It's finally summer!! The stress of homeschooling is over. The governor in Washington just announced that schools will be taking students in for a physical open in the fall. Ahhhh!!!

You deserve a break! You've worked hard doing multiple jobs for 3 months straight. Go ahead and plan that getaway!!

Today's learning topic is for when you come back rejuvenated from break and the kids are settling into their summer routine. Just before they start in with the "I'm bored" statements. Today's topic is about reducing kid frustration and increasing their cooperativeness through environmental arrangement.

Specifically, environmental arrangement is …

Happy Memorial Day!

I wanted to spend some time with you today reflecting on values.  Values inherently lead us to think about the past and future. Many military women and men have died in the past to give us this future.  What is pursuing happiness if not pursuing your values?  Through my practice of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), I more and more become aware of my pursuit of happiness, my freedom to become the person I might most aspire to be. 

And let's be honest... I become more aware of my drive to be who I intentionally set out to be because I'm older and wiser. Every day.  Tomorrow I may shift my aim just a bit because yet again I'll be older and wiser.  I'll learn from my past because of my commitment to these values.

I recently had a conversation with my sister about this very topic.  She told me that she never thinks about how she is intentionally developing herself or creating her pathway across life.  She just notices things about herself, and simply accepts that she is who she is.  As a psychologist, that's soooo different from me.  I have to admit she has great self-esteem. 

I notice through my training, I've become aware of the small flinches of unhelpful thoughts that distract me, the uncomfortable feelings that can paralyze me, or the small habits that can become a lifetime of inaction. I would say I have "realistic" self-esteem.  My sister is very happy, and so am I.  She is very present-moment centered, whereas I try to see the thread connecting myself from the past, to the present, to the future.

ACT is said as the word, to mean "doing."  Today's video takes you through a brief exercise that allows you to experience the future you tied by a thread to today's you.  By finding what really stands out as important to you across a lifetime, you find your values.  

An interesting feature of ACT, and what I really appreciate in my sister, is the ability to give nonjudgmental acceptance to present-moment thoughts and feelings, even when they're uncomfortable. If you do the exercise and you find you're out of alignment with a cherished value, it may be uncomfortable.  Just like my sister, accepting the uncomfortable feelings brings a sense of accepting who you are in totality.

What's most interesting about ACT, is if you can see the invisible thread from who you are now to the future you that you cherish, you'll know exactly how you'll want to act to get there.  It's like your own personal map for life.

In sum, the acceptance part and the commitment part of act are both important.  We're living beings moving along on a journey.  I hope you enjoy this brief educational exercise.  It's designed to help you understand what ACT is.  If you want to learn more, you can establish services with an ACT provider in your state.

Warmly,
Dr. Blevins

Dr. Blevins discusses the new sex education requirements in Washington state for kindergarten through third grades. She focuses on the new requirements and how this relates to what we know about human development in regards to healthy relationships. She also provides information to support parents in taking charge of their children's sex education at home, providing information about why it is important, a book to help guide the conversation, and how the state's new standards fit in.

I'm so excited to share with you a new e-learning tool I've developed, the How to Teach Your Child Directions e-Learning Packet. It is a free step-by-step guide of how to give effective directions to young children and how to respond to them to increase child compliance. The packet is for parents and teachers. It goes through the rationale for each step and gives examples and non-examples. I also give you pro-tips for creating your own two-week plan for using what you learn and noticing the change in your child and yourself. When you sign up to get the packet, you'll also get five emailed pro-tip videos across two weeks giving you additional information on how to stay motivated and effectively use the packet information. The e-learning packet is based on information from applied behavior analysis, acceptance and commitment therapy, and parent-child interaction therapy.

Functional academics are the basic life skills that academic learning helps us to do competently. This gets right to the point of academics. It's where the classroom meets real life. Does your child understand why and how they might use academics in real life? Homeschooling can be fun because you can focus on exploring more rather than rote practice. Maybe you do some FUN activities at home to demonstrate the usefulness of academics (while getting them to do a little reading or math). This includes cooking, grocery shopping, fixing things around the house, getting dressed, learning routines, etc. These types of activities build math skills, reading, organization, memory, and social skills. You can go to previous Enilda Clinic videos about praise to learn more about how to really target these skills when you're doing functional academics. Be creative and take pressure off yourself and your child to sit for hours doing school work by focusing on the functional parts of academics.

Many parents want their children to understand the underlying values behind apologizing or saying "I'm sorry". They try to help their children to engage in apologizing by encouraging the behavior from an early age. But often I see a paradoxical effect where children experience resentment, agitation, anger, and relationship distancing when they are made to apologize. This video discusses how parents can decide for themselves what values they intentionally want to teach by encouraging the behavior of apologizing, and how to teach apologizing to emphasize those values with toddlers and preschoolers. We discuss modeling, praise, approximations of the goal behavior, rehearsing, and value labeling as strategies parents may want to consider.

Dr. Blevins tells you how she's engaging in self-care this week. Needs may change as the pandemic changes or isolation is prolonged. Each person should consider where they need support in their life and strive to create ways to provide self-compassion and active coping through self-care that best suits them.

Dr. Blevins' personal strategies include:

1. Taking time for personal life every day. No more workaholic lifestyle. 2. Doing physical tasks/activities that create an inner monologue of caring for one's self, like cleaning the home, doing fun personal grooming, etc. 3. Daily outside exercise 4. Creating space for normal everyday topics 5. Using a heating pad as recommended by a pharmacist to reduce eye strain and tension headaches from increased online work 6. Call people in my social network more often. Recognizing that they are wanting the support as much as me.

In this learning video, Dr. Blevins discusses how parents can support their learners to complete less preferred or more difficult tasks easier by arranging them to occur just before tasks the learner is likely to complete. Do Harder/Less Preferred Tasks, then do easier/More Preferred Tasks. A big take away of this video is that during this difficult time, parents should give themselves self-compassion with creating an academic schedule that works for their family. Not everyone will be able to do what their schools asks of them, and that's okay. Find what works for you and your child. Hopefully small organizational and prevention strategies will help you all to get through this trying time easier. Squirrel Cat is heard in the video hunting for treats in her puzzle box.

Have some fun while staying home for the next few weeks. Dr. Blevins demonstrates a simple experiment to help kids visualize how easy it is for germs to spread as well as how thoroughly you need to hand wash to get them off. Cinnamon is used to help kids see how germs spread. Dr. Blevins is providing parenting, behavioral, and coping support educational resources over the next few weeks as a special topic in her educational learning video series.

Can you be gifted and have a specific learning disorder, like dyslexia or dyscalculia, or even ADHD? Sure can! This is often called "Twice Exceptional." The symptoms look different for children who are gifted, and parents and teachers will still want to identify and support these children. You can reduce imbalanced school-life activity, inefficient work and study habits, and promote positive self-esteem by helping gifted children to understand how to self-advocate and to show themselves compassion.

I'm discussing the prevention of tantrums in young kids thru the use of language building. I'll specifically hit on Functional Communication Training, or teaching your child to use language to get their needs met instead of using the tantrum behavior. This is a preventive strategy designed to help the kid see language as an easier and more effective means to getting what they want than tantruming.

Remember that all Enilda Clinic learning videos are just for educational purposes. If you have a specific concern, ask your child's pediatrician about how to proceed or seek specialized support by establishing services with a specialized provider. Enilda Clinic is home to Dr. Leslie Blevins, a licensed psychologist and BCBA-D in Spokane Wa serving children and parents. Learn more at EnildaClinic.com or call at 509-844-0002. We're located at 705 W 7th Ave, Ste D, Spokane, WA 99204.

I chat with many parents who are concerned about their child's use of video games. In today's learning video I discuss what signs to look out for that may indicate you want to change things up at home related to video games, a framework for thinking about video games in the context of other life activities, and whether video games can be thought of as addictive.

Dr. Blevins is discussing educational therapy. Specifically she focuses on ed therapy to help with executive dysfunction, or managing time, space, and mental resources to be successful in academics. She talks about how this can help your child love learning again, build and keep your relationship with them strong, and help them to be more efficient so they can live life.

Dr. Blevins describes Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, which is a therapy used with young children and their parents to address numerous behavioral and mood difficulties as well as parent-child attachment. Learn more about Dr. Blevins child psychology practice, including assessment and therapy, at EnildaClinic.com. Enilda Clinic is located at 705 W 7th Ave, Ste.

Help your child have a great sleep routine that improves sleep onset, restfulness, and attachment with you! Learn more about child psychology, child therapy, and child behavior at EnildaClinic.com

Dr. Blevins discusses how your everyday talk increases your baby, toddler, and preschooler's understanding of cause-and-effect and helps them build emotional awareness. Learn more about child development and behavior at EnildaClinic.com.

Let's talk about getting your kid's shoes on and getting out the door! We're using a rapid praising technique in this video to motivate your child to follow through with a command. Learn more about Dr. Blevins' child behavior specialty practice and parent supports at EnildaClinic.com.

Dr. Blevins talks with parents about teaching their children to stay in their rooms until an appropriate morning hour, allowing parents to get much needed sleep! Learn more about Dr. Blevins and her child behavior specialist practice in Spokane, Washington at EnildaClinic.com

Parents can use praise to build up a routine, model steps in routines, and teach their children cues to start a routine independently. Help yourself and your little one have a great, relaxing day! Learn more about Dr. Blevins at EnildaClinic.com.

Dr. Leslie Blevins, in Spokane Washington, explains a values-centered approach for parents to help their children transition in the afternoon from school to home. This helps build attachment, reduce irritability, and improve homework and evening routine engagement. Dr. Blevins completes psychoeducational assessment with children and teens, and works with young children and their parents in therapy.

Dr. Blevins discusses praising as a tool to teach children values as well as to curtail "bad" behaviors. This is one video in a series on praising. To learn more about Dr. Blevins and her child psychology and parent support practice in Spokane, Washington, go to EnildaClinic.com.