Sensory Smarts at Home and in the Classroom

Yesterday, James and I attended a Sensory Awareness Seminar.  I had run across the seminar about a month ago while looking for resources for kiddos with Sensory Integration/Processing Disorder and was thrilled to find there was an actual seminar on the topic.  James and I immediately signed up and asked Gramma K if she could watch Ian for us.  She very nicely agreed and Ian was happy to go to "Amana K's".

We attended three of the five workshops at the seminar and definitely felt like we got our money's worth...they certainly developed our sensory smarts!  I want to write about all of my take-away points so I don't forget them!

Workshop #1:

Strategies for Implementing Sensory Integration into the Home and Classroom

Oh my goodness!!  This workshop was presented by Betsy Williams from Top Pediatric Therapy.  One of Betsy's co-workers later told me how gifted she was in the OT world, and I firmly believe that.  Betsy talked about sensory stimulating and calming activities I hadn't even considered.  She also mentioned several tips for helping sensory kiddos be successful in the school environment.  Granted, the OT we work with now only works with kids ages 6 months to 2 years old and my online research has been limited, but I had never heard of several of the strategies Betsy suggested.  After listening to her talk, I really think we can help Ian do really well in the school environment.

One of Betsy's main points was to teach the child (and parent, teachers, etc) to track where the child's "engine" level is throughout the day.  In fact, when kids arrive at her clinic, they have to mark whether their engine is high, just right, or low.  Betsy suggested using a schedule at school and having the teacher track the child's engine level throughout the day to help identify where and when the child deregulates.  The goal is intervene before this happens.

Other helpful tips included: having the kiddo walk to school to get out extra energy (brilliant!), have a job with heavy lifting for the kiddo to do when they get to school, give the child a specific place to sit during circle time and provide a fidget toy if necessary (we might also get Ian a vibrating seat or toy if that helps!), have the child take movement breaks (and ask the teacher to provide movement breaks for the whole classroom so your kiddo isn't singled out...good for everyone), have kiddo leave recess or lunch to go back the classroom alone and do a job so they have time to settle down before everyone gets back, and have the teacher use firm, gentle pressure on both of the child's shoulders if child is getting too rowdy (i.e. teacher walks up behind Ian, places her hands on both of his shoulders, and gently but firmly pushes down to let him know he is being too rowdy...good calming technique).

We have another OT we are going to try in the meantime (more about that in a minute), but in the meantime, we already put some of Miss Betsy's ideas to work!  Ian was having a particularly hard day today, so I rolled him up like a burrito in a blanket, rolled a ball back and forth over him, and then let him move around and unroll.

He had a blast!!  He loved this game.

Then I placed his stuffed animals a few inches apart so he could jump over them.  Nice variation of his usual stack-the-animals-on-Mommy game.

Betsy certainly got my creative wheels spinning again.  We definitely get stuck in a rut with the activities we do with Ian, so it was great to have some fresh input.  Ian absolutely loved his new games.