e059 – The Part-Time Jungle Podcast: Your Child’s Story with Sabrina Adair

What is the best way to understand and communicate with our child? Sometimes it may feel like they are not listening or are trying to purposely make us upset, but that simply isn’t always the case. What is key is understanding our child's story.  Joining me for this conversation is Sabrina Adair, M.Sc.O.T., a practicing occupational therapist, passionate advocate for parent empowerment, and the author of Understanding a Child the Occupational Therapy Way: Recognizing and Communicating the Unique Potential of a Child (2021). She is a mom of four beautiful children who have taught her patience, perseverance, and compassion and that we’re all wonderfully unique individuals with our own unfolding stories.  Sabrina’s experience working with children has inspired her drive for innovation and inter-professional collaboration. In 2019, she founded Enabling Adaptations, a private therapy company focused on helping parents and caregivers to find ways to effectively understand and communicate their child’s needs in order to create positive environments where children can reach their greatest potential.  Sabrina is an award-winning entrepreneur and shares her successful approach to improving children’s lives at speaking engagements, parenting workshops, and more. Sabrina holds a post-professional Master of Science in Occupational Therapy from Dalhousie University and a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Sabrina resides just outside Toronto, Ontario, with her husband and children. Listen in as we talk about: Living by ‘the schedule’. Sabrina shares that with four busy kids, activities, and lives, living by their schedule is what keeps them on track every week. How to better understand your children and their stories. Sabrina explains how as parents, we need to start by understanding ourselves in order to understand our children. Being curious with your children. For Sabrina, the key is having this curiosity with our children. It gives us more time to pause instead of making rash and judgmental decisions. Strategies to help communicate your child’s story to other people. Sometimes our kids have things going on within them that other people can’t comprehend. When we can listen to our children and understand them better, we can help them communicate their stories to others. Connect with Sabrina: * Instagram: @enablingadaptations https://www.instagram.com/enablingadaptations/ * Facebook: @enablingadaptations https://www.facebook.com/enablingadaptations/ * Website: https://www.enablingadaptations.com * Book: Understanding a Child the Occupational Therapy Way: Recognizing and Communicating the Unique Potential of a Child by Sabrina Adair https://enablingadaptations.com/resources/my-book/   Connect with Tiana and The Part-Time Jungle Community: * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parttimejungle/ * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/parttimejungle/ * Website: https://theparttimejungle.com   LIVE BY THE SCHEDULE Sabrina explains, as most moms can relate, her kids have busy schedules packed with lots of activities! She shares how she lives by her family’s schedule that’s pre-planned out. This way, she knows who is doing what, who is going where, and when she has that schedule set up, she blocks her business into the gaps.