Sensory Activity

While Bode has made incredible strides in working through his sensory issues, i've noticed problems cropping up in the past three weeks. There has been a return of instant frustration, difficulty with transitions, a lot of anger and he'll claim pain if he's touched unexpectedly. All red flags of poor sensory processing.

I have a great book that i read last year called "The Out-of-Sync Child" an excellent book about the varying levels of sensory processing disorders in children. It helped me understand Bode a lot better. There is a companion book called "The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun," which gives many sensory activities to do with these kids and explains which parts of their sensory system is benefitting from the activity. I never got the book in the past because we had been so focused on OT and then with the new programs we've been doing at home i didn't think about sensory activities because he was doing so well (and we were so busy already). Our brain lady who prescribed the programs calls his recent difficult behavior a "blip on the radar screen" and says we just need to continue his programs diligently. While i appreciate that it may be just that, i feel like i need to do more to help him work through it. After three weeks of wondering what has happened and where my lovely child has retreated, i went and bought the book and i'm adding more activities to his "sensory diet."

One of the nice things about the book is that it's in sections of sensations. Activities to help kids with tactile issues, visual, auditory, olfactory; etc. So i went through and marked activities i thought would best help him. While he doesn't flip out anymore if he gets peanut butter on his hands, i know that he is still an avoider of such things. Very careful. Certainly wouldn't be excited about fingerpainting. And he needs a lot of movement in the day. He's easily frustrated (but a whole lot better) when it comes to dressing himself or trying new things. So. I tried to pick activities to help with these sorts of things--fine motor, gross motor, tactile, some olfactory and auditory, too. I'm hoping that these activities along with the programs we're working on will help his little brain get even more organized and help him feel more "put-together," less frustrated and have more confidence in his abilities.

Today we are stuck inside. It's a snow day. But it's way too windy to actually go out and enjoy it. So i pulled out the first sensory activity on my list. Shaving cream car wash. I filled a couple cookie sheets with shaving cream (way too much shaving cream! Yes. It expands after you squirt it out). And then the boys built walls with blocks. Drove cars in it. Played with dinosaurs and monster trucks. Bode was hesitant at first, but seemed to like it in the end. He asked me to leave it out for later. So it's sitting on the kitchen table waiting for another turn. And Bode told me without being asked, "I was scared to do it at first, but i'm getting better at it." So i think i'll be keeping cans of shaving cream on hand for awhile.