Kids Don’t Want Your Power, They Want Their Own
Kids’ pushback, negotiation, and need for control often gets misread as defiance, but most of the time children aren’t looking for power over adults. They’re looking for power over themselves. Learn the difference between self-autonomy and power over others, understand how chronic disempowerment shapes behavior over time, and get practical strategies for sharing power meaningfully at home, school, and in therapy.
Kelsie Mick Olds, MOT OTR/LEnrollment Options
Professional Track
Provides a certificate of completion for 1.5 continuing education contact hours. Designed for social workers, educators, and early childhood educators looking to earn CE credit for professional development.
This course provides 0.175 General CEUs or 1.75 Contact Hours
Personal Track
Designed for parents, caregivers, and educators looking to deepen their knowledge and understanding and learn practical strategies for supporting neurodivergent children.
Professional Track
- Big Talks Little Talks video course
- PDF Companion Notes
- Learning outcome assessment
- Certificate of completion for 0.75 General CEUs
Personal Track
- Big Talks Little Talks video course
- PDF Companion Notes
Meet Your Instructor
Kelsie Mick Olds, MOT OTR/L
Mick is an occupational therapist working both on- and offline to share knowledge widely about the ways that children grow, develop, and learn. Mick is passionate about play as the core meaningful occupation that underlies childhood, and about equipping adults with the education and practical tools they need to defend children’s right to play.
Mick has a Master of Occupational Therapy degree from the University of Oklahoma and has worked primarily in schools, as well as consulting with teachers, therapists, and parents to advocate on children’s behalf. Mick blogs as The OccuPLAYtional Therapist.
About This Course
What Kids Actually Want When They Push Back
Kids live in a world that wasn't built for them. They navigate rules, schedules, and expectations set by people bigger than they are. Their emotions are often policed, their bodies are often directed, and their choices are often narrowed down to options an adult already pre-approved. That's a lot of structural disempowerment happening day after day.
At the same time, their brains are doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing: developing new autonomy, testing new independence, and figuring out how to take on more of an active role in their own life. When that developmental need runs into a system designed to control them, what comes out can look like defiance, manipulation, or an obsession with being in charge.
But most of the time, kids aren't trying to have power over anyone else. They're trying to have power over themselves, which is exactly what developing humans are wired to do.
Why Kids' Bids for Autonomy Get Misread
How an adult reads a child's behavior in a given moment says a lot about what's going on for the adult. How tired they are, what they were taught as kids, whether they feel safe themselves, how much capacity they have left in their day. All of that shapes whether a kid's pushback registers as a normal developmental moment or as a threat that needs to be squashed.
When the response is to squash it, kids learn. Some learn to stay small and compliant to keep connection with the adults they depend on for survival. Others learn to fight for their autonomy with everything they have, because giving it up feels like losing themselves. Neither pattern is a character flaw. Both are adaptations to being controlled.
This course gives you a clearer lens for what's actually happening when a child pushes back, so you can move past the reflex to control and start sharing power in ways that actually meet the need.
Big Talks, Little Talks
Understanding How Kids Think, Feel, and Behave — One Talk at a Time
Kids Don't Want Your Power. They Want Their Own. is one of eight modules in Big Talks, Little Talks, a video course series by Kelsie Mick Olds covering key topics in neurodiversity and child development. Modules can be purchased individually or as a complete bundle.
Every module in the series includes two videos:
The professional development component. Kelsie walks through the topic in depth, giving you the knowledge and language to understand what's happening and how to respond. Big Talks run approximately one hour and qualify for continuing education credit.
A kid-friendly video that gives children accessible language to understand what's going on in their own bodies and brains. You can show it directly to a child, break it into shorter chunks across multiple sessions, or watch it yourself to pick up language you can use in your own conversations.
Who Is This Course For?
This course is designed for therapists, parents, caregivers, educators, early childhood educators, and anyone who works with or lives with children whose pushback, negotiation, or need for control has started to feel like a problem to solve.
Whether you're trying to understand a specific child, examining your own reactions to kids' bids for autonomy, or looking for concrete strategies for sharing power without losing the plot, this course gives you a grounded, compassionate starting point.
Course Details
Select a track to view what's included.
Course Modules
Big Talk: Kids Don’t Want Your Power. They Want Their Own.
1:24:43This Big Talk examines the role of power and autonomy in children’s development and behavior. Presenter Kelsie Olds, OTR/L, distinguishes between self-autonomy power and power over others, and explains why children’s bids for control are frequently misread as defiance or manipulation.
The video explores the structural disempowerment children experience daily and how chronic control shapes behavior and self-concept over time. Kelsie examines how adults’ own emotional history and current resources shape how they interpret children’s behavior, and closes with practical strategies for sharing power meaningfully, including naming the subtext, offering genuine choice, supporting child-led extrinsic motivation, and scaffolding collaboration.
Little Talk: What Makes Me Feel Powerful?
23:38This Little Talk introduces kids to a different kind of power – not muscles or weapons, but the ability to make a plan, access the tools to carry it out, and get permission to make it happen.
Kelsie explains why it makes sense to feel frustrated, angry, or defeated when any of those three things is missing, and validates that the urge to do something big and physical with that feeling is a normal body response, not a character flaw. The talk closes with strategies for expending that energy safely, ideas for talking to a trusted adult when things feel out of control, and an encouragement to find and protect the things in life that already make them feel powerful
What's Included
Course Content
Registration Information
To register, select your preferred course option on this page and complete your purchase. Access to all course materials is granted immediately upon completion of payment. If you require accommodations or have special needs requests, please contact us at ce@thinksensory.com. Groups of 6 or more can inquire about group rates at the same address.
Course Modules
Big Talk: Kids Don’t Want Your Power. They Want Their Own.
1:24:43This Big Talk examines the role of power and autonomy in children’s development and behavior. Presenter Kelsie Olds, OTR/L, distinguishes between self-autonomy power and power over others, and explains why children’s bids for control are frequently misread as defiance or manipulation.
The video explores the structural disempowerment children experience daily and how chronic control shapes behavior and self-concept over time. Kelsie examines how adults’ own emotional history and current resources shape how they interpret children’s behavior, and closes with practical strategies for sharing power meaningfully, including naming the subtext, offering genuine choice, supporting child-led extrinsic motivation, and scaffolding collaboration.
Little Talk: What Makes Me Feel Powerful?
23:38This Little Talk introduces kids to a different kind of power – not muscles or weapons, but the ability to make a plan, access the tools to carry it out, and get permission to make it happen.
Kelsie explains why it makes sense to feel frustrated, angry, or defeated when any of those three things is missing, and validates that the urge to do something big and physical with that feeling is a normal body response, not a character flaw. The talk closes with strategies for expending that energy safely, ideas for talking to a trusted adult when things feel out of control, and an encouragement to find and protect the things in life that already make them feel powerful
What's Included
Course Content
Registration Information
To register, select your preferred course option on this page and complete your purchase. Access to all course materials is granted immediately upon completion of payment. If you require accommodations or have special needs requests, please contact us at ce@thinksensory.com. Groups of 6 or more can inquire about group rates at the same address.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:
- Distinguish between self-autonomy power and power over others, and explain why children’s bids for control often reflect a need for the former rather than the latter.
- Describe how chronic disempowerment shapes children’s behavior and self-concept over time.
- Explain how an adult’s own emotional state, history, and resources affect their interpretation of and response to children’s bids for autonomy.
- Describe strategies for sharing power with children across home, school, and therapy settings.
Continuing Education Details
Video lecture with slide presentation, optional companion notes document.
To receive 0.175 CEUs (1.75 contact hours) for this activity, you must complete all of the following:
- View all required video content in its entirety.
- Pass the post-activity learning outcome assessment with a score of 80% or higher.
- Complete the post-activity evaluation.
Partial credit is not available. You must complete all requirements listed above to receive CEUs and a certificate of completion.
If you do not achieve a passing score of 80% on the learning outcome assessment, you may retake the assessment. There is no limit on retake attempts.
Mick was paid for their contributions to Goal Writing for Autistic Students. Mick receives commission for the sales of Big Talks Little Talks. Mick is the author of a book, “Your Child’s Point of View: Understanding the Reasons Kids Do Unreasonable Things” and receives royalties for its’ sale. Mick is the owner of The OccuPLAYtional Therapist and receives speaking fees.
Mick is Autistic and has friends and family members who are Autistic.
Think Sensory will issue a full refund to a learner who requests cancellation within 10 calendar days of purchase, provided the learner has not accessed any course content. Once any course content has been accessed, no refund will be issued, regardless of how much of the activity has been completed. Due to the digital nature of CEU-eligible PD activities, Think Sensory does not offer partial refunds after content has been accessed.
If Think Sensory cancels or removes a course from the platform, affected learners will be notified in advance and provided with an appropriate remedy. For full details, see our Terms of Service.
To request a cancellation, email ce@thinksensory.com.