Mary Kostka, CEO of Ohana OT, explains how giving children limited choices throughout the day helps them feel empowered and in control. She focuses on the parenting strategy of shared control to build confidence and independence in kids.
Aloha, everyone. Mary Koska here, CEO and founder of Ohana ot. And I am enjoying myself here on the beautiful White river, which is a little north of just. It's just on the north end of the lake. Pours into Lake Wenatchee. My tip for you that I was just thinking about is it's about shared control. So most of our kids, kids are really bright, really good at manipulating everything around them because they feel such a lack of control of how the world is coming at them. Whether it's overstimulating their hearing, their sense of touch, their vision, whether it's just that internal sense of not really knowing where their body is in space. So they're always moving around trying to kind of figure that out. So this is a technique actually comes out of love and logic. That is, the concept is shared control. So all throughout the day, wherever possible, you give them as much of a sense of control as possible by offering two choices. So it could be something as simple as, would you like peas or carrots? Would you like to go now or in five minutes? So it's always choice A, choice B. But both are choices that you'd be happy with. Their answer it could be, would you like water without ice or with ice all day long? Give them the option of making choices. And that kind of fills their cup for feeling like they have some kind of sense of control. It really works wonders. It's a great technique. Aloha. Have a great day.
