play | Centar iLabCentar iLab

photo credit: fabianacarters.blogspot.com

5 reasons sensory integration should be your lifestlye

At my workplace, we suggest parents to bring their kids to therapy twice a week. We do an individual evaluation so the frequency is not the same for all the kids, but in most cases it turns out to be twice a week. The sensory room is big, has many things and it can be a lot for certain kids to handle. But that’s therapy. And it’s great. But if you ask me, sensory integration should be looked at as lifestyle. No matter if your child is “healthy” (of a typical development), or has some developmental difficulties. Two hours a week is simply not enough. Just knowing a thing or two about what it is and how kids respond to the stimuli can give you a lot of insight into why kids do things the way they do. For instance, why do kids walk on the arm rests and frames of your living room couch, why they slide down 100 times and still want more, why they can spin around in the park for 5 minutes and you want to puke just by looking at them?

If parents knew just a little bit about the SI, it would not be such a mystery and I am sure parenting would be even a bigger joy. It is to me, anyway.
I love seeing my little boy exploring his body. I don’t get all first-time-nervous-mom on him, but I am a relaxed parent as I understand what my baby is going through.
SI is great for your child but is also good for you. Your brain is not as easy to “change” as the child’s, but is not impossible. When I started working in the sensory room I would get nauseas within three to four rounds on the swing and now I can do at least 10. I also couldn’t write texts or read messages on my phone while in the moving bus, and now I have no issues with that whatsoever.
Other than that, as a parent you get more creative because you need to find ways to offer your child the stimuli they need in different ways: e.g. Proprioceptive stimulus can be acquired by jumping, rolling, pressing, bouncing off of something such as a mat.
acquired from: kikisclinic.co.uk
Last, but definitely not the least is the fact that one or two hours a week is really not suffice. Can’t emphasize that enough.

And that old excuse “I don’t have so much time to play with my child because I have to ____________ (enter your reason why)” is not applicable any more if you make SI your lifestyle. Because if you live SI, then you do it all the time, becomes a way of living and communicating. But have in mind that even if you apply the SI concepts, you should still be the child’s parent and go for the hour or two of therapy with a professional. Doing it at home does not mean stopping it with the professionals by any means.

And remember, it should be fun!

Posted on July 25, 2014 by lina. 0 comments

Let’s get dirty: Top 5 sensory summer activities

I love summer for its practicality when it comes to sensory activities and the creativity at this time of the year is endless. Here’s my top 5 sensory activities for the summer season:

1. Water

Sea: if you are planning a trip to the coast, this might be a great sensory experience for your child. Not only swimming, but walking through the shallow water, touching the sand or pebbles with bare feet or just splashing it around is good.
Bathing in the tub: You can prepare baths for your child in the yard or the balcony like I did with my son. My 4 month old loves to bathe and splash water everywhere. During the hot days I take his tub out in the balcony and give him a coconut oil massage first (as per Indian tradition) and afterwards we dip. If your child is a bit bigger, fill the tub with some plastic balls for the kid to play with while bathing.
Color: You can use some food coloring and color the water for your child to play with. Throw in some cups and toys, too. Tea party? Sounds great!

2. Sand

Dry sand: put a lot of sand in a box, hide some small toys that your child loves inside and have him or her search for the toys. Take a cup and slowly sip the sand through your child’s hands, arms, hair, legs and feet. See if they like it in one place more than the other. I worked with a few kids who didn’t like to touch sand or seeds but they loved when I sipped it through their hair.
Wet sand: you can of course take molds and make different shapes and build it up to a castle or a road for your child’s favorite car.
You can bury your child’s feet or hands in the sand so they feel its heaviness (proprioceptive stimulaiton) or tie up some sand in a bag and around your child’s feet, on top of his shoulders or even around his waist.

3. Foam

if your child has a tendency to put their hands in mouth, perhaps you should use an edible version of a shaving foam such as whipped cream. Again, you can color it with food dye for more visual attraction, you can have your child put the foam all over the body, starting with foamy mustache or role play “how does mommy put her facial cream on her face?” or “how does daddy shave his beard?” and continue onto legs and arms. Add some natural scent (orange, lemon…) if you are using an edible version for the olfactory and gustative stimulation.
you can dip your plastic toys and give them a nice foamy bath and rinse them in water afterwards.
all of these can be done outdoors, while child sitting in a tub or on the pebbles.
if you don’t have pebbles around your house, consider using grass or other unstable surfaces such as a balance board.

Girl and a boy playing with shaving foam. Permission acquired from their parents.

4. Barefoot

summer is a great time to be barefoot. There is very less chance your child will get a cold due to walking barefoot in the summer season. Exactly the opposite, walking barefoot could do a lot of good to your child so use at least this season for that. If your home heating system is good enough, you can have your child barefoot even during the winter inside your home.
opportunities are endless: walking on the sand, pebbles, small stones and if you are brave enough, you can have the child walk on the pine tree needles (be careful, some insects like to hide in there!), shallow part of the sea or lake and through the grass!

you can have your child be barefoot in a park too, if you find that socially acceptable.

5. Indulge

Flavors: seasonal fruit, Popsicles
Smells: woods, fruits, flowers, Mediterranean herbs
Hot & Cold: You can give your child some ice (be careful!) to play with, see it melt or spread it on his body. You can also dye it with some food colors for more visual fun. To make it even better, use some fruits to color it and you ask the child to lick it as Popsicle. On the other extreme, no, I am not suggesting you should have your child play with fire, but let them feel the warmth by walking barefoot in the sun (don’t let them burn their feet though! Concrete floor and stone can get pretty hot so be careful. Try it yourself before letting your kids do it). Let them put some ice on a hot surface (again, be careful and always around your child for safety measures!) and see it melt. Let them see you cook and try putting their hand high above the cooking pot so they feel the vapor but can’t get hurt. Can’t emphasize the safety measures enough for these ideas!

Summer is great because even if your child spills something, it will get fried quickly. Oops! Lapsus calami. I meant, dried! This just tells you what temperatures we’re currently having in Croatia. Kids can spend most of their time outdoors and enjoy the natural sensory play. I’ll keep adding activities as I do them myself with my niece, nephew and son.

Until then… stay hydrated!

Posted on June 26, 2014 by lina. 0 comments

What’s the point?

A mother of a boy with autism asked me once right there in the middle of a session: “What’s the point of him swinging so much, I can do that with him in the park?” As I went deeper and deeper into explaining the concepts of sensory integration and why her son needed the vestibular input and how swinging would help him in school, a parallel train of thought started unwinding in my head. Does this lady see the big picture here? There she was, a gorgeous, polished and relatively young mother of this boy. She was always very polite and in the mood for at least a small talk. She rarely stayed in the sensory room but when she had questions, she would stay inside and I would take some time from the session to talk to her and make these concepts a little bit more close to her. So, after many years of explanations from my boss, and a couple of extra years of explanations from me, she kept asking the same question: “Why are you letting him swing so much, I can go to the park and let him swing there for free.” Now, let me just be clear about this, she was definitely not a stingy lady, just the opposite. So, for all those who can’t see the forest for the trees… What’s the point of sensory integration therapy?

Sensory integration has practically one ultimate goal, with small goals in between. The ultimate goal is to help children with any kind of developmental disorder or delay learn. When a child has sensory deficits, they find learning to be very tiring, tough, uninteresting etc. One very important goal that helps us getting to the learning process is the (self)regulation. This is a very tricky one. It is the one that is very individual and rarely you will find a nice and simple equation to get to the regulation and self-regulation point in a child. One day jumping and rolling on the floor will be a bingo, but tomorrow that might cause a tantrum.

Piaget nicely indicated that play is the work of children. They learn a lot better when actively participating as oppose to being told what to do. So, what’s a better way of helping children in their journey to the land of knowledge than the sensory smart play. I follow the child’s interests, observe their sensory appetite and I try using that to help them learn new things; whether a skill, or a word. Some children can only function and learn while getting their stimuli whereas some children are ok with being stimulated first and then afterwards successfully getting the task done. So, in order to get the cognitive tasks done which are on a higher level, we need to sort the basics that our body needs first.

http://www.zoneintraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/pyramid.jpg

I’ll try making this even more clear. In order to successfully learn, you need to be ok with your sensory self. You don’t need to be perfect and rarely somebody is. But people and children with a more substantial sensory disorder will find learning very tough. However, we can learn to compensate our sensory deficits to be able to function normally with every day challenges (taking a shower, putting clothes on and getting out of the house, getting a haircut, sitting in a class, having coffee in a crowded mall, cooking a spicy dish, reading a book, writing a paper, etc.). So, this is the big picture: settling the sensory basics for the higher cognitive tasks such as learning.

And just an FYI… If you ask me, sensory integration, yes, it can be a therapy, but I would rather if parents and adults used it as a lifestyle. Think, breathe and live (and play!) in a sensory way. Don’t wait for those one or two hours a week for your OT to work with your child and help them regulate. Talk to your child’s therapists, learn from them about your child’s sensory needs and implement them all the time: while the child is eating, when the child needs to brush his teeth and go to bed, on your way to the preschool, etc. I don’t think a parent should necessarily acquire a role of a therapist, actually better if not, if possible. But, hopefully you play with your child anyway, why not making it sensory friendly in your own home or a park. So, to answer the question that a patient’s mother asked: if I let your child swing as much as his brain needs, that will regulate him and thus he will learn better. And yes, I would love it if you would take him to the park to swing more, whenever the boy wants and needs (I only assume his biggest need would be before and after his classes).

Posted on June 14, 2014 by lina. 5 comments

Sensory or Behavior?

This is one of the popular and everlasting discussions among the professionals in sensory integration / child development field. When a child is having e.g. a tantrum, how do you know if it’s sensory or behavior? This is a very important question because it defines our reactions towards the child in that moment. And our reactions are there to help the child either by calming him down or by teaching him some boundary.

There is a consensus about a couple of things:

every child needs good* boundaries
every child needs good* structure

*not necessarily strict or harsh
While reading other people’s opinions on sensory or behavior question, one interesting answer pops up: it is sensory and behavior, and not sensory or behavior. It is very hard to define a behavior and not take the sensory factor into the consideration. If your child doesn’t want to eat something and is crying and jumping in their feeding chair, take a look at the food you gave them: is it too hot or too cold or perhaps too chewy? Children who have low muscle tone in the oral area will most likely find difficult to chew and will thus most likely refuse to eat e.g. some meats or bread crust. Those same kids, on the other hand, will want to get the stimuli the easy way and you might see them asking you for crunchy foods that are easy to chew through e.g. chips, salty sticks, rice cereals etc. Food temperature is also very important to sensory kids. Just try to make them get used to it step by step. Forcing them to eat something, whether of the “wrong” temperature or texture is only going to make them refuse it, even if they would initially want to taste it.

So, how come a lot of the times we get the report from the preschool teacher that the child ate everything and is eating nicely in the preschool and makes such a drama at home? Well, the answer may as well be – the structure. Don’t confuse this with boundaries. Parents may be very clear on the boundaries, but the structure is what is missing at home. Usually preschools organize time and setup for meals where all children eat together at a table at the same time. So, this structure and predictability helps a lot of the sensory kids in their organization and regulation. If they do not have to think about what’s coming next and how they will manage themselves in the new situation, but they know that at this time, kids will start getting together at the table and food will be served, those sensory kids can be at peace and they can participate in an adequate way. To go back to the structure vs boundaries – sometimes what happens is that parents put stricter boundaries or let’s say, stricter parenting to compensate for lack of structure. Perhaps this is a good question to analyze in one of the future posts.

Another question to be asked here is how to know whether your child’s current behavior is purely sensory or behavioral, though I said that usually it’s both? Well, The Anonymous OT gives a good point in his “Is it Sensory, Behavior or Both?” blog post.

This is where I tell my parents to be incredibly attentive to the subtle signs from their child. With any behavior analysis, there is an “antecedent,” or something that happens before the behavior. This is where the parent has to look for the clues. What was the root cause of the outburst?

I agree with this statement and have been recommending the parents I work with to do so – to try and figure out what happened right before some good or bad behavior. Important thing to know and remember is that kids are not bad, they do not want to act badly. Children actually want to please their parents. If a child is behaving “badly”, it is up to us to figure out why and help them.

P.S. I like this document!

Posted on May 30, 2014 by lina. 4 comments

Disclaimer / Izjava

This blog is intended as another source of ideas for sensory play and a common place for parents to talk and discuss different topics. Though I do have professional education and work experience in this field, I do not take responsibility in reactions your children have to ideas proposed in this blog. Children are very different and what suits one child might not be beneficial to the other so please use your judgment while realizing these ideas with your children.

Thank you!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cilj ovog bloga je da pruži roditeljima ideje za senzornu igru i zajedničko mjesto za daljnju diskusiju. Iako sam obrazovana u ovom području i imam radno iskustvo, ne snosim odgovornost za reakcije vaše djece na ideje predložene u ovom blogu. Djeca su vrlo različita i ono što je dobro za jedno dijete možda neće biti primjereno za neko drugo dijete. Stoga Vas molim da koristite svoju prosudbu pri realizaciji ovih ideja.

Hvala!

Posted on November 24, 2013 by lina. 3 comments