Child and Parent Occupational Wellness

Your Baby's Brain Map

Zero to Three (www.zerotothree.org) is a great website for parents and professionals about infant and toddler development.  After registering for free on the website, one can download articles and receive emails with new information and cutting edge research on infant development.  One of the most interesting things they offer is something called the Baby Brain Map.  On this, you can click on a certain developmental age group and see a picture of the brain.  Different areas are highlighted -- for example -- language, cognition, social-emotional, motor skills, etc.  After clicking on one of these, you can read a short description of exactly what is going on in your child's brain at that age, as well as read tips for what you can do to facilitate development.

DbD Toys: Development by Design- Great Toys for Every Child on Your List!

DbD Toys, a company created by Jessica Zarin Kessin (founder & president, professional product designer) and Julie Robbins, OTR/L is a great new company with a focus on developing toys for children of all abilities, special needs included.  They have a great website that explains developmental occupational skills such as gross motor, fine motor, bilateral coordination, motor planning, sensory processing, visual perception, social and pre-academic skills, eye-hand coordination, and oral-motor skills.  For a quick link to explanations of these skills, click on Developmental Skills.

Julie Robbins, the occupational therapist, has authored a series of articles & game ideas available on the website that cover topics in the aforementioned skills areas and how to incorporate activities into the lives of your children to promote good development of the skills.  She also is directly involved with the design, testing, and evaluation of all DbD toys & products.  She has worked extensively with the special needs population and is able to apply her knowledge of this for toy development.

Check out the website at www.dbdtoys.com, where you can sign up for their free newsletter which includes new toys, articles, and information for parents and teachers.  There is something for every child on this site!