All posts by Guest Blogger

Move Mindfully Card Deck and Sensory Systems

February 7, 2018Body Awareness, SensoryGuest Blogger

by Stephanie Kennelly

Therapro is excited to offer the Move Mindfully Card Deck, available at our store. This product helps integrate physical fitness, mindfulness and social emotional skills into practice. The deck not only offers individual poses, but also routines to address a variety of common needs, such as “accident prone” and “lethargic”.

As a Blog Bonus, we are offering a free download of three poses from the card deck to get you started with a simple routine. Read on to learn more about each pose and how it relates to your Occupational Therapy goals.

Belly Breathing

Belly Breathing

Getting into the Pose:
Belly Breathing is often taught with the Hoberman Sphere. The brightly colored, collapsible tool offers a visual tracking point to feel the diaphragm expand and contract. However, hands can simply be placed at heart and belly when teaching belly breathing as well. To start, we recommend a seated position in a chair, for back support. As a modification, this pose can also be completed laying on the floor. In this position, try a small object or toy placed on the belly for extra visualization of the up and down movement.

Therapy Resource:
Belly breathing is a great way to work on postural stability while maintaining an upright position without a collapsed trunk or slouched shoulders. This pose also taps into interoception and body awareness as breathing is tracked.

More Info on Belly Breathing

Tree Pose

Tree Pose

Getting Into the Pose:
Tree Pose is an introductory balancing pose that all body abilities can enjoy. We start by cueing the heel to touch the ankle. As balancing progresses, the foot can be placed on the calf or thigh. However, make sure to avoid any pressure on the knee joint. The hands press together at midline, palm to palm, providing additional input.

Therapy Resource:
Like belly breathing, this pose works postural stability through core activation in a static hold. It also works on bilateral coordination as hands and feet press towards midline while maintaining balance and focus. The stacking of joints over the anchored foot (ankles, hips, wrists) taps into theproprioceptive system. If you need additional proprioceptive input in this pose, try stamping feet before attempting to hold static. Activate the vestibular system by experimenting with the foot and hand placement.. Also, try small movement, such as swaying, within the pose. Work on vision by providing various focal points experimenting with gaze up, out, down and even eyes closed. If you see the MORO Reflex in this pose, return to Belly Breathing.

More info on Tree Pose

Child’s Pose

Child's Pose

Getting Into the Pose:
Child’s pose is often used at the beginning or the end of a session. However, it can be used whenever there is a need to decrease overstimulation. It can be completed on the floor or at a table.

Therapy Resource:
As you cue stacked fists, you are working on bilateral coordination and proprioception as joints are stacked together at midline. On the floor, there is the additional tactile input from the legs and arms on the Earth. Seekers may need to rock, or add extra movement to the pose, while avoiders may have to stay more upright. Offer a vestibular system modification of seating in a chair, hands stacked on forehead and chin slightly tucked.

More Info on Child’s Pose

About Us-

This blog post is a collaborative effort of Sweet Inside Yoga and 1000 Petals.

Sweet Inside Yoga is a company providing resources for occupational therapy, physical therapy, mental health practitioners, classroom teachers, yoga teachers, professionals, parents, and others in the community to use with individuals who can be found seeking and/or avoiding yoga activities.

1000 Petals is a well-being training and consulting company based on the science and practice of mindfulness and movement. They provide integrative mindfulness and movement solutions in workshops, events, retreats and self-care classes. Subscribe to their newsletter to receive weekly tips and resources on integrating mindful movement into your therapy.

Teaching Utensil Use Outside of the Mealtime Experience

January 11, 2018Feeding Therapy, Fine Motor, Life SkillsGuest Blogger

It seems as natural as can be; use a child’s meals and snack times as opportunities to teach them how to hold and control their fork or spoon. In this atmosphere of “least restrictive environment” and push-in treatment, this sounds like a great plan for your therapy session.

Although it seems like a good idea, there are circumstances in which separating utensil use from food consumption, at least initially, can be more effective in treatment:

Children with tactile aversions and oral sensitivity may find combining manual and intra-oral exploration to be too overwhelming.
Children with both motor and sensory issues may find that they cannot work on practicing multiple skills at the same time.
Children with behavior issues can be faced with a difficult situation: they want to eat and they want to exert control over their body or an adult’s behavior.
Kids with minimal endurance or tolerance can lack the ability to complete a meal, leaving them dependent on adults or frustrated with their fatigue or a sense of failure.

Teaching utensil use without the expectation of food ingestion can solve these problems. As skills and tolerance grow, the two experiences can be joined successfully. Here are some suggestions to make practice effective and weave it back into functional experience as seamlessly as possible:

Have the child feed an adult using child-friendly utensils and foods. A child may decide to take a bite instead of feeding the adult, so a food’s size and texture should be safe for the child’s developmental level.

Playfully scooping and piercing non-food objects such as non-edible dough with utensils and other “real” tableware may extend practice sessions while decreasing the stress of multi-sensory exposure with food.

Watching the therapist eat food that the child has prepared or served with utensils reinforces the social and nurturing aspects of meal preparation and eating.
Using strategies such as backward chaining or graded exposure, activities that begin by separating utensil use from eating can become more like a typical mealtime experience over time. When children are given a “just-right” level of challenge, they make faster progress with ease.

Cathy Collyer, OTR, LMT, PLLC

Cathy Collyer, OTR, LMT has treated children with neurological, orthopedic and sensory processing disorders for over 20 years. She is the author of The Practical Guide To Toilet Training Your Child With Low Muscle Tone. Learn more about her work at tranquilbabies.com.

Do Gifted But Non-Disabled Children Need Occupational Therapy?

November 15, 2017Occupational TherapyGuest Blogger

School-based occupational therapists are familiar with receiving requests for assessments or interventions for children with delays of all kinds. What happens when the service request is for a child that has been identified as gifted or talented, but has no diagnosed disorders? Will OT treatment help a child whose brain is globally and permanently wired for intense responses?

Some common behavioral characteristics of the gifted often suggest that sensory processing difficulties could be present:

Sensitivity to lighting, fabrics, and other sensory stimulation.
Seeking strong sensory-motor input throughout the day.
Difficulty tolerating school rules such as taking turns or sharing the spotlight in discussions.
Pursues interests in isolation or with adults rather than with peers.
Resistance to complete assigned projects; pursues personal interests.

Theorists such as Kazimierz Dabrowski have attributed these and other behaviors to multiple “overexcitabilites.” He identified five primary areas of over-excitability in gifted individuals: psychomotor, sensory, intellectual, imaginational and emotional. Not considered to be signs of neurological disorders, they are thought to be the result of a brain that is wired differently than children of average abilities. Brain imagining studies suggest that the gifted make faster and more complex associations between stimuli. They perceive experiences and interactions with more depth and intensity than other children, and have an inborn drive to follow their passions.

These brain characteristics are not necessarily problematic for every gifted child. When teachers and parents know how to support children who learn differently, the gifted child can become a positive force and even a leader in the classroom. Although scores on the Sensory Profile or on other sensory-based assessments may suggest an SI diagnosis, there are gifted children that manage successfully in school and at home without intervention. They may even come up with their own sensory diet, having identified activities that provide what they need. For example, a child that seeks sensory input could engage in complex art projects or specific sports activities that provide visual, tactile, vestibular or proprioceptive input. A sensory-sensitive child may happily use an unoccupied corner of the room with indirect light for free reading time.

Some gifted children will have difficulty in class, especially when their behavior is at odds with school routines and social norms. A child that takes over discussions or refuses to work on a group project may disrupt a classroom or be unable to complete assignments even though their academic abilities exceed their peers. A child that refuses to wear a tie or participate in music class may need help to handle the demands of school.

Anne Cronin, OTR, FAOTA has recommended that gifted children can benefit from sensory diets and modulation strategies found in programs such as “How Does Your Engine Run?” It is worth noting that gifted children may be able to comprehend and implement programs at earlier ages and stages than typical children. Children who were reading at 3 or creating complex imaginary civilizations at 5 may learn and incorporate a sensory diet almost immediately on accepting its value. Such students may even improve on your suggested activities with one of their own creation! This is the time to collaborate with them and provide them with the positive feedback they may need in order to try new ways of responding at school and at home.

The same sensory-based equipment that we recommend for other children with sensory processing problems could help gifted children as well. Fluorescent Light Filters effectively dim harsh lighting, and fidgets for feet and hands can be effective tools that don’t disrupt productive work. Because gifted children need to learn to manage and modulate their intense and complex responses, there are many ways that OTs could be helpful to these children.

Gifted children may need a wider variety of tools to give them the desired novelty they crave, or they may reject many ideas rapidly. Always ask for an explanation and be ready with alternatives. A gifted child may be able to project many steps ahead of you and identify roadblocks that you don’t anticipate…yet!

Cathy Collyer, OTR, LMT, PLLC