Thrive at Home and School

Thrive at Home and School No waitlist. No commute. Starting this week. I have sensory processing and executive functioning differences myself. That experience is why I do this work.

Thrive at Home and School is an 8-week virtual coaching program where a licensed occupational therapist teaches you — the parent — the strategies that make the biggest difference. Hi, I'm Ashley — a pediatric OT, parent coach, and Air Force BRAT who grew up between Germany, Italy, and wherever orders sent us next. I was evaluated as a kid, told I was gifted, and never given support. It took workin

g in a sensory clinic — as a licensed OT — to finally understand my own nervous system. After 11 years in sensory clinics, schools, and early intervention, I kept seeing the same thing: parents who knew something was different about their child but couldn't get answers fast enough, clearly enough, or practically enough to actually help at home. Thrive at Home and School is virtual parent coaching for families of children ages 3–10 navigating sensory processing, self-regulation, and school readiness. No referral needed. Real tools you can use this week. Based in Falcon, CO. Serving families nationwide.

06/08/2026

School just ended.

And if you've been carrying a question all year, a quiet worry about your child that you kept telling yourself you'd address when things slowed down, things have slowed down.

It's time to address it.

If you've been wondering whether your child needs an OT evaluation, here's what most articles don't tell you:

The wait for a private pediatric OT evaluation is currently 3 to 9 months in most areas.

Which means the family that gets on a waitlist this week is seen in September or October.

The family that decides in August is often looking at January, at best.

June is one of the best times of year to act on this. Not because anything is more urgent in June, but because the waitlist math works in your favor, and summer gives you time to actually do something with it.

In my latest article I explain:
→ What an OT evaluation actually looks for (it's not what most parents assume)
→ The signs that genuinely warrant an evaluation — sensory, motor, and regulation
→ Why you don't need a diagnosis, a referral, or a qualifying score to get started
→ Five concrete steps to take this week
→ What to do if your child doesn't qualify for services
→ How to use the waiting time so you're not just waiting

If you've been sitting on this question, this is the article that tells you what to do next.

06/08/2026

School just ended.

And if you've been carrying a question all year- a quiet worry about your child that you kept telling yourself you'd address when things slowed down- things have slowed down.

It's time to address it.

If you've been wondering whether your child needs an OT evaluation, here's what most articles don't tell you:

The wait for a private pediatric OT evaluation is currently 3 to 9 months in most areas.

Which means the family that gets on a waitlist this week is seen in September or October.

The family that decides in August is often looking at January- at best.

June is one of the best times of year to act on this. Not because anything is more urgent in June, but because the waitlist math works in your favor, and summer gives you time to actually do something with it.

In my latest article I explain:
→ What an OT evaluation actually looks for (it's not what most parents assume)
→ The signs that genuinely warrant an evaluation: sensory, motor, and regulation
→ Why you don't need a diagnosis, a referral, or a qualifying score to get started
→ Five concrete steps to take this week
→ What to do if your child doesn't qualify for services
→ How to use the waiting time so you're not just waiting

If you've been sitting on this question, this is the article that tells you what to do next.

05/29/2026

Summer is supposed to be easier.

So why does your sensory child fall apart more during breaks than during the school year?

Here's what's actually happening:
The school schedule, the predictable wake time, the known sequence of activities, the movement built into every day, is doing enormous regulatory work for your child's nervous system. Work that's invisible until it disappears.

When summer starts, that scaffolding is gone almost overnight. And the nervous system, which had been leaning on that structure all year, suddenly has nothing to hold it up.

That's why the first two weeks of summer are often the hardest. That's why weekends and holidays follow the same pattern on a smaller scale. And that's why the same child who barely held it together in June can seem like a completely different child by August.

But here's the thing: summer dysregulation is predictable, which means it's preventable.

I explain:
→ Why summer is neurologically harder than it looks
→ The four sensory changes that make summer uniquely difficult (heat, crowds, sleep disruption, and the loss of daily heavy work)
→ What to do before the last day of school
→ The Anchor/Release/Recover rhythm that makes summer actually manageable
→ A note for military families navigating a PCS this summer
Summer is not the problem. It's the opportunity, if you know what to do with it

05/29/2026

Summer is supposed to be easier.

So why does your sensory child fall apart more during breaks than during the school year?

Here's what's actually happening:

The school schedule — the predictable wake time, the known sequence of activities, the movement built into every day — is doing enormous regulatory work for your child's nervous system. Work that's invisible until it disappears.

When summer starts, that scaffolding is gone almost overnight. And the nervous system, which had been leaning on that structure all year, suddenly has nothing to hold it up.

That's why the first two weeks of summer are often the hardest. That's why weekends and holidays follow the same pattern on a smaller scale. And that's why the same child who barely held it together in June can seem like a completely different child by August.

But here's the thing: summer dysregulation is predictable, which means it's preventable.

In my latest article I explain:
→ Why summer is neurologically harder than it looks
→ The four sensory changes that make summer uniquely difficult (heat, crowds, sleep disruption, and the loss of daily heavy work)
→ What to do before the last day of school
→ The Anchor/Release/Recover rhythm that makes summer actually manageable
→ A note for military families navigating a PCS this summer

Summer is not the problem. It's the opportunity, if you know what to do with it.

I grew up as an Air Force BRAT.When I was a kid we moved from Germany to Naples, Italy. Different country, different lan...
05/26/2026

I grew up as an Air Force BRAT.

When I was a kid we moved from Germany to Naples, Italy. Different country, different language, different everything. I remember being grumpy about everything, struggling to engage with new activities, missing my friends and the life I knew. It took me a long time to adjust.

Nobody connected it to my nervous system. Nobody talked about what a move like that actually costs a child who processes the world differently.

I get it now.
A PCS doesn't just change your address. It takes away everything a sensory child's nervous system depends on: the familiar smells of the old house, the known route to school, the predictable daily rhythm, the friends who already understood them.

For a sensory kid that's not an adventure. It's a full nervous system reset.

The grumpiness. The shutdown. The meltdowns over nothing. The difficulty connecting with new kids. That's not bad behavior. That's a nervous system in survival mode trying to find its footing in completely unfamiliar territory.

The good news: you can rebuild the scaffold faster than you think. Routine travels. Sensory supports travel. Your co-regulation travels.

You can't control the orders. You can control what stays consistent.

Special pricing available for active duty and military families. DM me to learn more

School just ended.Right now everyone is happy. Sleeping in. No schedule. Pure freedom. This is going to be a great summe...
05/26/2026

School just ended.
Right now everyone is happy. Sleeping in. No schedule. Pure freedom. This is going to be a great summer.

And then Week 3 hits.
The meltdowns come out of nowhere. The child who seemed fine two weeks ago is falling apart over nothing. Everyone is exhausted and nobody knows why.

Here's why: school was doing regulatory work you couldn't see. The predictable schedule, the consistent transitions, the structure of the day. All of it was giving your child's nervous system something to count on. Without it the brain stays in low-level stress response all day, every day. By week 3 the tank is empty.

The good news: you don't need to recreate school. You need three anchor points.
Morning. Afternoon. Bedtime. Same sequence. Every day. Even when you're on vacation. Even when the cousins are visiting. Even when it's a beach day.

That's the scaffold that makes the rest of summer actually work.
Don't wait for the breakdown to build the structure. Build it now, while everyone is still happy.

05/22/2026

If your child is in ABA and things are still really hard at home — this post is for you.

Not because ABA isn't working. But because ABA and sensory-informed coaching are asking fundamentally different questions.

ABA asks: what is the behavior, and how do we change it?

Sensory-informed coaching asks: what is happening in this child's nervous system, and what does it need?

These aren't competing questions. They're different questions. And for many children, especially those with significant sensory processing differences, the second question is the one that explains why the first one is so hard to answer at home.

A child can do beautifully in a structured therapy environment and still fall apart every evening. That's not a failure of the therapy. And it's not a failure of the parent. It's a gap between what gets addressed in the clinic and what's still driving behavior at home.

I address:
→ The core difference between behavioral and nervous system approaches
→ Why skills learned in therapy often don't generalize to home and what sensory regulation has to do with it
→ The difference between traditional ABA and naturalistic/developmental approaches
→ What parent coaching adds that even good ABA often doesn't address
→ Questions worth asking about your child's current services

I tried to write this one carefully and honestly. If it resonates, I'd love to hear what you think.

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