Anita Bundy, ScD, OT/L, FAOTA, FOTARA is a professor and head of the occupational therapy department at Colorado State University. She has conducted decades of experiments and research in Risky Play. Listen as Dr. Bundy shares both the benefits of risk-taking in play and the developmental costs of being risk-averse. The views expressed in the following presentation are those of the presenter(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of STAR Institute.   Resources Mentioned In this...

Family Nurse Practitioner and Parent, Holly Healy offers both personal and professional insights into sensory differences.

Join Dr. Lori Desautels to explore how trauma and adversity impact the developing brain and body and show up in the challenging behaviors we sometimes see.

Parents of two boys with sensory differences discuss the experience of diagnosis and their pathway to building a sensory lifestyle for their family.

According to the Administration for Children and Families (n.d.), nearly 500,000 children and youth are currently in the foster care system in the United States.

Making Sense Season 3 is Sponsored by Our Community Partner Summit Sensory GymAre you an occupational or physical therapist struggling to excite your patients with different therapeutic activities, or even worse are finding that your therapists and more importantly your patients are tired of the same old therapy? If you're like most practices are organizations, acquiring new patient referrals and converting them into ongoing patients is often very expensive and time consuming. This fact was...

The concept of neurodiversity is credited to a sociologist named Judy Singer. Neurodiversity recognizes and pays respect to the diversity of human minds, and the infinite variation in neurocognitive functioning within our species (Walker, 2014). Today, listen in as two clinical psychologists, Dr. Courtney McDonnell and Dr. Jared Kilmer, discuss what a neurodiversity affirming assessment pathway could look like.   Episode guests: Courtney McDonnell, Psy.D. & Jared Kilmer,...

Evidence-based practice is vital to focus the OT lens and voice in the autism community.  Occupational therapists are in a position to recognize the importance of the occupation of caregiver and provide evidence-based support in intervention when working with all clients. Today, we focus this conversation on autism intervention science.  Listen as this conversation unpacks the value of research in guiding us towards essential ingredients in support of caregiver agency with a focus on the...

The clinical pathway for Autism services is complex. Anti-black racism within that pathway is well-established in the literature.  This pervasive, systemic racism affects every step of the pathway from early caregiver concerns to accessing intervention.  This conversation begins with raising awareness around this issue and ends with five action steps clinicians can take to respond to the anti-black racism in the autism clinical pathway. Episode guest: Aksheya Sridhar, M.A. and Diondra...

Occupational therapists recognize the importance of occupation to well-being. This episode explores the essential contribution of sensation to the way occupation is expressed in humans. From socio-cultural experiences to sensory habits, listen as Drs. Bailliard and Schmitt explore occupation with a wide lens.  Episode guest: Antoine Bailliard, Ph.D., OTR/L Resources Mentioned In this episode:​ American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020). Occupational therapy practice framework:...

Calm Strips is the proud sponsor of Season 2 of Making Season.   Calm Strips began as a small piece of blue tape wrapped on the founder’s finger. He looked a bit silly wearing the tape, not to mention he had a lone sticky finger at the end of the day. So, then came the idea to create something that you could stick anywhere and take everywhere you may need a little bit of calm. The Calm Strips' mission is to further destigmatize the need for support and help and their dedication to this...

Play is a child’s occupation and has a profound impact on attachment and neuro-development. Therapeutic and developmental experiences benefit from a deeper understanding of the importance and impact of play. Today, Carrie Schmitt and Mim Ochsenbein unpack The Interpersonal Neurobiology of Play by highlighting and defining Play, while considering both the impact of play on brain development and the way that play in the context of relationship is powerful for driving...

The vestibular system is critically involved in integrating sensory signals from inside our bodies (interoception) with sensory signals from outside ourselves (exteroception). There is a large body of work showing that our sense of self stems from multisensory integration. Today, guest Lisa Porter, PhD, OTD, OTR/Land Carrie Schmitt, OTR/L unravel the important role of the vestibular system in our sense of self. From the role, vestibular sensation plays in modulating sensory processing to...

Motor development is essentially psychological. In this conversation, Carrie Schmitt, OTR/L and Renee Allen, MS, OTR/L discuss the idea that motor development informed by sensation allows us to act on the world in the context of culture and relationship and ultimately enables skill acquisition across both motor and psychological milestones. Using clinical examples, they unpack what motor development challenges can tell us about a child’s sensory and psychological development.   Resources...

Sensory differences have a profound impact on learning. Colleen Whiting is our faculty specialist on school-based practice. Today, Carrie Schmitt and Colleen Whiting discuss an article highlighting a study aimed at capturing parent and teacher perspectives on how sensory differences affect learning and life at school. This conversation covers topics such as the current day impact of distance learning, sensory profiles mismatches, sense of agency, and what specific strategies work to support...

In pediatric occupational therapy, play is often used as a therapeutic medium. Today Carrie Schmitt and Michele Parkins discuss how the ways in which we play can include emotion regulation alongside sensory motor regulation. They explore the concept of psychosensory experiences tying in temperament as it manifests in play and how this guides therapeutic play aligning with sensory modulation, discrimination and sensory motor development. Resources Mentioned in this episode:​ Foley, G....

Executive Director Virginia Spielmann and Carrie Schmitt introduce the STAR Institute for Sensory Processing’s podcast and discuss how a podcast is a wonderful medium to further the vision and mission of STAR Institute. In addition, they discuss the cornerstones of the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (OTPF-4) highlighting the OT’s unique ability to integrate macro and micro viewpoints into our practice. Listen in and hear how we plan to use this season of the podcast to share research...

This Making Sense podcast season is dedicated to the memory of Janet Wright. Who was Janet you ask? Janet was an incredibly enthusiastic occupational therapist who loved what she did. More importantly, she was always striving to further her education and was passionate about bringing that knowledge to her patients, parents, peers, and most especially OT students. STAR Institute is a 501(c)3 organization, for more information and to donate please visit www.sensoryhealth.org.