This is a spotlight feature on Autism Acceptance from one of our own teammates with autism. We cherish her and thank her for sharing her experience and beautiful poem.

There’s a moment in this work that never gets old. A parent tears up. A child beams. We hand over a certificate, take a picture by the door, and say goodbye — and we mean it as the highest compliment we know how to give. That moment — graduation day — is the whole point of what we do at Thrive n Play. We are not in the business of keeping children in therapy. We are in the business of getting children out of therapy — equipped, confident, and ready for whatever comes next.

If you've ever received a note from a teacher about your child's handwriting, or watched your child struggle to button a jacket while other kids zip through it, you've likely wondered about motor skills. Occupational therapists talk about fine motor and gross motor development constantly — but what do those terms actually mean, and how do you know if your child needs support? What Are Gross Motor Skills? Gross motor skills involve the large muscle groups of the body — the leg

Mealtime should be one of the most connecting parts of a family's day. But for many parents of children with feeding challenges, it's one of the most dreaded. If your child refuses most foods, gags at new textures, or melts down at the dinner table, you may be dealing with a feeding aversion — and it's more treatable than you might think. What Is a Feeding Aversion? A feeding aversion is a persistent avoidance of foods — or entire categories of foods — driven by sensory sensi