Suggs Pediatric Outpatient Therapy Services
Developing Sensory & Motor Skills Through Play
Developing Sensory & Motor Skills Through Play
The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is a protocol we love to use at our clinic. This protocol helps children (and even adults) with their state of control. It has been shown in the research to improve social and emotional difficulty, auditory sensitivity, anxiety and trauma related challenges, inattention, and social engagement.
SSP is a set of specifically formulated music that your child will listen to while wearing an air conduction headset. They will be able to participate in enjoyable seated activities in a quiet room while they listen to the music.
The research has demonstrated best results with SSP when it is done for one hour on 5, consecutive days.
The SSP was created by Dr. Porges after nearly four decades of research and is based on Dr. Porges’ Polyvagal Theory. This theory looks at the relationship between the autonomic nervous system and social-emotional processes. The SSP stimulates nervous system regulation with the specifically processed music. The music trains the auditory system to focus on certain frequencies of speech, most importantly, the frequency of human speech. The music stimulates two Cranial Nerves (VII and X), which function to increase attention to human speech and tune out background noise and to stimulate self-soothing.
According to the SSP website and experience in our practice, “Following successful completion of the intervention, individual will be better able to focus in school, therapy, and everyday life and experience a clamed emotional and physiological state.”
At our clinic, we have had parents report “improved eye contact”, “increased speech”, “increased social interaction”, “happier child”, “decreased anger”, “improved play with others” and “improved attention”.
To read more about SSP, visit their website:
https://integratedlistening.com/ssp-safe-sound-protocol/
In the clinic, we are commonly asked about Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. While as occupational and physical therapists we do not give diagnoses, we can help you to recognize the symptoms of these problems and refer you to a place where your child can be evaluated. We can also help your child with remediation and accommodation for these deficits to help them become more independent and successful in their classroom and daily life environment. According to understood.org here is some helpful tips for discriminating between dyslexia and dysgraphia:
-What is dysgraphia? An issue that involves difficulty with the physical act of writing. Kids may also find it hard to organize and express their thoughts and ideas in written form.
-What are some signs I may notice?
-What is dyslexia? An issue that involves difficulty with reading. It can also affect writing, spelling and speaking. Kids may find it hard to isolate sounds, match sounds to letters or blend sounds into words
-What are some signs I may notice:
As occupational therapists we commonly address handwriting and therefore assist many children who have a dysgraphia diagnosis. Here are 4 strategies we use in the clinic to help these kiddos with written language:
1). We use a multisensory approach for letter formation. It is important that children learn correct letter formation for efficiency, neatness, and rate of handwriting. For a child with dysgraphia, learning letter formation may be more difficult so we like to use a multisensory approach including kinesthetic experiences of building the letter, auditory experiences of a verbal sequence or song to form the letter, visual experiences of seeing the letter formed, and whole arm/body movements to practice letter formation. Make it fun!
2). Focus on one thing at a time. A child with dysgraphia may have difficulty with many aspects of handwriting including letter formation, spacing, legibility, letter sizing, line orientation, etc. Trying to work on all of these components at once can be overwhelming! A great strategy is to focus on one area of written expression at a time, while ignoring the rest so the child can develop each component adequately.
3). Teach keyboarding skills. If a child is falling behind in the classroom because they are not able to keep up with written work, teaching keyboarding skills may be beneficial and allow the child more success because they are not having to focus on the motor aspects of handwriting.
4). Practice writing with a metronome. This is a technique we use to improve speed and fluency of handwriting. A child with dysgraphia will probably display slow, labored writing, so use of a metronome can help with processing speed, attention, and efficiency.
If your child has a dysgraphia diagnosis and needs help with handwriting, give us a call! If your child is displaying some of these difficulties and you just aren’t sure how to help, we would love to give you some recommendations on how to best help your child. Call us at 972-404-1718 with questions.
Resources:
Sleep can be a challenging subject for parents of kiddos who have sensory processing difficulties. Difficulties with sensory processing can affect a child’s ability to fall asleep, stay asleep, wake up refreshed, and coping mechanisms when tired.
Adequate sleeps is essential for self-regulation (think of how cranky adults get without sleep). So here are 6 strategies that could be helpful for your child:
FROM THE RESEARCH:
As published by the Occupational Therapy Journal of Research in 2012, a study conducted actually found that children with increased sensory sensitivities had increased difficulty with sleep. They found that children with sensory sensitivities “have higher levels of cortisol and lower melatonin before sleep” which leads to a worse overall quality of sleep. More specifically, children with auditory, olfactory, and visual sensitivities demonstrated more difficulty with sleep.
(OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health • Vol. 32, No. 1, 2012 Sensory Processing, Physiological Stress, and Sleep Behaviors in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorders. Stacey Reynolds, Shelly J. Lane, Leroy Thacker.)
If your child is demonstrating difficulties with sleep and you think it might be related to difficulties with sensory processing. Come see us! We would love to help you implement strategies at home to help your child.
The holidays always provide great ways to introduce new activities your child won’t even recognize as OT homework. Here are a few activities that can easily be adapted to help your child meet his OT goals:
1. Carving pumpkins:
What better way to work on sensory processing and hand strengthening than carving a pumpkin? Allowing your child to scoop out the pumpkin goo is a great way to work on decreasing tactile defensiveness (sensitivity to touch) and improve overall toleration to a variety of sensory input. If touching the pumpkin guts is too much for your child, you can modify the activity by having your child touch the pumpkin insides with gloves, or asking her to grab only the seeds from the pumpkin guts. Grabbing the seeds with salad tongs or tweezers is another iteration of pumpkin carving that can strengthen the muscles of the hand for carryover with handwriting and other fine motor tasks.
2. Making a construction paper spider:
The true therapeutic aspect of this craft is in the making of the spider legs. Folding the paper back and forth to create the accordion legs requires and facilitates a child’s ability to use both hands together (bilateral coordination) as well as fine motor precision.
3. Spider web obstacle course:
Now that you’ve made your spider, it’s time for the spider web! In a hallway, tape one continuous string of yarn at various angles across the length of the hallway. Instruct the child try to go from one end of the hallway to the other without touching the yarn. This activity will help develop and facilitate your child’s postural stability, balance, spatial awareness and motor planning. If this activity is not enough of a challenge, have your child complete various “levels” of the game while holding a bean bag in his neck or under her arm, etc.
4. Make a straw skeleton:
Using black paper with a head drawn in, glue straws cut at various lengths to form a skeleton. This is a great way to work on spatial awareness and visual perceptual skills. Depending on your child’s developmental level, you can either offer a black piece of paper with cut up straws and allow your child to independently create the skeleton, or you can provide a sample your child can replicate.
5. Monster slime:
This is another great activity for sensory input. Simply combine 1/4 cup of liquid starch with 1/4 cup of white glue in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of water with 1 tablespoon of washable paint. Combine the 2 solutions and mix until the slime forms, sometimes it is helpful to knead the slime. Add small objects into the slime for your child to retrieve and it can also be a great activity for hand strengthening.
Oak Hill Academy is currently developing an extraordinary project right in their own backyard. They plan to develop a multi-sensory learning garden in their current learning garden location. At SPOTS, we feel extremely honored to have been asked to consult on this project and believe that this is an extremely unique and innovative design that has incorporated all of the sensory systems!
The garden will consist of a walking trail, chicken coop, raised planter beads, an outdoor pavilion, greenhouse, tool shed, outdoor classroom, play tunnel and earth mound, xylophones, butterfly garden, art board, musical play tubes, extensive landscaping and 4 stations for sensory integration based activities. The school will also integrate several different levels of entrepreneurial learning opportunities into their curriculum using the garden.
The garden will incorporate all of the sensory systems so that the students can reorganize and refresh during their school day. The visual system will be stimulated by richly colored plants, butterfly garden and garden art. Auditory components include a xylophone station, musical play tubes, and the sounds of nature. Fresh herbs and grass will give the olfactory system aromas that will be both stimulating and calming. For example, peppermint plants will help some students energize for the day ahead, while lavender will help other students calm and re-organize. The garden will also yield edible plants, fresh eggs, and herbs for the gustatory system. Tactile components include differently textured plants and walking trail materials.
While most people are familiar with these 5 sensory systems, many are not as aware with the other two extremely important sensory systems that will also be incorporated into the Oak Hill multi-sensory learning garden- the vestibular system and the proprioceptive system. The vestibular system is housed in the inner ear and registers information about movement and gravity. It lets us know where we are in relation to gravity and how we are moving through space. The proprioceptive system gives us feedback from our muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments about where our body is in space. It can be thought of as body awareness. Proprioceptive input is very calming and organizing to our nervous systems. When we become stressed, we tend to look for ways to get input into this system, such as folding our arms, clenching our fists, or chewing on pencils.
These sensory systems, along with the tactile system, are at the base of all motor development and input into these systems helps students to re-group and re-organize. Also, we need to know where we are in space, how we are moving through space and what information is coming in through our skin receptors in order to make efficient and effective motor responses. The right amount of input into these systems leads to functional movement patterns, better focus and maximized learning potential.
The Oak Hill Learning Garden will address these sensory systems through various components. The play tunnel and earth mound will allow students get vestibular and proprioceptive input by rolling down the hill and moving through the underground tunnel. The musical play tube and xylophones will also stimulate the proprioceptive system. There will also be rotating sensory integrative activities at the 4 stations that will address motor planning, bilateral coordination, postural control, reflex integration, eye-hand coordination, and balance just to name a few.
The learning garden is also a great area for motor lab opportunities. A motor lab is a series of specifically planned sensory and motor activities that help to build the student’s developmental foundation and help them organize their nervous systems. The students at Oak Hill can arrive to school and naturally begin their day with sensory inputs that will set them up for success so that they can achieve their full learning potential. The Occupational and Physical therapists at SPOTS will provide ongoing consultation and collaboration with the school to provide this opportunity to all students at Oak Hill.
This is such an exciting project, which is projected to be complete by the end of summer 2015. The students of Oak Hill are being given a truly unique experience, which will help them get the most out of their school day. Please consider contributing to this project and asking your friends or family to donate as well. You can do this by clicking on the following link. Your help is all that is needed to grow this project and the bodies and minds of the students at Oak Hill Academy.
Jennifer Suggs, MOTR, SIPT certified
The rainy weather is heading our way, which means more inside the house play time for everyone. Hurray! Precious family time that is remembered for years to come in the making! These are the days of those “Remember when it rained all weekend and we ….” that you have from your childhood. I remember my kids favorite rain day activity was to turn the living room into Neverland. We had Wendy, Tiger Lily, Peter Pan, and Tinkerbell climbing, tunneling, creating, and imagining all kinds of adventures. Truly I miss those days, maybe not the mess we all pitched in to clean up, but definitely the wonder of childhood and family that we all got to explore. I even got some handwriting work in with the signs we made. All in great fun so no one realized they were actually doing some “work”. We created “treasure maps” every time and someone got to hide the treasure for everyone else to find. Oh yes! Those were the days. As those days are approaching now for the Spring of 2015, here are a couple of ideas for you and your family to consider as you head off on your own indoor adventure.
1. How about holding a “mini Olympics”. Each of you pick a country to represent and come up with an “olympic event” for everyone’s participation. Event ideas could be walk across the room balancing a book on your head, standing on one leg as long as possible, stuffed animal toss into a paper bag, or pile up pillows and blankets and judge each person’s twist/spins/jumps into the pillows. This type of activity will allow everyone to get the input (vestibular and proprioceptive) they would typically get from playing outside.
2. A “scavenger hunt” would be fantastic. Pick objects from around the house and have each person hide a couple of them. This way everyone gets to hide and everyone gets to hunt. See who can find the most objects. Don’t give the spots where you hide yours away! This type activity will keep kids active, moving, and focused on a task while helping facilitate reading skills (visual scanning, figure-ground, and discrimination).
3. Go “green”, make recyclable sculptures. Grab some “trash/disposable” supplies from around the house (i.e. cardboard, twist ties, tin foil, old schoolwork papers, plastic bottles, etc.) Grab anything that sparks yours or your child’s imagination. See what can be created! You can get ideas for your creations off the internet but try to keep your supplies to recyclable or repurposed stuff rather than buying already crafted kits. This activity facilitates creativity, self-generation, and fine motor skills.
4. Play “table” tennis or “balloon” volleyball. Sports are always fun! Table tennis supplies needed are popsicle sticks, paper plate, and a balloon. The popsicle stick and plate are glued together for a paddle. The balloon is the ball for the game. This can be adapted for balloon volleyball by stringing string or jump rope across the room for a net, or you can simply make a “net wall” with a few chairs. These “sports” games help develop motor planning, bilateral coordination and spatial awareness skills.
5. Who wouldn’t like to have “spy training?” String yarn back and forth in a hallway or up/down a stairway to form fake laser beams. Have the kids make their way through the space without touching the “laser beams” or they’ll be caught! This activity is great for motor planning and helping learn to control muscles and movement patterns.
Try some of these ideas and come up with some of your own! Either way, rainy/cold days don’t need to equate to television/video game days. Keeping kids active and engaged rain or shine is vital not only for healthy motor development, but also for kid’s moods and emotional well being.
Ideas and strategies to help your child remain calm during a plane and/or car ride.
Before the plane/car ride:
Wear an Underarmor or compression shirt
Running
Jumping
Pushing or pulling heavy objects (such as a suitcase)
During the plane/car ride:
Eat crunchy and chewy snacks (fruit leather, fruit snacks, granola, crackers, etc.)
Wear a weighted blanket or a blanket that you can wrap your child up snuggly in
Use a weighted shoulder snake
Use a lap pad
Use a camping pillow to blow up and sit on to get his “wiggles” out
Take different textured fabrics to manipulate in his hands (cotton, silk, corduroy, felt)
iPad
Magnadoodle
DVD player
Favorite stuffed animal
Crayons and activity books
Good luck on your summer travels from SPOTS!
Written by:
Savannah Thompson, MOTR