Feeling cooped up? Whether you are restless or lethargic from staying at home, our very own Traci Gerner, OTR/L, has terrific ideas to get you and your family members dancing and in a healthy routine. Learn how to ice-skate with paper plates and play bowling with water bottles as Traci and Lindsey discuss the importance of tackling cabin fever and reclaiming a normal schedule after a long break from school.
Lindsey:
Welcome to the SPED Talk. I’m super excited about this topic and our fabulous transition back into the new year. We’ve got a lot of things going on for us. We’ve got a few more people that came on. Mr. and Mrs. Guzman are gone back on. Oh, exciting. We’ve got new people. Again everybody, this is Traci and we’re going to be talking about cabin fever and how to incorporate movement, getting back into the routine.
Lindsey:
Traci, did you find it hard getting back into the routine from our long winter break?
Traci Gerner:
I think it’s always hard to get back into the routine. I’m listening to you thinking maybe my lifestyle would be better supported in California. I’m in the Midwest and it’s cold here and we have cabin fever for sure.
Lindsey:
For sure. How is the weather? Do you guys have snow right now, or has it been more rainy?
Traci Gerner:
More rainy and cold weather, not as much snow. We’ve had a few spurts. Over the winter break there were some spurts of snow, but most of it is gone now.
Lindsey:
Yeah, and I think that’s actually really hard for the students because if it’s snow, we go outside and we play and that’s fine, but it’s when it’s the rain and then it’s cold, or it’s super cold and then we really can’t go outdoors and we can’t do as much as we’d hoped. So I can see that definitely being a challenge. We’re kind of in this little weather pattern that might make it difficult for us. Is there anybody out there that’s also in the Midwest? Where are you guys at? Put it in the comments, let me know where you guys are stationed. We’ll see where we have more difficulties. I know there’s a few of you out in Michigan, there’s a few of you out in California. Put it in the comments, drop it down where you guys are located at.
Lindsey:
All right, Traci. Well, what are some things that we can do to help us get back into a routine from a long break?
Traci Gerner:
Well, I think one of the things, both us as therapists and for our students, one of the biggest things we can do is get back into a regular sleep pattern. I know I’m going to talk a lot about movement today, but if we are not in those regular sleep patterns, again, we are setting ourselves up for failure. So really trying to get back into the routine of going to bed at a decent time, to get up at a decent time. Sometimes over those breaks there’s lots of fun things going on and we’re out and about or we’re visiting with family and friends, and so those sleep patterns get jumbled a little bit. I think one of the most important foundational skills is to get back into that typical sleep pattern so that we’re getting a good night’s sleep each night, both ourselves as therapists and for those students that we’re working with.
Lindsey:
Oh, I know. Sleep is a glorious thing. I know I struggle with that too. I was like, “Oh, man. I have to go back to my bedtime of like 9:30.” I get up super early in the morning so I definitely have to make sure I get my sleep. It’s funny, as adults we’re all like, “Oh, we just use coffee to help perk us up,” but you know what? Kids, we are not feeding them coffee, so we do have to make sure that they get their sleep so that way they can be functional and sustain that attention while they’re learning. It’s super important, but it can be difficult. I know setting alarms can be helpful to make sure that like, “Okay, this is when we’re going to start our bedtime routine,” and just getting back into those things. Turning off the video game systems two hours before it’s bed time, we’ll try to work on those things.
Lindsey:
Once you’ve got the student, they’re back in their routine hopefully, they’ve logged in, especially when we’re doing our telepractice, how do we get them back into our session routine? They took two weeks off from their classes. How do we get them back into the right mind frame of we’re back in school, this is what we do? What are some tricks that you like to do for that?
Traci Gerner:
Sure. I think one of the most important things that I like to do is set the tone. I think it’s easy to fall into that maybe none of us want to be back just yet, we’re not ready to give up that break just yet, we were having fun, but if we set that tone and set a positive tone with our students, I think that is what really will help get them going as well because lots of them are coming back and they’re not ready to come back either at this point. By being positive and being excited that we’re back, as therapists, I think that will help those students become excited as well. Instead of dreading that push back into school again, really just being excited. We’re back, it’s a new year, what are we going to tackle next?
Traci Gerner:
I love to take this opportunity to be a fresh start. It’s truly a fresh start for all of us, and so looking at the goals we’ve been working on and doing a little check as to where those skills are at. Certainly information we can use as we look at regression that may have happened over that break, over the longer winter break, but then also using it to set new goals. Maybe there’s things, this is a great time to try new things. Maybe something isn’t working toward those goals, so let’s change it up. Students seem a little bit more open because they’re coming back and we’re starting new, even though it’s only been a few weeks for some of them. It’s a great time to take a fresh start, a fresh look at what we’re going to do to tackle those goals this coming semester, this coming quarter.
Lindsey:
That is really good. That’s a really good tip is to let … Two things I picked up on that for sure is being positive, letting the student know it’s a fresh start. Especially if some of the students that we work with, they may be have been struggling and let them know that, “You know what? Let’s see where we left off, let’s review what we’ve been working on, and we can see.” That’s good because we can then use that for that goal-tracking data and maybe we have an annual IEP coming up or maybe we just need to see if they are going to be eligible for ESY. I mean, when we have extended breaks, we really do see that regression. This is a really good time for therapists to do that toothpick check and see like, “Ooh, we backslid a lot,” and then letting the student know that that’s okay and that we’re going to keep working on it and just continuing to praise them and get them. I also really like the idea that it’s a fresh start, so let’s try new things.
Lindsey:
One of the things that comes up in teletherapy is sometimes the students might not like to have their camera turned on, so it’s really nice that this would be like, “You know what? Let’s set a new goal. This is our New Year’s resolution. Let’s see, can you just turn it on for a little bit and let’s see how that goes.” I know that the being afraid of the camera in teletherapy can definitely be hard to overcome. If anyone else has struggled with that or has a tip, leave that in the comment for sure.
Lindsey:
I know we’ve got a few more people that have come on. Pamela and Ellison and Donna, thank you for joining us as we’re talking about our cabin fever topics. Let’s get into that, coping with being cooped up in the house.
Traci Gerner:
Anytime we can add movement into the day, and again, this goes for therapists as well as the students we’re working with. What I did on this handout is I just took some common household items, doesn’t have to be anything fancy, trying to get away from that sedentary gaming-type system if you have students on that and really getting them active and doing movement. Simple household items can be used for this. I think it’s just a matter of being creative.
Traci Gerner:
You’ll see on that handout, I put things like painter’s tape. Using painter’s tape to make a hopscotch or to create shapes that maybe students have to do animal walks to, animal walk to the triangle, animal walk to a square, animal walk to the A, find the A. You can incorporate a lot of those academic components into the movement, and so students are getting the movement and the academic reinforcement as well.
Traci Gerner:
Things like sticky notes, taking sticky notes and putting them up and putting letters on them or putting spelling words on them or putting movement activities on them, and then using something soft, a stuffed animal, socks rolled up, to throw and hit the sticky notes. Of course, I have to caution when I start talking about throwing things, safety is always first. Of course, we’re meeting the students at their developmental level, but sometimes these activities are harmless. If we can find a safe spot to do them and stick up sticky notes to the wall and then throw a soft sock at. Suddenly, it becomes fun and exciting. Again, hopefully things that families have laying around the house, or as a therapist doing teletherapy we can ask them, “Hey, could you grab a couple of sticky notes? Let’s try this out.” Of course, with students, once you’re having fun and have them engaged, you’ve kind of got them and so they’re a little bit more willing to do some of those activities with us.
Traci Gerner:
Another activity I put up there is just water bottles, empty water bottles, using them as bowling pins. Again, you could use that stuffed animal or that rolled up sock and having them bowl, picking a spot in a hallway and setting up bowling and doing some bowling activities. Or filling those water bottles even with noisemakers, beans or rice or beads or whatever you might have around. Then of course you can’t just shake the water bottle to make noise, you must add dance moves. I’m a big proponent of dancing anywhere we can. Making noise and shaking and moving and grooving might be fun for some kiddos also. Again, just using empty water bottles and things you find around the house to put in it.
Traci Gerner:
The other activity I put up there was balloons. Certainly using balloons to play any kind of ball game, kickball, volleyball, any kind of activity, hockey, soccer, whatever the student is into, using balloons. Again, safety first, but balloons are pretty harmless. We have to be probably more cautious of the furniture in our homes and in our schools so that students aren’t getting hurt, but a great way to get kids moving. Also using things like fabric softeners and paper plates, and using them for figure skating, standing on them and skating around the house. Paper plate ring tosses, another way, great way to get kids moving and grooving. Pillowcases, sitting on a pillow case and scooting around with hands and feet. Almost using it like a scooter board, but they’re scooting around and active movement to get to different places.
Traci Gerner:
Of course, with all of these you could incorporate those academics in as well. I know one of the things we do at my house, because I am in the Midwest, and my teenagers will roll their eyes to this day, but you can’t come in my kitchen without a dance party. If you’re in the kitchen getting something to eat, you’d better be wiggling and moving and grooving because we’re dancing in there. Again, just a way to get everybody moving and having a good time. Often with that comes laughter, and laughter’s one of the best medicines out there. If everybody’s involved in moving and grooving, everybody’s a good time as well.
Traci Gerner:
I think one of the other important things to remember, from a therapist perspective, is every time we’re moving, we’re actually increasing cognitive function by default, because when we’re moving, we’re increasing blood flow, we’re increasing blood flow to the brain, which increases oxygen to the brain. Again, by default you’re increasing that brain performance through movement. So anytime we can incorporate movement, we’re adding that cognitive component as well.
Lindsey:
I think these are such great ideas. They’re fun, they’re good for all ages. I love this idea of dance party. When you go into the kitchen, I’ve got to do a little bit of dancing, right? Then we just get that movement. I know Alana asked one of our questions, so thank you, Alana for jumping in here. Favorite dance videos, do you have any favorite dance videos you can recommend or anything on YouTube that you typically like to do?
Traci Gerner:
We typically, again, I have teenagers and so they’re forever coming home with different moves that I’m learning and that they know that then they try to teach me. I’m not quite as cool as them. But forever doing kids’ yoga type of activities, you can find tons of those on YouTube. It’s just an astronaut yoga. I try to figure out what students are interested in and then we play off of that. You can do animal yoga, you can do animal dance moves, you could do, like I said, astronaut yoga or dance moves. So finding what they’re interested in, and just a simple Google search will pull up all of those different activities.
Lindsey:
Absolutely. Of course with Fortnite, they have all those Fortnite dances, flossing, and that’s the only one I know the name of. I know what they look like, I have not learned them, but I know there’s YouTube videos to teach you. As therapists and adults and teachers, feel free to learn those dances as well to stay on trend with all of these students, but incorporating them in the classroom. I think that’s really important too, is to understand that these movements aren’t just for home. They’re not just when you do chores, although that would be very helpful, but it’s also really good to link that academic piece to it. Incorporating the movement into those classroom setting, or for those that are homeschooled, increasing it during the lessons or allowing the student not just the flexible seating of sitting on one of the bouncy balls or having a TheraBand or a standing station, those are all fantastic, but really doing the movement.
Lindsey:
I really liked the idea where you do the crawling, either a bear crawl or crab walk, in the shape of letters. I think that’s fantastic, that movement, that crossover. I know Alana mentioned that kids having doing a leapfrog on special lily pad paper and maybe it’s to the different letters where they have to leapfrog and maybe spell out words, especially the younger kids. I don’t think I could leapfrog at this age, but those younger kids, I’m pretty sure they’ve got that down pat.
Lindsey:
Okay, so I really liked this idea of the posted notes and then you can throw a sock, a stuffed animal. Teachers usually always have stress balls and so they could throw that at a letter. I think that hand-eye coordination or crossing the midline, those things are so important and they help reinforce everything that you’re doing in your sessions, bringing it over and putting it into the academic world with spelling, and just motor memory really does help with the additional memory. If students are struggling with memory components, adding that motor piece really helps reinforce their learning. Would you agree with that?
Traci Gerner:
Absolutely, absolutely. One of the things that I’ve done, both professionally and personally, is incorporate that movement whenever I can. I’m going to give you an example in my home. If we were working on spelling words, math problems, something that was a challenge, maybe there was a sight word, I would tape it up on a door jamb. So as you walked out of the door, or every time you walked out of the bathroom door for example, you had to jump up and hit that word and say it. It became instead of a drill that that kids are shutting down maybe for initially, it became something that was funny and silly and my mom makes me do this goofy thing every time I walk out I’ve got to jump and I’ve got to say the word. Just putting that movement with it, you get that muscle motion memory and then you get that cognitive component as well when you start adding that movement to it.
Lindsey:
No, that’s a great idea. If anybody else has a way that they’ve incorporated movement into their lessons or if you’re a teacher, put that in the comments. Let’s share those ideas. I really liked the idea about doing it around the door jamb. Anytime, if you’re at a traditional school, that when the student enters or leaves your room that you could have them jump up, hit that word or hit the thing and then you could move it around, make it a game, see how high they can jump. Or sometimes they might need bending and maybe they have to do it on one foot or something like that, just to help really increase that balance. Those are really great things, and the student has no idea that it’s a drill in a little bit of a way, but that’s really helpful just to incorporate those things. Sometimes we’re not thinking of that as well.
Lindsey:
I know you’ve got the water bottles. I really like this idea with the water bottles. You can make them as noisemakers. First of all, students still bottle flip, right? Why? Where did this come from, right? Anybody else out there thinking that bottle flipping is like, “Why do we have this? It’s so annoying.” But maybe they can bottle flip it and if it lands or doesn’t land, then they have to do the drill or the activity, something like that. That can be incorporated in sessions or in the classroom since the students are already … Don’t resist, just go with it, right? Let’s find a way to make this work for us and get those students actively engaged.
Lindsey:
Any last closing thoughts, Traci, that you might have while we’re waiting for any ideas to come through?
Traci Gerner:
Sure. I think, like you said, taking that bottle flipping for example, right, that seems to be some fad that has caught on with kids. While I might find it a little bit annoying, kids are enjoying that. Then I want to see how can I incorporate that into therapy, what can I do, just as you mentioned. Maybe if it doesn’t flip and land the way it’s supposed to, then they have to do some kind of activity or they have to read a paragraph, or whatever it is you’re working on, just incorporate the movement. I think even homework, if you can incorporate movement into homework. Kids are working all day long and then have homework to complete at night and they’re done sitting and attending. How do we get that attention back and how do we get them to comply and get that homework done? Let them move through it, let them take some movement breaks, maybe sit in unconventional positions, maybe they’re laying on the floor, standing, doing some motor activity prior to completing that homework might help get through that component of the day that can be a struggle sometimes for students.
Lindsey:
Yes. I like this idea of unconventional sitting, right? As adults, I don’t want to sit on the floor, but as students, that something that might be comfortable for them and they do want to sit on the floor. One word of caution though, sometimes sitting on the bed is maybe not the best. Sometimes they get a little too comfortable and then they relax, fall asleep, and they’re not super engaged. You want to make sure posture, super important, that they’re still able to sustain attention. So laying down maybe for a break but probably not doing their math homework laying down. But be mindful of that, but I like the idea that, yes, sitting in unconventional areas. You could even change where they’re studying if they like to have it different, but sometimes routine is good too and maybe it’s best that they all are sitting at the kitchen table or something like that. Each student is different, so you have to just trial and error and see what works for everybody.
Lindsey:
Well, thank you so much, Traci, for joining us today on our show. This was a really great show in regards to cabin fever and giving us those tips to increase that movement. Definitely, oh, I love it. Alana, yes, posture as a topic in the future. I think we might have to invite either Traci or if there’s another OT out there that really loves any sort of posture or that’s an area of specialty, put that in the comments. I’m always looking for new people to join our show. Thank you so much, Traci, for coming on the show.
