Movement

I mentioned this briefly in another post but wanted to add something. I have been asking my son to do some sensory integration exercises before sitting down to do work. I had felt that it made a tremendous difference. I have also used it when he started to get annoying with his little brother; when he was being a nudge of sorts. It always turned him around and made him more cooperative and even keeled.
He does a game I bought from www.balametrics.com that is supposed to help his saccadic eye movements by addressing fixation. He has to move blocks numbered from 1 -26. He is timed. He was acting annoying so I kind yelled just go do that game to get him out of my hair. He went to do it and his time was 4 minutes 25 seconds. This is a pretty bad time for him.
He was kind of wired so I asked him to jump of the stairs, in a controlled manner, he has to land on 2 feet and not throw himself to the floor. He has to also watch and grasp my hands when he lands and keep his eyes fixated on my hands through the jump.

He was calmer after about 5 jumps, so I asked him to do the game again. He scored 3 minutes and 7 seconds. This is pretty close to his best. Just a little objective info on something that always seemed to work.

Beth,

He jumps from the third step but he started at the second. Don't go so high that he is out of control, it has to be a movement that is controlled. Shoes are on.
I stand about 3-4 feet from the bottom. You can also use a stick or broom handle to grab, I think it is a little easier to see and we did start with that. Just hold your hands or the stick out in front of you.

One other thing that I forgot to add; don't overdo it. If my son does too many jumps like 15 or 20 he gets hyper. In the beginning he had to do more to find his balance because the first few jumps had him landing on the floor on his hands and knees. Once the jumps are controlled, I wouldn't do more than 5.

He also throws the socks into the laundry basket for variation.

I remember reading in the, "The Out of Sync Child," that kids need the right sensory diet. I think that is what this accomplishes. My son has a hyporeactive vestibular which means he needs proprioceptive input. (Funny, that I even understant that sentence.) Also, I remember reading a study on kids who have ADHD who wore weighted vests to school and it improved their attention. I had considered buying my son the weighted blanket from www.pfot.com but it is $250. Also, this activity was recommended by my son's IM instructor, we used to use it before doing IM and it seemed to help.

Funny about he bike thing. When my son was in his former stressful class he used to get up in the morning and ride his bike. He always came home from that ride in a good mood.

Linda and Beth, my son too seems to benefit from moving. My oldest son has been offered rides to school every morining but refuses to take them. He says that walking to school every morining gets his mind going and wakes him up. When school is over he prefers to walk because he uses this as his wind down time. We have also noted that the classes he does best in is first hour, the hour right after band, and the hour right after PE. When he has 2 classes in a row where he needs to be still and listen the second class is usually a disaster. He is dx'd with ADD, inattentive type-what are your sons dx's. Just curious if it is part of the syndorme.

Beth I do believe you are right. Both my boys seem to exhibit patterns of SID. They are both sensative to noise, they both have a dislike for certain textures, both appear to learn best after movement activities. Other notes of curiousity they both seem to not know where or how to place their body during sports. It is commical to try and watch them play a sport such as basketball because they just seem so lost out there. When the oldest was evaluated for speech in 7th grade the examiner noted that my son seemed to be confused when going from place to place. The oldest use to have difficulty with planning when it came to writing but the school seems to have remediated this difficult. Neither of the boys have ever been specifically tested for SID. My youngest son falls on the autism spectrum and I think the experts have difficulty sorting out just what is what with him.

I think my son has some ADD but I am still trying to tease out the sensory integration issues which he was diagnosed with by 2 seperate occupational therapists before I have him evaluated for ADD. I think SI and ADD can look very similar; I almost think in someways they really are the same thing. You will get a different diagnosis from a Sensory integration occupational therapist than you will from a doctor who specializes on ADD. It is also possible that alot of these kids just have both. I have decided to go to a vision therapist that will also do body work to address the SI issues. (Thanks Beth for helping me clarify the type of VT to go to.) If this doesn't work I will probably do more interventions that will work on his attention.

It is all so complex with so many different disciplines that have very different perspectives all of which have merit in my very humble opinion.

That sounds like an amazing place. You are so lucky to work at such an cutting edge school. Thanks so much for telling us about it!

You just made me remember another aspect of sensory diet. My son used to chew on his shirt sleeves. When he does this I have him brush his tongue, the insides of his cheeks and his lips while brushing his teeth. It stops the behaviour and he doesn't really need to do it anymore.

When he is stressed he will revert back to the shirt sleave chewing and I will start the mouth brushing again. It is amazing that it works.

My son will tell me that he doesn't want to do some of the things he does, like merciless teazing his little brother, but he can't seem to stop himself. Now that I know what he needs instead of yelling at him I will give him some sensory input and I can better help him to manage his behaviour. I expect him to do his part which he is always willing to do, but I also know he still needs my help.

We really have such a nice relationship. He knows I am there to help him get through the tough times and he really is the sweetest little guy.

Back in our NACD days we would do deep pressure rubs and trigeminal (sp?) stimulation for sensory integration issues. My dd loved these and we did them when she was 'out of focus'. I would have her drink a big glass of water (someone on this board had recommended the water) and then we would start with her fingers, squeezing each finger and move up the arm - squeeze fairly hard. Then repeat on the toes and legs moving up the thigh. The trigenminal stimulation is a very soft, light rub around the face, forehead, sides of head over ears etc.

This was the only way we got thru Audiblox!

Another idea that helped was the Sound Health Series - we used Thinking Series CD. I have given this to several teachers as XMAS gifts and those that actually used them told me that it made a big difference in their class. All the kids focused better and there was a difference in those kids that have more of an issue.

There is also a TLP CD that focuses on Sensory Integration. Haven't used that one tho.

I tried this a.m. to put my wrap around ankle weights on my son's shoulders. He was getting a little hyper and annoying so instead of scoulding we did the jumps I described, he was a little too far gone this time, so I added the weights and wouldn't you know he is sitting calmly watching TV with his brother.

My son has always loved to carry heavy things. I am going to try that deep massage on him next time.

I am trying to have him see just how this helps and have him learn to do it for himself.
I want him to see when he needs this type of stimulation and either do it himself or request it from me.

Great suggestions, thanks so much.

Another good subject here! My son does a lot of these things naturally and I've come to believe that "movement" breaks are healthy and "therapeutic."

One thing my son really likes to do during breaks is create elaborate obstacle courses in the back yard. I've never told him to do this, but he just does it.

Sometimes I wonder if some kids with SID naturally seek therapeutic experiences. I realize not all of them do (some avoid the sensory input they need), but it's quite interesting how some appear to seek it quite intensively. When my son was younger it seemed like he was "driven" to perform certain motor tasks. Even some that were difficult he would repeat over and over.

No, I didn't. I will try it tonight before he does his homework. He did tell me he likes to do it best in bare feet but I wouldn't let him jump off more than the third step without shoes.

My son is much improved but I think he still has some SI issues--the liking of bare feet, for example. He likes to run and jump in bare feet rather than shoes. Good thing we live in Florida!! We were doing jump rope with Neuronet and he preferred and did do better in bare feet.

Beth

As we've noticed before - the experts often see the child through their own area of expertise, which doesn't take into consideration the complexities of the issues, or of the children.