many activities that we can do that when they do one of these activities, it creates that new connection in the brain. So there’s two new cells to connect and the more we do those activities and the stronger we make that connection, the brain then starts to process that information in a new way.
Alisha:
So a child and I have seen this happen in, in my programs and with the kids that I’ve worked with. If a child has that extreme sensitivity to touch, they, they cannot stand getting messy. They cannot stand putting different clothes on. They cannot eat different textures of food. All of this is stemming from the same problem. It’s because their brain is over-processing that sensation. The brain is saying, this is horrible. This feels, this feels torturous. So if we teach the brain a new way, I have seen kids then that were once screaming because they could not get dressed in the morning or screaming because they could only eat one texture of food or screen because they couldn’t get their hands messy, thoroughly stick their hands inside of like a deep sensory bin and put it all over their body so they can get to that point through like specialized sensory activities.
Alisha:
But again, it’s so important to know what those needs are. So the point here is, and that is what I want your community to know is that this isn’t hopeless. This isn’t a life sentence. This is filled with hope and there is so much potential for, for your child to learn how to overcome and improve these sensory issues.
Wendy:
Oh, I love it. And a few, a few questions before I give you some examples from my community, just to see if there might be sensory elements of it, in your opinion. So can the, the kit can kids who have the sensory issues can, are they often like, would a parent say that they’re super sensitive, right? Is that the word that goes hand in hand
Alisha:
For some of the issues? Yeah, because if you have a seeker, they’re not going to say that, but yes, if you have a child who has a lot of things, they would, a seeker is a very common word that you will hear
Wendy:
Just her calling. Like yeah. I’m recalling all the things about Stella. And one of the things I’m remembering now is how much she felt pain, like pain. She got the flu, it was like she was dying. It was the worst. Or she got a little cut. Like there was a time when she had like a one hour meltdown because she had this tiny little cut from like when she fell on the scooter and Terry and I were just like, what is happening here? But when I look at it, it had to have been related to sensory, right?
Alisha:
Oh, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. And that’s the thing. So I think a lot of times we dismiss, especially those kinds of things, when kids are like avoiding or sensitive, we dismiss it because we think like, I wouldn’t react. Not that’s yes. They’re humming is that’s not typical. Like, Ooh, the kids don’t have that idea and act like that your brother doesn’t act like that. Like, like whatever. But, you know, and again, there are times where there are attention seeking behaviors, a hundred percent when we’re seeing these patterns of kids. And it’s when we step back. And again, when I feel like we really look through that sensory lens and we’re like, wait a second. We know, you know, as a parent, when we give ourselves that space with a really upset here, it might seem ridiculous to us.
Alisha:
But what’s happening is that they’re, they’re experiencing that at a deeper intensity than you would because of the way their brain is wired. So their experience is quite literally very different from your experience or what would be the average experience because their brain is like over firing. It’s like over triggering. It’s like, this is painful. This is so painful. So those signals are being sent. They’re experiencing that pain.
Wendy:
That is really helps me to understand this like signals that are over firing, like over triggering, like, cause you know, you, so many parents who have the kids who have like the excessive intense meltdowns, right. Or, you know, maybe they’re, they’re always freaking out about things and I’m always encouraging families. And throughout this conversation, it’s, you know, similar to tone is like, if you can just change your mindset and think, okay, this child is suffering. Like what is going on for that? I’m like, how can I just start to understand a little bit more about what else could be going on, besides me just classifying them as high maintenance, super drama, like out of control, all these things.
Wendy:
And, and it’s just so helpful when we change our mindset. The other thing I was going to touch on is I imagine Alisha, that your work that you do with all these kind of kids that struggle with this probably has a high rate of lowering like anxiety for these kids. Right? So two sensory kids have a higher rate of anxiety. They do. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a strong correlation. Yes. Yeah. So I can only imagine that once a parent shifts their mindset and starts almost like becoming a detective, like, you know, cause I work with a lot of parents who are like my kids, I’ve got a lot of misbehavior, right. If they can shift their mindset and start to see, start to become these detectives of like, what if sensory is at play?
Wendy:
What if that is one of the reasons why you’re having like, and then that helps us become more empathetic and compassionate. And then when we approach a child, again, like every single human being, but children have the need to belong, they have the need to feel powerful. And when we come at them with like, Hey, there’s nothing wrong with you. You are just designed in this way that you have this preference and this preference, and I’m here to support you. We’re going to learn how to fill this need for you. We’re going to help you understand how to deal with those, those firing in your brains. Like, I want to say thoughts, but it’s it’s for, well, you’re talking about as an actual physical firing of the brain, right?
Wendy:
Like, and I’m sure that leads to thoughts. So it’s like you’re coming beside them and you’re coaching them. And you’re saying, you’re not alone. Like we were going to figure this out. Like mama found this new teacher and she’s going to help me create these activities and we’re going to do X, Y, and Z. And like all these things, like I can just imagine how much that right off the bat helps lower children’s anxiety because no longer are they being thought of as the trouble child or the kid with the issues or like disempowered, because they can’t do X, Y, and Z. If someone doesn’t fix it for them, like they have choices, they’re empowered. They have support. Mama’s gonna adapt is going to help them create a plan.
Wendy:
And they’re going to review that plan often they’re going to stay consistent and they’re going to have fun. Right. Cause I know your, your program and what you teach is fun. Right. I mean, it’s like, I’m sure you incorporate play and fun into all this stuff.
Alisha:
Right. That’s extremely, yes. It’s extremely important. And I, I could not agree more and I will, you know, so many, one of the, one of the biggest compliments that, that I can receive and that I’m fortunate enough to hear often from our students. Usually the first thing that they start to say is I feel connected to my child for the first time in a long time. And that’s often like days, like you said, because it like, it just understanding what is going on with your child and seeing that, wait, this isn’t them being bad. Like they’re struggling. And, and then you’re on the same team and your kid knows that.
Alisha:
And it’s like, it just, it changes everything. It just, it puts you on a totally different trajectory, a hundred percent.
Wendy:
Hey, there family is, let’s talk about limits for a minute or two here. I want to ask you honestly, when it comes to setting strong limits with your kids, do you feel like you are able to create strong boundaries from roles and then follow through with consistency in a way that creates connection and builds a strong relationship with your kids? Or are you one of the millions of parents who feel like limit setting is really hard or that when it’s time to follow through on limits, that it is way easier to resort to threats and yelling and maybe forcing or intimidating your kids into complying with you or even relying on bribery and rewards.
Wendy:
Well, if you’re in that leader camp, you are not alone. And I am here to help. I have a program called the from kind parenting blueprint, but is my most affordable program that will teach you four steps to setting firm limits. And then following through with consistency, with tips and strategies and methods that will actually bring you closer to your kids and cause your children to want to cooperate with your strong roles that will cause them to want to actually comply and be part of the team and follow through on the agreements that you have made with them instead of pushing back and resisting the rules that you have laid out for your home. So You can learn more over it from unkind parenting, blueprint.com.
Wendy:
Again, this is my most affordable program I’ve ever created. It is the easiest to finish that I’ve ever created. And in just a little over an hour, you can be well on your way to seeing big results in your home with kids that actually listen and cooperate with you because they want to not because they have to or not, because they are scared of something that’s going to happen to them that you have to do in air quotes that later make you feel like crap. When you lay your head on your pillow, I’m here to help you switch things up in your home. And this from inside parenting blueprint is a perfect first step plus it’s the best, most incredible gift you can give yourself and spouse and your kids as holiday season.
Wendy:
So you can get started today for just 27 bucks. You can head on over to firma kind, parenting blueprint.com to learn more and get started today. Again, that’s from unkind parenting, blueprint.com. All right. Back to the episode. I love it. Okay. Last question. And then I’m going to just fire off a few of these questions and just to, just to reiterate things can be layered, right? So if your child has a hint of ADHD or add, or you know, like a hint of anxiety or a lot of anxiety or whatever it may be, that can be layered with sensory, right?
Wendy:
So anytime you’re helping with each little thing, you’re, it’s all going to contribute to relief for this child and better behavior and more peace in the home. Right. But it’s different components can stack, right?
Alisha:
Oh yeah. Yeah. Because listen, and this is where again, the confusion comes as an I actually that Instagram live I was doing yesterday that you were mentioning about the ADHD and how it’s connected. It’s somebody asked me on it. They said, wait, aren’t sensory issues, autism. And I was like, no, no, 80%, this, these like 80% of children with autism have significant sensory processing difficulties, but they are two separate issues. So in the same thing, ADHD children with ADHD, 40% of them have significant sensory issues. And so the is higher. So when I’m talking about significant sensory issues, so when we’re talking about moderate to mild sensory issues, that’s probably the majority of ADHD kids.
Alisha:
That’s probably all of kids with autism. But for example, like when we look at ADHD, we know from research that that is likely caused from difficulties with neurotransmitters, like, you know, they’ve studied the brain and they’re like, oh, there’s not enough domain in the brain. That’s what’s causing the ADHD. When we look at sensory issues, it’s related to the white matter. So these are two different things. So it’s not, I think a lot of times people get confused and think, well, ADHD is sensory issues or sensory issues are ADHD. Or my kid was misdiagnosed. And although of course, that can happen. Usually these are two distinct issues that we’re looking at the same applies to anxiety. So when we’re looking at these things, they’re co-mingled, but it’s, it’s not one is causing the other.
Alisha:
It’s just that it’s very common to have both.
Wendy:
Yes. And I can even imagine like things like odd or even trauma, right? Like they all could stack. And it’s amazing. So, well, I’m just so happy that now the community knows how to start to seek, to understand and learn more about sensory. So, okay. Alisha, so I’m going to just pull up some questions and I thought, oh my gosh, let’s run this by Alisha. Just see, here’s what I like. Of course, you’re going to teach us all the, like so much more in the free challenge. And, and my community is so familiar with challenges because we do them quite often here. And it’s just the best way to get families momentum.
Wendy:
Right. But let me just read you some questions and then maybe you could just chime in with like, oh gosh, yeah, there could be sensory issues here at play. Or like when did that just seems like, you know, parenting and misbehavior and like whatever. Okay. So let me read you the first time she wrote in and she said, I’ve been observing my six-year-old with compassion. And I’m wondering if there are some sensory issues at play. Sometimes his body gets into what looks like overwhelm and it seems to me like he has a need or his body has a need to bang into things, move jaggedly and fast, create loud noise, get up close into people’s faces. It can happen even after we’ve been outside and extended lots of energy.
Wendy:
And it particularly happens when he needs to do a bowel motion when he needs to poop. It’s just a thing. It drives me crazy. And yet once I separate my own reaction out of it, I can see he’s not in attention or revenge. This particular mama knows the four categories of misbehavior really well, he’s just a bit unconnected or unregulated or something. I don’t know what question to ask something along the lines of what is this? Where can I go for more info? How can I best support him in these moments? They don’t last all day and he is very capable, capable, or concentrating on task at other times. How can I support him to calm down? And I actually gave her your information, but talk to me cause this could sensory be in this.
Alisha:
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. All of those signs are very big sensory signs. So anytime we see kids pushing shoving, especially again, kids can do that in, in anger because it’s like this overflow and you know, again, you know, we can talk, there can be all kinds of difficulties there, you know, with, like you said, parenting emotional regulation, all kinds of stuff, because sensory feeds into that. But particularly if we see a child doing these things, when there’s not an emotional trigger, that’s a really clear sign that there’s something going on. And so I will often say to parents, when I’m trying to describe sensory, does your kid do something weird or odd or frustrating or, you know, again, those are like some of the things, because a lot of times parents are like, my kid does this thing and it’s so strange.
Alisha:
Like one mom, I worked with her son used to make her crazy before bed. She’d read them stories and he would sit and like push on his knees. And you know, obviously it wasn’t hurting anybody, but it would just seemed very bizarre to her. And it was bothersome. Like why does he do this every night? And then she learned about sensory and then they like changed up their routine. And guess what you thought pushing on his knees because he was getting his needs met, but it was, it was definitely sensory. It was definitely sensory. So whenever we see kids like doing that kind of weird stuff, like pushing on things and they’re not, there’s no emotion for gore. Yes, yes. Sensory and the bowel movement piece can definitely be pulled in because that actually plays into our sensations.
Alisha:
We mostly think about sensory processing as a sensations from outside coming in, but it does involve the internal sensations of our body too. So if he’s trying to like struggling with that, maybe those are feeling particularly strong to him and he’s trying to counterbalance that. Yeah. All related.
Wendy:
Oh, so, okay. So helpful to hear. I can’t wait for her to listen to all that. Okay, good. Here’s another one. And it’s interesting that you say if there’s not an emotional trigger, right. Cause that is my specialty, right? Like I teach parents how to have emotional literacy and regulation themselves and then how to teach their children how to have emotional literacy and regulation. Right. So that does wonders to help children be able to self calm, keep their hands to themselves, all the things. So this could be an example of one. That’s more that. So let’s just see, Hey everyone, I need some help with my boys. I have twins. One of the, and they’re nine. One of them is particularly violent and is always hurting us brother. It typically starts with them, cursing around horsing around and then escalates.
Wendy:
And then one of them goes way too far and hurts the other one. Or he just walks past his brother and punches them for no reason, even with us rather than tapping on our shoulder, when he wants our attention, he hits or then we go places. He will go too far with other kids thinking it’s normal. It’s like he doesn’t know limits and doesn’t understand how he uses his body is hurting people. And he likes it, which is scary to us. My boys have always been super physical and are tremendous athletes. We see this one particularly will become more violent on the days he hasn’t gone to soccer or done PE even in the room, this one would always be kicking my sides. It is the fastest runner at his school.
Wendy:
So often I will have him go on, runs with me or walk the dog together. We have tried all this stuff. We teach redos agreements, family meetings, consequent logical consequences. I’ve worked with his brother about how to walk away from fights, protect himself, ask for help all the things. And they stopped corporal punishment, which is fantastic because one of my biggest missions in life is to help families stop the corporal punishment. And we practice no yelling. So it’s not being modeled anymore in our home. So she said I’m at a loss here. Help any ideas. So could this be related to sensory? Yes.
Alisha:
Yes, yes. So, yeah. So here’s the thing like while I, it’s just super clear that it’s majorly sensory and primarily sensory when there’s not an emotional trigger, but if there is an emotional trigger, it’s, it’s still could absolutely be sensory. And the thing that’s really tipping me off about that is that he’s doing it to them, to the parents. And he’s, you know, like when he’s trying to touch on, he’s doing it with other kids and it’s worse on days when he hasn’t had the activity. So those are all like, really clear indications. This is related to sensory. And what we see with that sometimes is that kids will have kids with certain types of sensory needs will have a very difficult time grading their forced.
Alisha:
So I’m trying to keep this super layman’s terms here, but like they, yeah, like they it’s like, they, they don’t perceive the touch. So this is a child that is probably not receiving the sensations very well. Like their brain is like, it’s like losing them. It doesn’t really understand. It doesn’t have a sense of intricacy. So like, when you think of like bull in the China shop, that is a child that like doesn’t have a really good sense of where their body is. They don’t really, you know, like a bumping in everything clumsy. It’s another big sensory sign because it’s like, I don’t know my elbows over here. I don’t really have a sense of that. Like, I don’t really know where that is. I don’t, I don’t know how hard to hold my pencil.
Alisha:
So sometimes kids with sensory issues, you’ll see, they write and they’re like writing through the paper or they’re writing with their pencil. And it’s like, Featherlite cause I like, they’re barely touching the paper because, and sometimes teachers will think, well, this is a fine motor issue, but really it’s a sensory issue. It’s not that they’re having a hard time holding the pencil. And that applies to everything that applies to sports that applies to just basically that can, you know, gosh measure, you know, you’re baking and you’re teaching your kid to bake and they’re like trying to measure ingredients and they just keep spilling everything because they don’t know how to slow their arm down to like pour the milk into the cup first. You know? So yes. Still related to sensory.
Wendy:
Oh, I love it. Okay. Alisha, we have two more minutes. I’m gonna hit this one real fast and then we’re gonna see you off. I know you have a busy day. Okay. This is my background. Graham seeks. He’s three. He seeks high sensory input. Even as a baby, he would Ram his head into the glass door. Hard enough to cause marks repeatedly for the sensory experience. He likes to sit at the bottom of slides and have kids run into him or stand in front of swings and be knocked over. He tries to climb to the highest places. Sometimes very dangerous things, not designed for climbing. He will scream or say things repeatedly to make brother sister upset because I believe he likes the loud noise of his brother or sister screaming upset. He also sexes them and picks a skin at the same time to the point of scars and dripping blood 25 to 50% of the day question, how do I prevent him from breaking other people’s toys, crayons, ripping papers, pulling flowers, crushing landscaping.
Wendy:
This is a big one. I can already answer this. Now that I’m after I just had this conversation with you, like I get it now that this is a sensory standing in front of kids on playset. So they don’t walk through sitting on top of slides to that. No one else can come down taking toys from babies, pinching babies, essentially. How do I stop him from hurting other people? Mainly strangers are hurting other people possessions, again of strangers. I want advice of how to make agreements around these things and, but not crushed crowns, special landscaping, all these things. So she says, I know this is a broad question, but it all stems from his desire to hear other kids scream or to feel the toys break or watch the flowers crumble.
Wendy:
Because it seems that the sensory experience fills him up. We try to, to fill up the sensory bucket as much as possible. We are outside five hours a day. We have kinetic sand and Play-Doh we have indoor and outdoor swings, Rockwall and climbing home in the basement. That’s a lot of stuff we have made. I am treads with him, which do not seem to help minimize the hurting somewhat. So of course not looking for the coaching on what to do, cause I know you’re going to get into that in the challenge, but obviously this is sensory, right?
Alisha:
Yes it is. And I Bravo to your parents who have some awareness of sensory or at least saying, Hey, this is, this is related to sensory. And I think it’s actually, because I was about to say, when he’s sitting at the top of the slide or standing in front of a swing, is that really about sensory? Or now are we dipping into some like attentional behavior or seeking stuff, but she’s really observed him. And she’s watching that. He likes that yelling that it is, it is sensory based. You know that, you know, it’s not about the attention. It’s about getting that, that sensation because he’s seeking it out. So this is an example of a kid that is highly in the seeking lane.
Alisha:
He does not have any, he is a hardcore secret. These kids, when we have kids at either end of the extreme, either like excessively avoiding are accessibly seeking, it is very challenging and it does. These kids often need deeper strategy. So all of those things, I can’t help myself. So I have to speak to this a little bit on the message that your, that your mom is doing, but she is doing great. Like those are such great strategies, but so many of our sensory kids need deeper strategies. And there are kind of specific things you can do. Especially with seekers. There are specific types of movements that I teach in my program because sometimes kids they’re seeking.
Alisha:
If you give them like free range activities, even though it’s, movement-based, it just winds them up more like it just keeps like escalating. Like they just keep getting more and more excited and they, they there’s just like, does not seem to ever be a cap. So it does involve some deeper strategies, but yes, to answer your question, that is a hundred percent clearly sensory and, you know, I would encourage her to be like, make sure that there aren’t those other attentional components to it, but it sounds like she’s already thought through that. So, yes. Awesome. Very good.
Wendy:
That’s so helpful. I’m just realizing too that we had still a do like the brain highways stuff for awhile and some of the activities in there, I bet helped her these connections. It just made me think about, I, I, you forget about all these things you did with your kids. They’re little older. Oh my gosh. I wish I had, this has been so helpful. You are absolutely incredible. And just take a few minutes to tell us a little bit more about this challenge families. You can get registered at Fresh Start Family, online.com forward slash sensory, but tell us when it starts and what’ll, it it’ll include, it’s like live time with you, right? There’s even like a Q and a component. Is that right? Tell us more. And then we’ll say goodbye.
Alisha:
Yeah, absolutely. So this is going to be a seven day challenge. We’ll be spending together. We’re going to have three core lessons where I’m going to teach you the four step process. My main strategy for addressing any sensory issue, no matter what it is. So we’re going to walk through that in the challenge and through our core lessons, we will also have Q and a time. So yes, they are going to be live, but we will have recordings too. I know everybody’s like busy mom, parent going a million different directions. So don’t stress and feel like, you know, if you need to watch it at 10:00 PM, that’s totally fine. We’re going to have a private Facebook group community that is just for this challenge.
Alisha:
We’ll be having Q and a sessions in there. We have worksheets, printables, different activities for you to work through on different days of the challenge as well. So just to help you start to identify these sensory issues in your child and match what would be the right activities for them. That’s really what this is all about so that you can manage and improve their sensory issues.
Wendy:
Oh, so good. That’s so awesome. Alisha, community go get registered. And I’m going to try to tune in a lot too, because I am consistently wanting to learn more about this because it does. It’s so wonderful for me to be able to support our families a little just by having a little bit more knowledge and today’s today’s session. This podcast really has helped Alisha. So thank you for taking time out of your busy day to spend with my community of listeners. We appreciate the work that you’re doing in the world and your light. And we will see you soon at the challenge.
Alisha:
Oh, thank you so much, Wendy. It was such a joy to be here.
Wendy:
For links and more info about everything we talked about in today’s episode had to Fresh Start Family online.com/118. And I’ve always, if you haven’t yet downloaded our free guide to raising strong-willed kids with integrity without losing your mind, make sure you grab that on the homepage of the website, FreshStartFamilyonline.com
Stella:
For more information, go to FreshStartFamilyonline.com. Thanks for listening. Families have a great day.
Wendy:
Well, Hey there families. If you loved this episode today and want to jump in to one of our Fresh Start Family programs, I cannot recommend our firm unkind parenting blueprint as a starting highly enough. So Head to firmandkindparentingblueprint.com, and you can learn all about this simple affordable program that will get you started with learning our four steps to setting strong limits and sticking to them with consistency today.
