In this episode we talk to Meg Faure, Occupational Therapist, co-author of 8 parenting titles including the best-selling Baby Sense and Weaning Sense books, and founder of Parent Sense baby app

We start with a deep dive with how our 8 sensory systems are massively important and how they are affected in water.

“The vestibular sense and proprioceptive sense, which are the critically important hidden senses are both very well targeted when we are swimming with our little ones.”

Meg talks to us from her from her sensory integration therapist and neuro developmental therapist background and relates her knowledge and experiences in the water and baby swimming.

Meg has a way of conveying complicated ‘sensory science’ simply! Like the 4 sensory personalities.

“The most important part is the parent understanding her baby’s sensory personality.”

“Our senses provide the platform, each layer builds upon itself, the sensory systems are our base. When they become over stimulated, it can almost become a little fractured, so it means the next layer, emotional regulation, doesn’t have a good foundation.”

It was a pleasure to talk to Meg about her life’s work supporting parents to help raise resilient, happy children. Check out her amazing books and new parent app: Parent Sense.

Let’s keep connected:

@aquasensory

Connect with Meg:

https://megfaure.com https://apps.apple.com/za/app/parent-sense-baby-care-app

In this episode we talk to Torill Hindmarch, recipient of the prestigious Virgina Hunt Newman Award for promoting the “Gentle Way” of baby swimming. It is always a pleasure to connect to our International Aquatic Community.

Torill, shares her passion and knowledge from her many years’ experience and her observations.

“In 1973 I was given the responsibility for a mother and child group in a pool where I was a swim teacher for the local schools, this was my first step on my journey in infant aquatics.”

In this episode we myth bust on some of our aquatic submersion misconceptions on the ‘dive reflex.’

“We want our babies coming to the water for pleasure, we don’t want to put them in a situation that activates a survival, which prepares it for something terrible, and the thing is that sits in the body, for some children it is very strong.”

Let’s keep connected:

@aquasensory

Connect with Torill:

Email: torillestelle@gmail.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/torill-hindmarch-1b336b35

At Aqua Sensory we love to connect with experts in their fields, like with Jess Kennedy from My OT and Me.

In this episode, Jo talks with Jess about supporting parents and professionals, understanding sensory integration, and supporting challenges in and out of the pool. One of the topics we talk about is ‘parent capacity’, about how much a parent can change, take on and how much external support they have.

“It’s important for everyone to become sensory aware, even if you are directly working with people as it is highly impactful on your emotional regulation on how you know how you relax, what triggers you, how to manage your own stress so I think the words sensory integration or processing almost became theoretical you have to be an in-depth practitioner to understand it, but absolutely not.”

“We all have sensory systems, differences, and preferences, it’s not just children. Although they may seek out certain types of sensory input more intensely, or for longer durations. We make adaption on what we have learned about ourselves and those adaptions help make it easier for us to cope in different environments.”

Let’s keep connected:

@aquasensory

Connect with Jess Kennedy:

https://www.gabadoo.com

https://myotandme.com