May 27

May 27 The Power of Play with Niki Weinstein, MS, OTR/L & Founder Spark Kids Collective

The Most Important Thing

Kids home for the summer, but not sure how to teach and play with them? Check out Spark Kids Collective to access incredible educational materials and one-on-one sessions for parents who want to help their kids learn, grow, and play.

You can also follow on Instagram for quick tips and fun games daily.

About Nicole Weinstein

Nicole (“Niki”) Weinstein (yes, she’s my sister!) is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist whose mission is to help children IGNITE skills, EMPOWER themselves, and GROW to achieve their greatest potential.

Niki has over a decade of experience as an Occupational Therapist, practicing in schools, homes, clinical settings and telehealth.

She has worked with children as young as 6 months up to 18 years with a variety of needs from handwriting to global delays. Niki believes that every child is unique, and therefore, tailors her services to meet each child’s individual needs. She believes that children learn, develop, and grow through play, so her treatment sessions are always fun and motivating.

Niki is certified in Handwriting Without Tears and Therapeutic Listening and has been trained in Sensory Processing Disorders at the STAR institute. She loves to learn and continues to take relevant coursework related to childhood development and therapeutic techniques, so that she can provide the best quality of care.

Niki graduated from New York University with a Masters of Science degree in Occupational Therapy. Previously, she attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she graduated with honors and received a Bachelors of Science in Human Development and Family Studies with a speciality in Child Development.

Whether your child needs help with handwriting, sensory processing, attention, focusing, sitting still, trouble socializing, or has other developmental delays, Niki can help.

About Spark Kids Collective

Spark Kids Collective is a full service Pediatric Occupational Therapy Practice, dedicated to your child’s growth. Our main goal is to help children participate in their meaningful occupations which typically include play, school, learning, friendship, and more. Occupational therapy helps to address any underlying deficits that impact a child’s ability to engage in such activities. Therapy focuses on increasing participation in children’s occupations through specific & targeted play.

Episode Overview

I’ve been watching my sister, Niki Weinstein, excel at her Occupational Therapy practice for the last ten years. When the COVID19 pandemic hit, it became clear that with schools and after school programs cancelled, parents would be left with the gargantuan task of work-from-home (WFH) with the added responsibility of caretaking.

I was amazed by how quickly Niki sprung into action. She created Spark Kids Collective for her existing clients and friends who needed educational resources on caring for their children all day.

Spark has since grown into an incredible teletherapy practice with ample online resources for parents.

I wanted to chat with Niki to highlight the important work that she and other OTs do, which I believe is tremendously undervalued by society. We speak about what she has learned working with children with Autism, how children are our greatest teachers, the importance of play, managing parental expectations, perfectionism, teletherapy, and more.

My Favorite Quotes:

“Play is how we learn, especially as kids. Play is a way to explore, to take on different roles. There’s different styles of play like imaginary play and parallel play. We have ideation - the creation of ideas and implementation - the execution of those ideas.”

“Be easy on the expectations for your kids in order to foster patience in yourself. If you only say, ‘this Is where you should be,’ you’re never going to have patience for where they are at.”

“The kids are our teachers”

“Our bodies need to be regulated in order to function on a day-to-day level”

“OT’s are caregivers – we want to help; we want to fix. We feel pressure, we want to do it for the parents and for the kids.”

“You’re filling up a bucket one drop at a time. Even though that drop feels insignificant, it’s still additive.”

“If I won, the lottery, the first thing I would do is give money to teachers.”

“Kids regulate off our energy. They look at us as a model…”