Our Content
Perspectives For Parents: 
Advice & Support from Parents & Caregivers
- What do you mean, ‘Self Regulation is the new IQ’?- August 22, 2020 - Carrie Alvarado, PhD, OTR explains more about self-regulation following her presentation with ELI's Kitchen Conversations, Summer Style webinar series where we talked about mixing Occupational Therapy into summer fun at home. Find the full webinar (30 minutes) with closed captions and transcript here: /webinars Read more 
- What if the siblings are always around?!- August 22, 2020 - Carrie Alvarado, PhD, OTR answers this question that many of us are asking, how can we support our child with self regulation challenges when we're also managing multiple siblings? This question is a follow up from ELI's Kitchen Conversations, Summer Style webinar series where we talked about mixing Occupational Therapy into summer fun at home.… Read more 
- What are some activities for children who have difficulty accepting different foods or textures?- August 22, 2020 - Carrie Alvarado, PhD, OTR answers this question from Abby (thanks, Abby!), following ELI's Kitchen Conversations, Summer Style webinar series where we talked about mixing Occupational Therapy into summer fun at home. Find the full webinar (30 minutes) with closed captions and transcript here: /webinars Read more 
- I can’t always understand my child and I feel terrible-Help!- August 22, 2020 - Cindy Harrison, M.Sc., Reg. CASLPO – Speech Language Pathologist helps us think about how to speak to our child when we have trouble understanding him or her. This question is a follow up from her presentation with ELI's Kitchen Conversations, Summer Style webinar series where we talked about mixing Speech and Language Therapy into summer… Read more 
- Am I doing enough?- August 22, 2020 - Cindy Harrison, M.Sc., Reg. CASLPO – Speech Language Pathologist answers this important question we ask as parents, "how do we know if we're doing enough to help our children?" This question is a follow up from her presentation with ELI's Kitchen Conversations, Summer Style webinar series where we talked about mixing Speech and Language Therapy… Read more 
- What strategies can I give my child to help her be understood?- August 22, 2020 - Cindy Harrison, M.Sc., Reg. CASLPO – Speech Language Pathologist answers this question about helping an older child to problem solve ideas to help people understand what she is trying to express. This question is a follow up from her presentation with ELI's Kitchen Conversations, Summer Style webinar series where we talked about mixing Speech and… Read more 
- How can I connect with my child who prefers to be alone?- August 22, 2020 - Marcela Mota Aversa is a Clinician & Early Education Mental Health Consultant at The Home For Little Wanderers and a Gallery Educator at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. In this video clip she answers "how can I stay connected with my child when he seems to prefer to be alone?" This question is… Read more 
- How can I help my child to not spend so much time on screens?- August 22, 2020 - Marcela Mota Aversa is a Clinician & Early Education Mental Health Consultant at The Home For Little Wanderers and a Gallery Educator at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. In this video clip she answers "how can we help our children to stay off screens even when we as adults are on our phones… Read more 
- Kitchen Conversation, Summer Style: How to mix speech therapy into summer fun- July 30, 2020 - Cindy Harrison is a speech language pathologist practicing in Ottawa, Canada. Cindy’s area of clinical focus is the assessment and intervention for children/youth and young adults with autism spectrum disorder and developmental disabilities. Cindy is also senior faculty with Profectum, a not for profit training institute that specializes in training clinicians in DIR/Floortime. Read more 
- Kitchen Conversation, Summer Style: Supporting mental health during summer fun- July 23, 2020 - Marcela Mota Aversa is a Clinician & Early Education Mental Health Consultant at The Home For Little Wanderers and a Gallery Educator at the Museum of Fine Arts. Read more 
- How to prepare for back to school in 2020 (whatever it looks like)- July 23, 2020 - I think we can all agree that when it comes to planning for our kids going back to school this year, we don’t know a lot. And what we do know changes. Even though we are all living in the same pandemic world right now, we are in different places geographically and we have different… Read more 
- Kitchen Conversation, Summer Style: How to mix OT into summer fun- July 16, 2020 - Carrie Alvarado is the creator and director of the Earliest Connections Clinic and the DIRFloortime/PACT (Pediatric Autism Communication Therapy) Hands-on Family Empowerment program at Autism Community Network (ACN), a non-profit focused on provision of both interdisciplinary diagnosis and innovative intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorder. Read more 
- How do you cope when anxiety takes over your child?- July 10, 2020 - For a lot of parents and kids, the arrival of summer camp is more than welcomed (Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out, sweetie!) – especially now, given all the time kids had at home because of the pandemic. Read more 
- Can I stay with my family member in the hospital if they have a disability? Yes!- July 9, 2020 - The last time my son had to stay in the hospital, he tried to pull the needles and tubes from his arms so he could “escape” from his bed. He was 20 at the time, old enough to not need a parent with him in the view of many hospitals. Read more 
- Kitchen Conversation: Speech Therapy at Home- June 24, 2020 - Cindy Harrison is a speech language pathologist practicing in Ottawa, Canada. Cindy’s area of clinical focus is the assessment and intervention for children/youth and young adults with autism spectrum disorder and developmental disabilities. Cindy is also senior faculty with Profectum, a not for profit training institute that specializes in training clinicians in DIR/Floortime. Read more 
- Kitchen Conversation: Mental Health Counseling at Home- June 17, 2020 - Marcela Mota Aversa, clinician, Preschool Outreach Program, The Home for Little Wanderers (Boston, MA)Marcela Mota Aversa is a Clinician & Early Education Mental Health Consultant at The Home For Little Wanderers and a Gallery Educator at the Museum of Fine Arts. Read more 
- Kitchen Conversation: Applied Behavior Analysis at Home- June 10, 2020 - Zack Storer is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and Clinical Director at St. Nicholas Center for Children. His clinical experience includes 10 years of work with clients of various ages with Autism and Developmental Delays using Applied Behavior Analysis. Read more 
- Kitchen Conversation: Occupational Therapy at Home- June 3, 2020 - Carrie Alvarado is the creator and director of the Earliest Connections Clinic and the DIRFloortime/PACT (Pediatric Autism Communication Therapy) Hands-on Family Empowerment program at Autism Community Network (ACN), a non-profit focused on provision of both interdisciplinary diagnosis and innovative intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorder. Read more 
- “How are the kids?”- June 3, 2020 - But, those answers are really more about me. Which I think is really fine because let’s be honest, my friend asking me in passing or over email about my kids is not really asking how my kids are doing, she’s checking in to see if I need to talk. Read more 
- Please, No More Self-Care: A Quarantine Rant- May 20, 2020 - I’ve been hesitating writing to you. I love to share and I love connecting, but I’ve turned inward these last couple of months. Partly because it’s what I needed to stay ok but mostly I didn’t want you to feel like someone else is here to tell you ‘one more thing’. Read more 




















