Self Care Season: Personal Hygiene and Grooming

Hair washing, toothbrushing, brushing knots out, nail cutting … these “everyday” hygiene tasks can turn into the most stressful part of the day, especially when a child is juggling sensory sensitivities, balance challenges, motor planning, and the mental load of sequencing. We’re finishing our self-care season by getting practical about personal hygiene and grooming, with simple OT strategies that help kids feel safer and more in control while they build real independence.

We talk hair from every angle: figuring out which step is the sticky one, and what strategies we can use to make it that bit easier!  We also plan for problems before they happen, so “water in the eyes” becomes “pause, wipe, then continue” instead of frustrations for all. For brushing hair, we cover wet brushing, leave-in conditioner, starting from the ends, using mirrors for body awareness, and setting expectations so the experience stays positive.

Then we move into toothbrushing and nail cutting with a focus on visuals, consistent language scripts, and sensory-friendly options. We share ideas like electric toothbrushes, toothpaste flavour experiments (including mild or flavourless), plaque-disclosing tablets for feedback, trimming nails after a bath, adaptive clippers, and supportive seating. If you want a calmer hygiene routine that still moves the needle on self-care skills, hit play, subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review. 

If you found these OT toileting tips helpful, don't forget to leave a review and share the podcast around with anyone that you think could benefit from it and follow me on @bellesotcorner on instagram and Facebook for more insights. If you would like to donate and support the podcast - https://studio.buymeacoffee.com/dashboard 

DISCLAIMER:
Whilst I will always make evert effort to share correct information as at the date of the podcast, research is constantly happening and as a profession we learn more everyday. One therapist may have a different way of doing things to another, and every child's needs are unique. By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others Consult your child's paediatrician or therapist for any recommendations for your child.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

And welcome back to Bell's OT Corner. Today we have our final episode of our self-care season, and we're going to be jumping into all things personal hygiene, grooming, looking more at like your washing of hair, brushing hair, cutting nails, brushing teeth, those sorts of um activities is what we're going to be diving into today. So we're going to look at what are some tips and tricks that are specific to each of the different self-care activities, but also looking more generally into some of those strategies that really we can apply to any different situation. They're ones that I've talked about a little bit over the this season as well, and a bit more generally. You notice there'll start to be some common themes across these episodes. But you know, things like how we're getting our body sensory systems ready for the activity, what's the prep that we're doing so that we understand what's happening and know what to do if something goes wrong or if there's something that I don't like, what are kind of our prescripts that we're going to use to help our understanding of what's happening, how are we going to do the problem solving through it so that we're figuring it out together instead of being told what to do? We'll go into them more in a bit of detail. But yeah, so it'll be some specifics and just general little strategies and ideas to try for each of the different tasks, um, but then also a little bit of the general strategies as well. So first we're gonna jump into talking about our hair. So washing our hair, brushing our hair, haircuts, all of those bits. Now, I'm gonna touch on some specifics first, and then we'll kind of talk a bit more about general strategies at the end. When we think about specifics and if we look at washing our hair first, one of the things that we want to think about is what are the steps that are tricky? What are the bits of this activity that are challenging for your child? Is it that they find it tricky to know the order of steps and the sequence of steps? Is it that they find it tricky to complete the fine motor part of getting, you know, my hands all the way behind my head, so I need a little bit of my proprioceptive awareness to know where my head is and be able to do my hands behind my head and checking that all I've got all the soap suds out after I've put the shampoo and conditioner in? Is it that actually they find it really tricky to tip their head backwards and they find that they lose their balance a little bit, in which case we could look at sitting down. So we want to break down in terms of and be really curious around which part of washing our hair is tricky because that's gonna help us figure out where we're gonna start and how we're gonna support. Because similar to dressing, where you know I talked about using steps of backwards chaining, where you do all of it and they do the last bit, a great way to build confidence is for you to support your child to do the bits that they feel confident in and then go, that's right, that this bit's tricky, so I'm gonna help for this bit, and then over time pairing back your support as their confidence grows. So some things that you can think about, let's say you know the balance part's really tricky, but they really want to have a go at washing their own hair, is could we start with just washing the ends of the hair? So they can bring their hair around to their shoulder where they can see it, and you can practice just washing those bits so I don't have to have water running over my head, I don't have to worry about it going into my eyes, it's just there in front of me, and I can wash what watch what I'm doing and then wash it out, and then I mum or dad can help with doing the top of our head. If what you're finding is really tricky is looking at the water running into their eyes. What a lot of people find helpful is instead of having to wash our hair, let's say we're in the shower and we're standing, is actually looking at well, can we sit down on something? Can I give myself a bigger base of support and more stability whilst I tip my head back a little bit? You know, there's the great trick of Mum or Dad putting their hand over your forehead to help catch the water. But could we help and have them put their hands there so they can protect their eyes as well? But also alongside this is this idea of well, what's our shared problem solving? So, okay, we're gonna do your head now, but if you feel some water get into your eyes, what are we gonna do? Let's plan that out before we even step into the water or before we even start washing our hair. So we you know it could be having a cloth there. And so that we say, right, if you start to feel your eyes get stingy, or if you start to think there's water coming close to your eyes, you can tell me, Oh, we need to pause. We pause, we wipe our eyes, and then we go again. So thinking about what are some of the uh parts of washing our hair that are going to be tricky and what's a solution that we can use to be able to have that pause, but know that we're gonna come back to the activity. Is it that we're just gonna do it really fast and we're gonna, you know, say, right, we're gonna have ten seconds and we're gonna get as much of our hair washed out in ten seconds as possible. And you go really fast, lots of big sweeping actions, bringing our hair back, and then we're done. And then we can check our hair and go, do you know what? It's clean enough for today. We got enough of the soap suds out, or do you know what there's a little bit more, but there it's the end of your hair. So we can either use a handheld shower hose if you have one of those, or we can use a cup full of water to help it tip out the rest of the way. And again, think about where we can create predictability and control in this. So things like having a cup of water that we can tip from, or a water bottle that's got like a like a sports water bottle that's squeezy, that's got the little cap to it. And you can use that because that can direct where the water goes so that you can make it a little bit easier to control and know exactly where the water is gonna wash off the back of your hair. Think about starting with just water before we build up to soap suds and shampoo and conditioner, and looking at just playing around with the feeling of water through our hair and talking about what that feels like, so bringing in that introspective awareness so they know when oh yeah, that feels okay, that feels nice, oh that's making me feel a little funny. I don't know how I feel about that, and oop, that's too much, I need to pause for a minute. And bringing in this language of it's okay to pause for a minute, but we can come back to it. And in those pauses, that's when we can do all of our reassurance, our co-regulation support, a lot of our wow, that was tricky, but you know what, you did such a good job of telling me that you needed a break, we're gonna take a minute, and when you're ready, we're gonna do it again. And I'm gonna be here and I'm gonna help. And that's how you're gonna create those positive experiences of solving it together. Then there's the component of the kind of planning and sequencing bit of it. So it could be you know, I've worked with some children where they benefit most by just the physical environment setup. So on the edge of the bath, they had uh shampoo first, then they had a cup, so they knew they had to wash it out, then they had sha then they had conditioner, and then they had a cup, so they knew they had to wash it out. And that way they could independently go through each of the steps that they needed to do. In other cases, visuals work really well so we can know all the steps that I need to do within shower time, particularly around washing my hair. I've worked with some where we had to do a you know wash, rinse, check, and then we had a, you know, if clean, keep going, if dirty, rinse and check again. And so it's that idea of what are the steps that we naturally as adults start to do, but where's the bit that we're finding it is challenging for your child, and how can we give the supports to help build their independence and build their confidence within it? Because that's what we want. We don't want every time we have to wash our hair to end up with, you know, tears and finding it really tricky and it being a really stressful time, not just for your child but for yourself as well. We want to have those wins and that feeling of confidence of oh, I did that and I've managed that by myself. Another one is looking at how much shampoo and conditioner we use. I've heard of many great tips and tricks over the years for this, you know, going to pump bottles, and so we practice that, you know, your hair needs one big pump or two big pumps, and that's all that you need. I've seen kids that have like a spoon, like a um tablespoon measure when they're in the bath so that they can pump and fill that up, and then they know that's how much they need. You know, you can have pictures on the wall to help. I had one it also helped with cleaning, but one kid that I worked with who before he got in the bath would draw a circle on his hand because he knew that he could fill up that circle and it would be enough to wash his hair, but then it would also remind him to wash his hands afterwards. And over time he didn't need that circle anymore, and he got used to how much he needed and could figure out if it was new or not enough in his hair, or oh today I put too much in, and that just means I need to wash my hair a little bit more and rinse it out a little bit more afterwards. And oftentimes you can get your child involved in this, like, hmm, this is really tricky. Let's see, and like you as the adult can go, right, how much shampoo do we need again? Is it one pump? Let's do that. Does that look like enough? Let's try it, let's put it in your hair. It's not quite enough. I think we need some more. And again, it's these opportunities of a narrating what we're doing, so we as the adult aren't getting it right every time, but we're actually creating some problems in what we're doing so that we can model fixing the problems, model getting it wrong, and model going, ooh, that's alright, I can do this instead to make it a bit easier. So that's just a couple little tips and tricks that you can try specific to washing our hair in terms of some strategies, but I'm sure you'll come up with there's thousands out there, absolutely thousands. And it's similar when we look at brushing our hair. So, number one tip that I always say is brush your hair when wet whenever possible, because it's just easy to do. And you can use a bit of leave-in conditioner, makes it a bit smoother and can run it through. Also looking at where we're starting to brush our hair from, you know, pulling your hair around and starting from the base of your hair, particularly for girls, and brushing out those knots before you move up to the top, and also explicitly teaching them that. So not just naturally doing it, say, hey, so you've got a lot of knots in your hair today, and that's okay. It's just because you've been having so much fun rolling around doing all these things, our hair gets knotty, it happens, but so that it just doesn't, you know, pull on your head too much, we're gonna start at the bottom and you can have a try. And when you feel it's starting to pull, let me know, because then I can be extra careful. Or, you know, teaching them to hold their hair close to their scalp so that it doesn't pull on their scalp as much, and instead it pulls on just against their hand a little bit more. So thinking about, you know, again, problem solving through together, what's the bit that's causing the challenge here, and how can we make it easier together? You can also use a spray bottle to wet down hair a little bit. So, you know, if you haven't had a bathroom shower that day, but it's the morning and we need to brush the hair, spray rolls are great. Bit of moisture in the hair, helps with brushing and makes it a lot easier. Looking at like role-playing or like have giving them time to brush mum's hair, you know, or brush a doll's hair, is a really great time to practice some of these things with the explicit teaching alongside it. So the piece of we're going when you brush hair, if you start at the top, it can get knotty, particularly if you've got, you know, curly hair or different types of hair. Um, I say curly hair, but my sister had straight hair and she had the biggest knots out of the family. Um, but typically curly hair can cause some more knots. So looking at, you know, how is it that your child is going to need to brush their hair and problem solving it together, going, oh, it didn't really work when we brushed it that way last time. So I wonder if this time when we brush it, if we start from maybe the middle and we do a couple brushes there. Or is it that actually we're gonna use our fingers first and we're gonna gently rake our fingers through our hair to help just get it all kind of organized before I come in with a finer brush? Or is it that actually a finger brush of your hair is enough and you don't need to do a really fine brush of your hair? So thinking about again, looking at it together of going, well, where are the bits that are tricky and where are the bits that are easy? With all of these, we want to be helping the children to do as much as they can and give them a choice and control over it. So thinking about what are, and this is a more general strategy because this is for everything we're talking about today and most of what we've been talking about across the self-care season, but what are the moments where we can talk it through and go, okay, would you want to try with your fingers first or the brush? You can choose, and then they use a brush and go, I don't think this one's working that well. Maybe we should try something different. What could we try now? If it's you know time to brush their hair, and you go, Do you want to have water in your hair today or do you want to try without? And sometimes we might be a bit more directive and go, do you want to have a little bit of water or a lot of water in your hair today? Because we know that the water is going to make it easier to brush, but they've still got a bit of control on it. As they get more independent with it, you might then start to think, well, how much? You tell me when it's enough. And let me tell you, this can sometimes get a bit messy because you go, you tell me when it's enough, and you could be spraying and their hair could be dripping, but let those mistakes happen. So think about the times when we're doing this. So we make that mistake and go, oh my goodness, now your hair is soaked. So we're gonna need to it works, we brushed it, but now we have to gonna go and get the towel and dry it together, and those are your fantastic learning opportunities for them. When we go, well, next time we brush your hair, maybe we could have a little bit less water to help. Or you know, if we've been brushing and starting at the top and we go, oh that that's looking like it's a bit sore. So maybe next time when we brush our hair, we can start from the bottom first. Another really nice one that when you're looking at building some independence is having um a mirror around, so either doing it in the bathroom in front of a mirror, even using your phone and putting it on so it can look at you, and so that you can then see what movements you're doing, particularly for your child to be able to see what movements they're doing as they start to build up their own awareness. Because if we think about it in terms of our sensory systems, anything that we're doing behind our head is using a lot of our proprioceptive awareness, so our body awareness of where we are in space, and if that is tricky for your child, having to do it and do the task of managing to brush my hair at the same time can be really challenging. Whereas setting them up in front of a mirror just gives additional biofeedback of this is how close your hand is to your head, and this is you know where your brush is in relation to your hand, in relation to your head, to make it a bit easier for those successes. And also, if brushing is really tricky, set expectations for how much we're gonna do. If you've got a really big knot in your hair, no one wants to stand there for half an hour while you have to get it undone. So you might say, Do you know what? You've had so much fun playing today, you've got a very big knot in your hair. So we're gonna do five minutes of it now, and then you can go and have a play, and then tonight before you go to bed, we're gonna do another five minutes. Or we're gonna do, you know, five minutes of brushing, and whatever we get from five minutes of brushing is what we're gonna have. And it might be five minutes in the morning, five minutes in the afternoon. You break up and set expectations of how long we're gonna do this, and if it means that a full brush doesn't happen, that's okay. They're gonna be okay. And i I'd always rather have positive experiences as much as possible, particularly if we've gone through something tricky, because that's how we're gonna slowly be able to extend out from you know, maybe you start with two minutes of brushing and then you get really good at two minutes of brushing, then you know what? You're doing so well with your brushing. I reckon we can do three minutes today. Maybe we can do four minutes today, and you start to extend out the time because they've had those wins and had those successes. So that's brushing our hair, washing our hair. It's the same with haircuts as well. If haircuts are particularly tricky, considering what we're doing before the haircut, so can we give some proprio receptive input? Can we give some body awareness to help them calm their nervous system and help them get ready for it? But also looking and advocating for your child and be like, hey, we're just gonna take a break for a minute, and that's okay. Alrighty. So, onto brushing our teeth. Now, some of these you'll notice start to get a little bit repetitive, but the kind of general strategies we look at are things like offering choices where possible, using a visual schedule to help you sequence out the steps involved, and that might be as simple as you know, tooth toothpaste on toothbrush, brush for one minute, brush for one minute, brush for one minute, in terms like I brush the sides for one minute, I brush my front for one minute, I brush the other side for one minute, or it could be as you know broken down in terms of I'm gonna get my toothbrush, I'm gonna measure out this much toothpaste, and then I'm gonna, you know, put it on my left side and I'm gonna go backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards, and then I'm gonna go the sides of my teeth, so I'm gonna go up and down and up and down in little circles. So you can break it down to whatever level is needed for your child, and again, the bits that you're gonna provide the extra information for are the bits that they're finding tricky. Is it that they're finding it tricky to remember to brush both sides of their mouth? Is it that they're going too fast? Is it that they forget to put enough toothpaste on? These are the bits that we're gonna be focusing on with little reminders through our schedules instead of just trying to do it all at once. Because all at once is too much for everyone. Little baby steps, little increases in independence all the way until actually brushing our teeth isn't as tricky anymore. The other one that's really good is keeping consistent language throughout, and this is for yeah, everything that we're talking about today, so it's a bit more of a general strategy. But if we're looking at brushing our teeth, what are the words that we're gonna use? Is it I'm gonna go round and round and round and round? Is it I'm gonna go up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down? Is it that I'm gonna go forwards, backwards, forwards, backwards, forwards, backwards? What's the words that are gonna help? And also you can have your child involved in this, be like, right, we need to remember to do this sort of thing. What are we gonna call this? And you know, they could call it anything. I One child that I was working with called it the rocket blast, because he would, you know, he struggled to make sure his toothbrush got all the way to the back of his teeth. So he would do the rocket blast of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 all the way until he got to the back of his teeth, and then he'd bring it back and he'd do the rocket blast on the bottom side and the rocket blast on the top, each side making sure that he got all the way to the back because that's the bit that he found tricky. And it stuck with me, and it stuck with him, and sure enough, with his rocket blast, he was starting to be able to brush his teeth independently. Now, is rocker blast gonna work for many other people? Maybe, maybe not, but doesn't really matter what your child decides to call it, even if it is the most random description you can think of, if it works for them and it helps them remember, that's what we want to be using, and we want to keep that language consistent. Or if you've given them a bit of a rote script in terms of round and round and round and round and round and round and round, and we might say that three or four times to get one side clean, make sure we're keeping that consistent as well, so that they're not having to think about what do those words mean, instead, I know what those words mean to help me with brushing my teeth. The other general strategies as well, and I kind of mentioned this before, but using a mirror so they can see what they're doing. I know it sounds silly, but actually making sure they can see themselves in the mirror, so having a little step so they can actually watch what they're doing and they can see, you know, have I brushed my bottom right, have I brushed my bottom left, etc. etc. And then also looking at is there anything if brushing teeth is a particularly tricky task for them, and we think about it from our sensory um systems perspective, is there anything we can do before we get to brushing our teeth so that we're in a more regulated and more ready state to do the tricky task? So, for example, if let's say for your child, bath time, shower time, dressing really tricky, they're working on their own dependence, but it could be really frustrating. If we then add brushing teeth on the end of that, we're probably gonna need an activity before just to break it up. And that could be anything from a heavy work activity, like jump back into the proprioceptive episode around this, it could be a little bit of, you know, silly dance playtime, it could be that we're gonna do some animal walks up and down the hallway in between each of these. It could be that we're just gonna take a minute and have a cuddle and have a bit of a reset together, but thinking about your child's capacity to engage in something, if it is something they find it tricky to have the most, the highest chance of success. And if that is that we stretch it out or that we do it later in the day and we go, do you know what? You've done so well doing all these things, we're gonna come back and brush our teeth later because we know that that's been so much, or is it that actually the bit that we want to do is build the independence in brushing your teeth, in which case can we do more of the dressing? Can we do more of the bath time so that by the time we get to brushing our teeth, we're ready for it and I have the capacity to take on that challenge. And that could be for any task. So just thinking about where we want the pockets of independence and where we want to be able to focus that attention. And are we in a state that means we're gonna be ready to do that? In terms of some specific strategies for brushing our teeth, so vibrating toothbrushes can be fantastic. So, like your electric toothbrush that's gonna have a little bit of vibration to it, can be a really nice one to help and support with brushing teeth. It also can help for children that do find it tricky in terms of their motor skills to be able to get the five motor skills, sorry, to be able to get the actions involved. Also, chat. To your dentists and having really open and honest conversations with your dentist around, you know, let's say your child's really struggling with the sensation of a toothbrush in their mouth. There are different types of toothbrushes you can use out there. There are ones that are really soft, there are ones that go, it's kind of got like three sides to it. I can't remember what they call it off the top of my head, but they go all the way around the tooth. You know, there's some silicon ones that can um help with kind of desensitization around the mouth and help with, well, not desensitization, that's the wrong word, but help with exploring sensations around the mouth and helping building up that kind of comfort and understanding of what these feelings are inside my mouth. Um, you know, having these chats with your dentist around any other supports that might be there, but also if your child has an occupational therapist talking to occupational therapist as well, around for your child, is there any specific prep activities that we can do to support them to be ready for this sensation in their mouth? Speaking of sensations and sensory experiences, consider the toothpaste that you're using. Not many kids actually like the really strong minty flavor, and also some of the children's flavours that are either ridiculously sweet or they're supposed to taste like strawberry often don't. Um, and so you know, use that time to explore together. And there are now some really nice flavourless toothpastes as well. So you can play around with different toothpaste that might have tastes that are a little bit um easier for your child to accept instead of as tastes that they don't like, and so they're struggling with the taste they don't like, let alone having to do the action and brushing their teeth as well. Um another one that you can get that I really enjoy, particularly for some of the older children as they're building their independence and brushing their teeth, particularly for those that like rush through and go, choo-choo choo, see, I'm done. Um, there are tablets that you can take, like chewy little things that um colour plaque on your teeth, and so you can see where your teeth are dirty, and so then you can actively clean off the dirt off your teeth. I know you don't need to do this every time, but it's a really nice one to do and actually do together as well, because then you can both have a look and say, Oh, look, you know, I didn't actually clean my teeth that well this morning, or look at how much is built up on my teeth over today, and so let's see how long I have to brush to get my teeth clean and how long you are going to brush to get your teeth clean. You know, make it a bit fun, make it a little bit playful. It's not a shaming thing, it's a let's look and learn together of how much we need to actually brush our teeth until they're clean, and also to help build that understanding of even though we can't always see that our teeth are dirty, our teeth need our help to keep them clean as well. Other ones that you can do is look at um modeling and watching videos to help support their understanding, so like they can watch you brush their teeth, they can try and brush your teeth, you can watch a video of brushing teeth together. There are thousands of kid brushing videos, and you can look at how different people do it, and also you could play the video whilst you brush your teeth, so we're doing it alongside each other, particularly if they have a uh area of particular interest, finding a video that's in line with that interest, and then we can brush our teeth together in line with that. They typically have different sing songs that you can sing along to whilst you're doing it, it's just bringing that playful element in. But also the great bit about videos and what they do is similar to visual sequences, is they take the cognitive load out of it because I don't need to think about what I'm doing next. I'm following what the video is doing, or I'm following what the visual's telling me to do. So I just have to focus on using my body to coordinate the movements and follow something as opposed to having to think of have I done this side, have I done that side, have I done the front? Did I get another toothpaste on? All of those thoughts are a little bit easier for us as well. So then we're on to cutting nails. And when we think about cutting our toenails or cutting our fingernails, for a lot of kids, this is a feeling they don't really like. And also for a lot of adults, it's a feeling they don't really like, particularly, and I encourage you as an adult to um have you know your partner, your husband, your kids, your wife, whomever, to cut your nails for you, it's quite an odd feeling. And I know that you know, particularly even like if you go to the um nail salon, you get your nails done, you might get a bit more used to it, but if you don't, a lot of the time, particularly if you've got like thicker nails and it's quite a push to cut through the nail, it can be quite a disconcerting feeling at times. But as soon as you have control over it, it can be a lot easier. So, again, thinking about the piece around choice and control, thinking about the piece of talking about how it feels and going, oh, this is something different. What does it feel like? It feels like a bit of pressure, okay. Well, pressure is okay, but if it starts to hurt, that's different. And starting to talk about what it might feel like to help them understand what's happening. Also, looking at, you know, doing it at a time that it's gonna be easier. So after bath and shower time, often your nails are gonna be a bit softer than during the day, and so building it into a part of that routine to go, your nails are nice and soft now, so we're just gonna give them a little trim. There's heaps and heaps of adaptive equipment out there that you can look at as well, um, that can help with a bit of independence within cutting our nails that make uh instead of the small nail clippers that can be really fiddly, they have ones with bigger handles onto them to make it a little bit easier to cut their nails as well. So do have a look around at some of the adaptive equipment that is available. One of the more general strategies, and this, you know, you can kind of tell that this applies to a lot of activities that we've been talking about in a lot of your self-care tasks, but think about the clear expectations of what's happening. And so, is it that we're gonna do two fingers and that's it? One, two, and then we're done. Is it that we're gonna do it for five minutes? Is it that we're gonna do it while we're doing something else we really like doing to have a little bit of distraction in there as well? Is it that actually a countdown can help? So we're gonna do this for ten seconds. So we're just gonna count to ten, and as soon as we get to ten, we stop. Now, when you're doing countdowns, it's really important that you do stop when you say stop. But sometimes you might need to just ever so slightly draw out the countdown so you don't stop with a half finished cut nail. Because then that can be more annoying than helpful as well. Think about exploring the clippers together. Have a look at what they do, how they can cut something, have them cut mum or dad's nails to see what happens, you know, and you can talk about where it's gonna be too short and where we're actually just gonna take just a little bit off, just a little bit, and each time if we do just a little bit instead of having to do a big nail cut. And also, I don't know if you guys have ever cut your nails a little bit too short, but they can feel really weird afterwards for a little bit while you just get used to not having that length of fingernail again. And so talk about that sensation, but like it's okay, the nails gonna grow back, but it just feels a bit different. Mine feel like this, you know. I feel like I can't do my tappy tappy anymore if you look user fingernails tapping on the table. And think about you know talking through these things so they're less scary and we're making them more predictable and more familiar. The other thing to think about as well, particularly for our little kitties that are still building their core strength and their postural stability, is looking at how we're sitting when we're doing our nails. Can we be in a supportive seat, even if that's cuddled into your lap where you're physically supporting them in their posture so they're not having to work so hard to keep themselves upright? All of these little tweaks that we can do to help them in how they're sitting. And again, it's this idea of if we can do more for them, they can then focus on the bit that's tricky in terms of cutting their nails. So, little bit of a jumpy episode today between all the different tasks, but the key takeaways really are we want to make these things fun, we want to make these things predictable, and as much as possible, we want to do our problem solving together and modeling making mistakes, modeling, getting it wrong, modeling figuring it out together, because the more that we get them involved in the problem solving and alongside doing some explicit teaching of this is how we do this activity, is where you're gonna start to see them feeling really confident in having it go, but also really confident in what to do when it goes wrong. And that way when I know what to do if it goes wrong, my stress goes down a lot because going wrong is okay, because I know what I need to do to navigate around that, even if that is as simple as asking for help and getting help from mum or dad. And that doesn't mean that you know we need the child children to say, Can I have some help, please? It could be that they look towards you and you go, Oh no, did something happen? That's alright, let's figure it out. Or they could reach out towards you and you go, Oh no, we had a problem. What's happened? Let's see. Oh, I can see. You got some soap in your eyes. That's okay. Here we go, here's a cloth, let's clean our eyes, and we're scripting the solution for them. And over time, the more that we script those solutions, the more they're gonna be able to come up with them themselves. If we get it right every time, every single time, when it goes wrong, it's a catastrophe because I don't know how to problem solve through this. But actually, if as we've been learning, we've been playing around and we've been getting things wrong and making some mistakes and being a bit silly through it. Well, now I know how to start to figure things out and I know that you're gonna help me and that you're on my side and you're gonna figure it out with me, and I don't have to do all the thinking and the figuring out myself because we're in this together. Alrighty guys, well, that brings us to the end of our self-care season. Next season that we're gonna be doing is gonna be a season on executive functioning skills. So you can tell I love a good bit of problem solving and how we build some independence and problem solving, but also looking at executive functioning in terms of sequencing and planning and what to do if my plan doesn't work, and there's a big long list of things. But that will be the next season that we're gonna jump into together. But I hope you guys all have a lovely rest of your day. I hope you have a fantastic week, and I will speak to you guys soon. Thanks. Bye.