Special Needs Archives - Meraki Lane

13 Stress Relief Activities for Kids | If your little one suffers from feelings of overwhelm, stress, and/or anxiety and you’re looking for coping skills you can teach him or her, we’re sharing 13 simple yet effective activities that help calm the mind and body. From mindful breathing and yoga, to coloring, art therapy, and journaling, these ideas work for all ages and stages and offer a great way to spend quality time with your kids to boot! #calmingactivities #calmingactivitiesforkids

Calm and Collected: 13 Stress Relief Activities for Kids

How to Promote a Positive Body Image in Kids | If you’re looking for ways to teach your kids and teens self-love and body positivity, this post will give you the inspiration you need. If you want your daughter to become a self-assured woman and/or your son to radiate self-confidence, you’ll learn all the ways you’re sabotaging your child’s self-esteem without evening knowing it. Give these parenting tips a try – they work! #positivebodyimage #buildingconfidenceinkids #buildingconfidenceinteens

How to Promote a Positive Body Image in Kids [11 Tips for Parents]

30 Positive Mantras for Kids | If you’re looking for ways to teach mindfulness to your children to help decrease their stress and anxiety and boost their motivation and happiness as they grow and learn, this post is for you! Positive mantras are a great way to nip negative thinking in the bud and encourage positive self-talk. Check out our favorite positive mantras for kids in preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school! #positivemantras #positiveaffirmationsforkids #mindfulnessforkids

30 Positive Mantras for Kids that Improve Happiness and Confidence

14 Social Thinking Activities for Kids of All Ages | Developed by Michelle Garcia, Social Thinking is a wonderful curriculum to teach social skills to kids with autism and ADHD. Whether you’re creating a group plan for your classroom, or you need individual lessons for specific students, these games and activities will lay the Social Thinking fundamentals, like the ‘size of the problem’, ‘expected vs unexpected behaviors’, and perspective taking. #socialthinking #selfregulation #autism

Social Thinking Activities for Kids: 14 Ideas to Teach Whole Body Thinking

25 Energizing Brain Breaks for Kids | Engaging your students in regular brain breaks in the classroom can help improve attention, focus, retention, self-regulation, and more! We’re excited to share our favorite quick and easy movement ideas to help kids shed excess energy, and have included ideas for children in preschool and kindergarten, elementary school, and middle school. These activities are fun, calming, and perfect for indoor recess days! #brainbreaks #brainbreaksforkids #sensorybreaks

Focus and Control: 25 Energizing Brain Breaks for Kids

43 Autism Quotes | If you're looking for inspirational quotes about autism awareness and understanding, or you’re a mom or dad with a son or daughter with ASD and you need positive facts and truths to help you stay motivated during the hard times, this post has it all. Whether your child has ‘mild’ high functioning autism or several nonverbal ASD, I hope these uplifting words of encouragement give you the strength to keep advocating for acceptance! #autism #autismquotes #autismawareness

Different Not Less: 43 Autism Quotes to Inspire You

11 Working Memory Games for Kids | Looking for inexpensive (and free!) working memory activities for children with developmental delays like ADHD, executive functioning disorder, and autism, as well as students with learning disabilities like ADHD? With 7 strategies and 11 activities designed to develop a child’s memory, planning, and organization skills, this collection of fun ideas will help make learning fun at home and in the classroom! #workingmemory #workingmemorygames #specialeducation

Don’t forget! 18 working memory games and strategies for kids

11 Scooter Board Activities | Looking for fun occupational therapy ideas to do at home or in the classroom to develop a child’s gross motor skills, improve focus for greater learning, reduce stress and anxiety, and help with self-regulation? From awesome ideas children can do independently, to obstacle course inspiration for teachers and therapists who have access to a gym, these heavy work activities for kids are so much fun! #scooterboard #grossmotor #grossmotoractivities

Gross Motor Play: 11 Super Fun Scooter Board Activities for Kids

How to Help a Child with Selective Mutism | If you’re looking for ideas to help a child with selective mutism outside of therapy, this collection of tips is perfect for parents and teachers alike. What is selective mutism? We’re raising awareness of the disorder by sharing the signs, symptoms, and facts, as well as practical strategies to try at home and in the classroom to reduce anxiety and (hopefully) promote communication in children with SM. #selectivemutism #anxiety #mentalhealth

How to Help a Child with Selective Mutism: 11 Tips for Parents

32 Heavy Work Activities for Kids | If you’re looking for proprioceptive activities to help your child with body awareness, self-regulation, and focus at school, at home, or in Occupational Therapy, these fun and engaging gross motor activities are a great place to start! Engaging students in regular brain breaks can help make learning easier, making this list a great tool for teachers and parents of kids of all ages and abilities. #heavywork #sensoryprocessingdisorder #proprioception

Heavy Work Activities and Sensory Processing Disorder: 32 Ideas to Try

11 Crossing the Midline Activities for Kids | Perfect for toddlers, for kids in preschool, and for older children who struggle with handwriting, reading, and other fine and gross motor skills, these crossing the midline exercises can be used by teachers in the classroom, in Occupational Therapy, and even at home. These ideas are designed to make learning fun, and feel more like play than practice! #crossingthemidline #OTactivities

OT at home: 11 crossing the midline exercises for kids

16 IEP Tips for Parents | If you’re the parent or teacher of a student with a learning disability, challenges with executive functioning, or a developmental delay like autism or ADHD and you want to know how to prepare for an IEP meeting, progress monitoring tips, how to ensure your child’s accommodations are being met, and how to set IEP goals and objectives, this collection of ideas is for you! #IEP #IEPmeeting #IEPtips

Learning support for your child: 16 IEP tips for parents

Art Therapy for Kids | Perfect for emotional healing, anger management, helping kids deal with feelings related to trauma, grief, and divorce, and for kids with mental health challenges and special needs like autism, ADHD, OCD, and anxiety, this collection of simple and creative art therapy projects and crafts will help your child deal with their emotions and heal. #arttherapyforkids #arttherapyprojects #arttherapyactivities

Art Therapy for Kids: 22 Activities to Help Your Child Cope and Heal

How to Discipline a Toddler | Parenting is hard enough as it is, and when you throw tantrums into the mix, it can be downright overwhelming. Whether you’re the mom to sons or daughters, the toddler years will leave you wondering how to get your kid to behave without yelling or time outs, and this collection of 10 simple positive discipline ideas will teach you how to do just that. #tempertantrums #positiveparenting #positivediscipline

How to Discipline a Toddler: 10 Tips that Actually Work

15 Hand Strengthening Exercises for Kids | If you’re looking for activities, toys, and exercises to help develop fine motor skills in children, this collection of fun ideas is a great place to start. Designed to strengthen the fingers and help with muscle coordination, these simple and fun ideas can be used in occupational therapy, in the classroom at school, and at home to help kids who struggle with writing and other fine motor tasks. #handstrengthening #finemotor #occupationaltherapy

Fine Motor Development: 15 Hand Strengthening Exercises For Kids

13 Balance Activities for Kids | If you’re looking for ways to develop your child’s gross motor skills at home, in the classroom, in occupational therapy, and beyond, this collection of fun games and activities are just what you need. Perfect for parents, teachers, and therapists, these core strengthening ideas will help build your child’s static and dynamic balance, while also helping with bilateral coordination. #balanceactivities #coordinationactivities #grossmotoractivities

Gross Motor Skills: 13 Core Strengthening Balance Activities for Kids

How to Help a Child with OCD at Home | If you’re looking for tips to help children with mental health disorders like OCD, this post covers it all – the signs, symptoms, therapy and treatment options plus parenting tips to help families of kids with OCD. Perfect for moms and dads who want to understand their special needs child’s obsessions and compulsions, these tips will inspire you to stop negatively reinforcing your child’s fears. #childhoodOCD #specialneeds #anxiety #anxiouschild

How to Help a Child with OCD at Home: 11 Tips For Parents

16 Sentence Building Activities | If you’re looking for ways to make learning fun both at home and in the classroom, this collection of sentence structure worksheets for kids in kindergarten, 1st grade, and beyond is a great place to start. We’ve included free printables as well as language arts bundles for kids that can be used as part of your morning work literacy activities and to create writing centers for the classroom. #languagearts #literacy #literacycenters

Sentence Building 101: 39 Sentence Building Activities for Young Learners

33 At Home Date Night Ideas for Married Couples | Babysitters are few and far between, and they aren’t cheap (!!!), but if you’re looking for ways to focus on your marriage when your kids are in bed – or need a little Valentine’s Day inspiration – we’re sharing our best simple, fun, creative, and romantic ways to spend quality time with your SO when going out isn’t an option. Perfect for newlyweds and tired parents, these ideas will not disappoint! #datenightideas #dateideas #datenightin

Couple’s Night In: 33 Budget-Friendly At Home Date Night Ideas

How to Teach a Child to Wipe Their Bottom | Many books about potty training promise you can toilet train boys and girls in 3 days but teaching your kid to wipe their butt can take much longer. Young children often don’t have the fine motor skills needed to perform the task. We’re sharing all of our tips – when to start teaching kids to wipe their own poop, tips for getting started, and some funny ideas to keep it interesting! #pottytraining #pottytrainingtips #pottytrainingtips #parentingtips

Potty Training Problems: How to Teach a Child to Wipe Their Bottom

23 Montessori Practical Life Activities | Looking for hands on activities designed for different age ranges (toddlers, kindergarteners, kids aged 3-6 and 6-9) that teach practical life skills and promote independence? We’re sharing 23 ideas for kids in Casa and Lower Elementary that teach the basics – matching, pouring, transferring, and lacing – and expand on them to develop fine motor skills and teach kids self-care. #montessori #montessoriactivities #practicallife #montessorimaterials

Helping Kids Grow: 23 Montessori Practical Life Activities We Love