Supporting the Relationships, Environments and Experiences
that Help Children Grow
Learning resources, coaching programs, and practical tools that help families and professionals create meaningful opportunities for children to move, play, grow, and learn.
Resources for Families and Professionals
Family
Guidance
Coaching, education, therapeutic services, and practical resources designed to support children and families.
Development By Design
Personal narratives and clinical reflections exploring development as an opportunity to transform everyday experiences into shared wisdom.
Move Play Grow
EHR
A development-focused pediatric electronic health record designed to support documentation, program planning, and practice management.
Our Approach to Child Development
Children’s development unfolds over time through responsive relationships, supportive environments, and engaging experiences. Guided by neurodevelopmental science and relationship-centered practice, we work together to create the conditions that foster healthy development for all children.
Responsive Relationships
Children develop through connection. Attuned relationships nurture trust, regulation, and emotional security.
Supportive Environments
Physical spaces, routines, and expectations shape how children engage with the world and support participation for children with diverse needs.
Engaging Experiences
Through movement, play, and meaningful activity, children grow within adaptive experiences that support participation and learning for all children.
At Move Play Grow a relationship-centered approach to development guides everything we create—from clinical tools and documentation systems to educational resources and learning opportunities. Our goal is to help therapists, educators, and families bring developmentally informed thinking into all the places children move, play, grow, and learn.
Family Guidance
Parent Education and Coaching
Explore our growing collection of online coaching programs, courses, and practical resources designed to support you as you nurture your child's growth and development.
Explore Parent Education and CoachingTherapeutic Services
Licensed occupational therapy services available via telehealth in Michigan and Oregon
Explore Therapeutic ServicesFrom the Development by Design Journal . . .
A space to read, reflect, and join the conversation as we consider everyday moments through a developmental lens. Explore our featured essay, "The Princess and the Pea," and discover how this classic tale reads from a sensory perspective.
Is There a Happily Ever After for the Princess and the Pea?
Revisiting a classic fairy tale through a sensory lens, and learning how to support the princesses and princes in our lives.
Welcome to Move Play Grow!
I’m Deborah Ferguson, an occupational therapist and integrative health coach dedicated to translating the complex science of neurodevelopment into practical, everyday insights.
I am also a passionate, life-long learner who considers education to be as much fun as gardening, knitting, cooking, or playing my guitar. Above all, I believe that learning has no expiration date—a philosophy I live out every day alongside my husband, children, grandchildren and the families I serve.
Over a lifetime of practice, my greatest joy has been collaborating directly with families and professionals to create the meaningful conditions that support child development. Move Play Grow grew out of this deep commitment to understanding the relationships, environments, and experiences that support how children move, play, grow, and learn.
Please join the conversation as we explore these ideas and continue to learn from one another.
