Movement, in the coaching I do with neurodivergent children, is rarely just physical. It is often the doorway to everything else — regulation, confidence, attention, how a child moves through the rest of their day. Because of that, I do not think this work happens well in isolation from the adults around that child.
Why Coordination Matters
I coordinate with parents and, where relevant, educators. Not as a courtesy update after the fact, but as an active part of how I decide what happens in the next session. What a parent notices at home shapes what I try next. What a teacher notices at school does the same. And what happens in our session gets fed back to both of them, so nobody is working from a partial picture.
This matters because a child's behavior in a one-hour session is a narrow window. A parent might tell me a child had a rough morning before we even started, which changes how I read everything that follows. A teacher might mention a child has been more willing to try new activities in class, which tells me something is generalizing beyond our sessions in a way I could not have observed directly.
Asking Specific Questions
I try to ask specific questions rather than general ones. Not "how has he been," but "what happened this week when he was asked to transition between activities" or "did the strategy we discussed last time come up naturally, or did you have to prompt it." Specific questions get specific answers, and specific answers are what actually let me adjust the coaching.
An Ongoing Process, Not a Formality
I also want to be honest that this coordination takes time and is not a formality I complete once. It is ongoing, session after session, because a child's needs and responses shift, sometimes week to week. A strategy that worked a month ago might need adjusting now, and I would not know that without staying in contact with the people who see this child every day, not just for one hour a week.
I do not think I am the most important person in this process. I am one part of a coordinated effort that includes parents, and often educators, all paying attention to the same child from different angles. My job is to make sure what I am doing in sessions fits into that larger picture, rather than operating as a separate track that has nothing to do with the rest of the child's week. If you are a parent or educator wondering what that coordination looks like in practice, that is exactly what a first conversation is for.
