Godzdanker Helps Kids Climb Together, Learn New Skills

There’s a special buzz around Atlanta’s parents of young children facing a variety of challenges, about Carly Heyman Godzdanker, an occupational therapist (OT), who is making a remarkable difference with kids.

Godzdanker is the founder and owner of Mountain Kids OT, an in-home pediatric occupational therapy practice that specializes in children ages 0-5 with sensory processing, picky eating, behavior, and motor coordination challenges. Since 2009, Godzdanker has helped little ones with their everyday “occupation”– playing, socializing, learning, and participating in self-care tasks such as eating, sleeping, brushing teeth, dressing, etc. Therapy can start as early as day one and benefit from having services in their home where it feels most natural and fits into their daily routines. For families facing feeding challenges, an OT can turn mealtimes from stressful battles into positive experiences, teaching children the wonder of tasting new foods to create a healthy diet.

Godzdanker grew up in East Cobb, and her family has been actively involved in the Atlanta Jewish community for decades. She attended The Epstein School and Woodward Academy. Always on the go, she was captain of the tennis and softball teams, president of the service club, and voted by the students as “Most Likely to Climb Mount Everest” for the school’s silly superlative and “Most Charitable” for the real superlative.

Godzdanker studied at the University of Georgia and proceeded to get her master’s in occupational therapy at Medical College of Georgia.

The youngest of three in her family, Carly has two older brothers, Jared and Scott. Scott has special needs – Fragile X Syndrome and Carly wrote a book about him when she was 16 years old, “My eXtra Special Brother: How to Love, Understand, and Celebrate Living with a Sibling with Special Needs.” She enjoyed speaking publicly around the world and conducting sibling workshops. Growing up, people always asked her if she was going to work with children with special needs because they loved watching her interact with her brother. She could understand and communicate with him better than anyone else in the family. And even better, she could explain to others why he was acting certain ways and how to help him.

Godzdanker shared, “Throughout my first year-and-a-half of graduate school, I thought I would work with adults. When I had my first pediatric rotation at the Children’s Hospital in Denver, I fell in love. I connected with these children just as naturally as I had always connected with my brother, Scott. And now with a better understanding of the nervous system and child development, I was able to explain to parents why their children were behaving in certain ways and how to not only meet their needs, but also the parents’ needs.”

In Colorado, Godzdanker not only fell in love with pediatric occupational therapy, but also the mountains and her then boyfriend became her husband. After passing her boards and skiing most weekends, she got a job as an occupational therapist at Boulder Community Hospital’s pediatric outpatient rehab center. She worked there for 10 years, mastering her assessment skills, learning the ins and out of sensory processing, and collaborating closely with other disciplines. She was on the Autism Diagnostics team working with the psychologist and speech therapists every week to help families navigate their neuro-divergent child during this most vulnerable time. Godzdanker was the feeding-OT guru of the hospital and even created and led the hospital’s Food Explorers camp. She became versed in feeding therapy, sensory processing disorders, emotional dysregulation, and motor coordination challenges.

Godzdanker added, “In 2013, I became a mother and fell in love with the development of newborns, infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. For the first time, I could feel the powerful connection between parent and child, and how it affects emotions, behaviors, and therefore development. I understood firsthand how newborns can change the pace of the day, the energy in the home, and even the relationships between adults. Life as a new parent can be overwhelming, and then adding any sort of developmental delay or challenge can make it that much more daunting. I knew then, I wanted to be an early intervention occupational therapist.”

Four years later, Godzdanker started her own early intervention practice named Mountain Kids OT for her love and respect of the awe, wonder, and vast unpredictability of the mountains – just like the children she treats. Parenthood can be stressful, so “Let’s climb together to learn new skills” is Godzdanker motto. She works closely with parents and wants her families to understand the reason why their children are behaving in certain ways so they, too, can one day solve problems as they arise. She practices and teaches co-regulation – the concept that the parent can teach their child how to self-regulate by modeling their own nervous system. She teaches families about the seven sensory systems and how they affect everyday life – play skills, social skills, self-care skills including sleep, motor skills, behavior, and even academic learning.

For many families, receiving occupational therapy is best in the home. For some families, it might be best at their daycares, on a playground, in a store, in a sensory gym, at a birthday party, or even at a restaurant. Wherever the challenge is, Godzdanker can accommodate and is a true believer that the environment where therapy takes place can be powerful. In-home therapy services can give young children an opportunity to master their new skills before trying to transfer them to more sensory challenging environments such as a crowded classroom, a bright store, or a loud playground.

Godzdanker specializes not only in sensory processing, motor development, and behavior, but also feeding challenges. Over the last 15 years of being a pediatric OT, she has seen the greatest rise in selective feeders. Children are pickier than ever, and mealtimes have become one of the most stressful times of day for many parents. She understands the progression of oral motor skills and how that can affect one’s ability to chew and swallow safely. She understands the complicated sensory processing needed to eat a variety of foods from various food groups and the emotional stress of a parent preparing a meal and a child refusing to eat it and so many other challenges children experience.

A parent of two shared, “We started working with Carly in December of 2023 when it was deemed that our then 2.5-year-old son needed feeding therapy. Carly helped us work through some aversions and negative behaviors regarding food and seeing as she looks at the child as a whole and not just the one challenge that we initially started working with her for, we quickly learned that he needed help with gross motor skills as well. Nearly two years later, we have seen the most amazing progress in his ability and desire to run, jump, climb and do all the things that 4-year-old little boys love to do! He knows that Wednesday is ‘Miss Carly Day’ and wakes up saying how excited he is to see her after school! About six months ago, our younger son also began seeing Carly for feeding challenges related to some medical diagnoses. ‘Miss Carly’ has given us as parents, the confidence, tools and resources to help our boys overcome their challenges and we are so grateful to for her expertise and guidance as both boys have made immense progress!”

Godzdanker serves the East Cobb, Sandy Springs, and Roswell areas and, on a final note, added, “I’m so happy that kids love coming to OT. I can attest to the fact that gaining new skills can be fun and extremely rewarding for the entire family. It’s my greatest pleasure to make a difference and help children reach new heights in their development. To me, that’s what being an occupational therapist is about.”

For more information about her training, availability, groups, camps, and seminars, please visit www.mountainkids-ot.com.