Newsletter - ArchivesChild Language
Contact Information:
Therapeutic Interventions of GA, Inc.
2315-C Central Avenue
Augusta, GA 30904
(706) 364-6172 phone
(706) 262-2893 fax
info@tiofga.com
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| HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILD IMPROVE HIS PERFORMANCE IN EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES |
Sensory integration is the organization of sensation for use. Countless bits of information enter our brain at every moment through our eyes, ears, skin, joints, and other parts of our body. Our brain acts as a traffic policeman to organize all of these sensations, which allows us to move, learn and behave normally. When the flow of sensations into the brain is disorganized, life can be like a rush-hour traffic jam. Let us think about the sensations as “food for the brain”, providing energy and knowledge needed to direct the body and the mind. Without the well-organized sensory process, these sensations cannot be digested to nourish the brain. If the brain does a poor job of integrating sensations, it will interfere with many things in life, resulting in increased effort and difficulty and less success and satisfaction. 5-10 % of children in U.S. have enough trouble with sensory integration to cause them to be slow learners and or to have behavior problems.
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1) Recognize the problem so that you will know what your child needs.
2) Help your child feel all right about himself.
3) Control his environment.
4) Help him learn how to play.
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| HOW IS PLAYING GOING TO HELP MY CHILD? |
Physical activity produces sensory stimulation and adaptive responses that help to organize the brain. Through play the child obtains the sensory input from his body and from gravity that is essential for both physical and emotional development. The more the child explores, the more his senses are stimulated, which contributes to development and adaptive responses. Through large full body movements, he learns how to relate himself to the space around him. Through manipulation of small toys, he learns to use his hands and fingers efficiently.
Running, turning, bending, touching, pushing, pulling, rolling, crawling, climbing, and jumping gives your child good input to help organize sensations in a more productive manner.
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| WHAT KIND OF TOYS WOULD BENEFIT MY CHILD? |
The best toys have no specific use, but offer many variations in use, allowing creativity and imagination.
Choose toys that will encourage your child to move his entire body or manipulate things with his hands.
Tricycles, wagons, jump ropes, slides, swings, rocking horses, jungle gyms, blocks, puzzles, Tinker Toys, Lego, etc. are all good. Backyard play sets offer basic input, while playground equipment provides a better variety of input.
Children do not need expensive toys to play effectively. An old spoon, bedsheet, empty cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, tires, inner tubes, large ropes, kitchen pots and pans, pieces of foam padding, pillows and other things laying around the house offer opportunities for playing and using imagination.
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Let your child go through the following routine in the mornings before coming to therapy or going to school. This routine can also be adapted into your child’s daily routine or in the evenings.
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| SUGGESTED DAILY MORNING ROUTINE TO PROMOTE YOUR CHILD’S PERFORMANCE DURING DAILY ACTIVITIES: |
1. Pretend that your child is a wheel barrow. Hold his feet while he walks with his hands into the bathroom and back into his room.
2. Let him help with getting his clothes. Opening and closing drawers provides good input to his joints.
3. Before he gets dressed, rub his/her body with a dry wash cloth applying quick firm pressure (i.e. 10 times over arms, hands, legs, feet and back). You can also apply lotion on the body if preferred.
4. Before dressing, put your child between two pillows (or comforters) making him a hamburger or hot dog. Spread imaginary mustard, catch-up and mayonnaise on him by applying firm pressure all over his body with your hands. Squash him down to make your sandwich flatter.
5. Let him jump all the way to the kitchen. (Pretend to be a kangaroo or “Tiger”)
6. Let him open the refrigerator and get milk or juice and carry it to the table. Carrying weights provides input that helps your child improve his organization capabilities.
7. Let him pull his/her chair out before sitting down. He/she can also pull the chair out for others.
8. Before leaving the house for school or therapy let him go through an obstacle course for ten to fifteen minutes. Use your imagination for preparing this course. Rearranging dining room chairs to form a tunnel to crawl through, using kitchen tile patterns to jump on, pushing out the walls to make the room bigger, walking on an eight feet long tape pretending its a balance beam, drawing a six feet tall “8” on the floor with chalk or tape for your child to drive his truck on or using an old blanket to crawl under are some ideas to help you make your own personnel obstacle course.
If you have room in your backyard to set up an obstacle course, here are some other tips: Place a 10-foot long 2x4 on two bricks for a balance beam. Suspend a rope from a tree branch to swing with or hang an old inner tube from a rope to swing with. Use old card board boxes to crawl through. Place a small trampoline to jump on. Make a sand box with old cups and serving spoons to use as tools.
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| OTHER SUGGESTED PLAY ACTIVITIES: |
1) Make a simple bolster from an old blanket or two tied in a roll. Let him roll over it.
2) Make an obstacle course in which the child must creep, crawl, climb, step up, walk backwards, hop, push, pull, roll, run, turn, bend or jump.
3) Rough house with your child.
4) Play hide and seek.
5) Play hopscotch.
6) Bean bag toss.
7) Give your child a piggy back ride.
8) Swing.
9) Rock in a hammock.
10) Let him ride a scooter board while he is laying on the board on his tummy using
hands to walk the scooter board.
11) Come down a ramp on a scooter board.
12) Play tug of war on knees.
13) Push out walls to make them bigger.
14) Sandpiles are great, with a cut up bleach bottle or plastic soap container to use as a scoop. Add water to it and holes can be dug, mountains can be made, tunnels dug,toy cars cab be driven over it. (Might be an activity to enjoy before bath time)
15) Build a play house with pillows and couch cushions and crawl through them.
16) Carry laundry baskets to and from the wash room. Load or help load washer and
dr.
17) Carry groceries into the house from the car, help unpack and put them up.
18) Vacuum.
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