Northern Centre for Child Development

In a bid to get myself organised for some school holiday creativity, I went on an adventure last week to check out Reverse Art Truck. Much to my 3 year old’s brief dismay, our drive through the back streets of Ringwood landed us at a large tin shed and not actually a truck. Boy, this place was amazing though. For $30 you can fill a huge garbage bag to the brim of factory off-cuts and seconds (think barrels of containers, pump packs, fabric, fake turf, timber, you name it!). Apparently kinders and other community groups stock their centres from this place. My husband even recalls nailing through a similar vinyl flooring off-cut at kinder, which as odd as it sounds is entirely plausible as the Reverse Art Truck has been around for 42 years.

The lovely lady who guided us through the process explained that Reverse Art Truck is a not-for-profit organisation who collect these factory rejects which would otherwise be destined for land-fill.

The shed is broken up into aisles of larger stock (like containers, spools, timber, fabric and carpet off-cuts) of which you can load up to your heart’s content. There’s also a section of smaller items including buttons, stickers, ribbon, paper, boxes, wallpaper cut-offs etc., which you need to take more sparingly so there’s enough to go around.

 

The three year old loved just walking along and throwing things into the bag explaining how she would re-purpose the items into some sort of elaborate car and race track situation. Getting the bag home and hearing it emptied out onto the floorboards was akin to that oh-too-familiar cringe-worthy sound of an entire tub of Lego being tipped out. Having said that, the hours of entertainment of just sorting through buttons, furry fabric, old door mat pieces and wooden cones has been well worth the mess!

So if you’re after some crafty materials and don’t want to re-mortgage the house for a trip to Spotlight, get yourself out to Reverse Art Truck. The place is cash-only so take your $30, your GPS and your imagination and you’re on you’re way to some messy creative awesomeness! You’ll find them at 17 Greenwood Avenue, Ringwood and here is their facebook page.

If you have school-aged kids, chances are you have a love-hate relationship with school holidays. Of course we all love hanging out with our kids, especially with the reduced demands that come with holidays. But sometimes exactly these reduced demands are what can wreak havoc on our littlies’ emotional regulation. Which translates to tricky behaviours and meltdowns. If your kiddos get a bit stressed when the everyday routine of school is removed, you probably find school holidays can be a bit of a drag for everyone involved at times.

A good way to understand this is to think about how much a child might rely on the structure and predictability that going to school every day offers. As adults, we might see toddling off to school every day as a bore but your child might see it as a safe-haven where the routines and rituals of timetables, specialist classes, recess and lunch provide predictability and thus calmness.

If this is all sounding familiar consider some of these ideas to try replicating the sameness that school provides in a bid to decrease your littlie’s (or biggie’s!) anxiety:

• Get a schedule. Sort out what your child is going to be doing every day of the holiday period. For younger children, just make a visual schedule with a picture (or pictures) depicting what will happen each day of the week. You can whip something up quickly like in the picture below or you can get fancy and take photos etc. The important thing is that you talk your child through the schedule/calendar and explain what the week is going to look like. Older children can probably just refer to a calendar with written activities.

• Schedule some down-time for your child to just be at home. The benefits of this are that he or she has time to process information and not be in an overstimulating/overwhelming environment. Depending on the child this might be something that needs to happen every day or every couple of days.
• Set up clear house rules so your kids can have a reminder about what is/is not appropriate. Pair this with a reward chart to increase structure and have clear expectations – just like at school. Be consistent and follow through with rewards and consequences.
• Plan for each day to fit into a vague routine – for some families this might look like: breakfast, outside play, morning tea, inside play, lunch, rest time, go to the park, dinner, bath, stories, bed. Children who know what to expect each day will show less symptoms of anxiety.
• Be proactive and talk with your child about appropriate ways to express their feelings. You might talk about things like “in the holidays you might have some big feelings because things are going to be different. If you have big feelings that you don’t know what to do with, it’s cool for you to go into your chill-out tent and have some down time. It’s not okay for you to hit or hurt anyone”. Sit down and think about ways your child can express themselves safely.

The general theme here is preparing your child for what’s going to happen over the holidays, increasing structure and giving them a way to express their feelings. Lots of acknowledgement of emotions and teaching appropriate ways to express feelings will never go astray.

Good luck!

Amanda Abel is a paediatric psychologist and founder of the Northern Centre for Child Development in Preston (Melbourne). She is available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for client consultations. www.centreforchilddevelopment.com

Do you know the secret to improving your child’s quality of life, thinking skills and language skills? I’ll give you a hint – it’s not attending extra-curricular classes or sitting at the table to learn academics. It is in fact, play! And socialising! Fancy that. ‘But what about the children who lack social and play skills?’ I hear you ask. Good question. This is where we need to intervene to make sure they have the play and social skills they need.

How? Evidence-based social skills groups are a great way to teach age-appropriate social and play skills in a supportive environment. At NCCD we use an Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) approach to teach social skills, which fosters relationship development while teaching skills in a systematic, motivating and rewarding setting.  Each child has individualised goals which are set by their parent(s) and the group facilitators. These goals are worked on in each session while being tracked and evaluated so that outcomes can be measured. Our approach is evidence-based – which means people have researched the strategies we use and they’ve been found to be effective.

We’re currently taking bookings for our social skills sessions for preschoolers – facilitated by Dr. Georgina Cox (provisional psychologist) and Amanda Abel (paediatric psychologist). If you’d like more info about our current group see below or get in touch!

Social Skills Sessions
Term 3, 2015
Wednesdays 10.30-12.00

When: Wednesdays 10.30-12.00
Where: Northern Centre for Child Development – 155 Plenty Rd, Preston, 3072
Cost: $600 for term (FaHCSIA/HCWA funding available)
Dates: 12/8; 19/8; 26/8; 2/9; 9/9; 16/9
Bookings: Please email admin@centreforchilddevelopment.com or call us on
9079 8043 or 0498 648 515.
Confirmation: Your child’s place is confirmed once we receive full payment for the term.
Eligibility: If needed, your child will be screened to ensure they are allocated to the correct group to meet their developmental needs

Australia has one of the youngest school-starting ages in the world. Yet we shouldn’t really think about school-readiness in chronological terms. Little Ava next door who will be 5 in April might be just as ready to run through the school-gates as Johnny who repeated 4 year old kinder and will be turning 7 in Prep. So what’s the difference between Ava and Johnny and how do we know if they are really ready for school?

Well, my experience working with many Prep teachers over the past 15 or so years has taught me that social-emotional skills are really important. A child who can read all their ‘golden’ words and write the alphabet upon school-entry is great, but if they’re unable to maintain composure when they don’t get their way or resort to aggression in response to having to share the monkey bars, then the school day is going to be tricky for all involved.

The National Childcare Accreditation Council highlights the social skills our children need to have before starting school:

• Positively approach other children and make friends;
• Participate in play;
• Participate in play;
• Express emotions and deal with conflict appropriately;
• Show interest in others and form friendships;
• Epress their needs and wants appropriately;
• Separate from parents or primary carers;
• Take turns in games and activities;
• Share toys and equipment;
• Follow some directions and understand some rules;
• Participate in groups;
• Cope with transitions between routines and experiences

How does your littlie go with these skills? If you think your child might need a helping hand to get ready for school next year, give us a call for an individualised, school-readiness behaviour skills program, or to discuss our school-readiness groups.

There’s actually no evidence to support the idea that starting school earlier is better. So for children who are in the grey area, with parents anxiously deliberating whether or not to send them off to Prep or keep them back for another year, there is a general consensus that there is no rush to starting school. Anecdotally, you may have heard of the term ‘Redshirting‘, or the practice of postponing entrance into school to allow extra time for socioemotional, intellectual, or physical growth—a movement apparently popular with the Upper East Side mums of Manhattan.  Or, if you’re like the rest of us without the vintage Hermès Birkin, that means another year up your sleeve to keep reading, going on excursions together, playing with letters and numbers, singing songs and arranging play dates to work on those ever-evolving social skills!

Happy playing!

Amanda Abel – Paediatric Psychologist MAPS

Photo credit: Phil Roeder

Learning appropriate play and social skills are absolutely critical for children’s quality of life, cognitive development and language skills.

Our amazing team members – Cara Small (psychologist) and Fiona Herbu (ABA supervisor) are facilitating evidence-based ABA social skills sessions for primary school children in Term 3. The group will have a maximum of 4 children and will target individualised goals for each child. During the sessions, the group will address social skills theory and will then have extensive opportunities to practise the new skills in a supportive but highly motivating environment.

How are our groups different?

We take an Applied Behaviour Analysis approach which while addressing the essence of authentic social competence and relationship development is also systematic and analytic. Our program is evidence-based meaning there is significant research to support the types of strategies we use. This ensures your child gains new individualised and relevant skills by attending our groups.

When: Fortnightly Saturdays 12.00-1.30 starting July 25^th.
Where: Northern Centre for Child Development – 155 Plenty Rd, Preston, 3072.
Cost: $625 for the term.
Dates: 25/7, 8/8, 22/8, 5/9 & 19/9 – Attendance at all sessions is required.
Bookings: Please email admin@centreforchilddevelopment.com or call us on 9079 8043 or 0498 648 515.
Confirmation: Your child’s place is confirmed once we receive full payment for the term.
Eligibility: If needed, your child will be screened to ensure they are allocated to the correct group to meet their developmental needs.

Winter holidays can be a bit of a nightmare in Melbourne with out crazy weather! I’ve been on the look-out for some cool (no pun intended), free ideas to keep littlies entertained out and about in Melbourne. Here’s some of my inspo so far…

• The Victoria Government Tourism page has a heap of great ideas at varying price-points across Victoria. Some of the highlights include the Grug show at the Arts Centre and the Alice’s Wonderland exhibition at Scienceworks (we went to this last week and my 3 year old loved it)
• The City of Melbourne has some interesting offerings like being in the Family Feud audience!
• The Melbourne Kid has some FREE ideas to keep the kids entertained

Happy Holidaying!

Amanda Abel – Paediatric Psychologist MAPS

 

It’s that time of year again…winter holidays. If you have a little creature of habit at home, you might find school holidays are super tricky for them thanks to the break in routine. As a result, you might see ‘meltdowns’ and non-compliance. Here are some ideas (adjust to suit your child’s age) that might help minimise difficult behaviours:

• Increase structure. Plan a few days in advance and communicate the plans clearly to your child. Use a visual schedule, diary or calendar to show your child what the plans are each day.
• Be wary of overload – try to consider what might overwhelm you child and steer clear. For some kiddos this means only scheduling one outing per day and keeping some ‘home’ time for sensory play or unwinding. It might mean staying home every second day. For others it might relate to where you go and what you do – is going to the noisy swimming pool on school holidays going to be sensory overload for your child? Or does swimming in the water regardless of the environment calm him or her? Reflect on your child’s needs and work within their capacity.
• Consider control – when the routine changes we can feel out of control and this can lead to feelings of anxiety. Give your kiddo some control within your limitations. Giving lots of ‘choice of two’ options throughout the day really helps with this – i.e. “do you want to wear your gumboots or your runners?” or “do you want to help me make cookies or play in the sand?” or “do you want to eat dinner at the big table or the little table?”.
• Set up rules and rewards. A great way to increase structure whether you are at home or out and about. Be clear about your behavioural rules/expectations (the usual culprits are ‘nice talking, keeping hands to self, following instructions’ etc.) and the benefits of following them whether they be the logical consequence (i.e. “people will want to play with you if you are polite to them”) or an extrinsic reward (i.e. “each time I see you talking nicely today I’ll add a star to the reward chart. When you have 3 stars you can watch an episode of Peppa Pig”). Always pair tangible rewards with praise as you want to avoid falling into the reward trap.

A final word – remember to consider your child’s emotional needs when they are being a little tricky. Try to work out what they need from you. And remember that tricky behaviours often arise from feeling overwhelmed or anxious in which case your child will need a helping hand to regulate his or her emotions.

Enjoy the holidays!

Amanda Abel – Paediatric Psychologist MAPS