Wendy Rudd OT

Yes! It means the feelings are a bit overwhelming and taking some time to listen to those feelings will help you have a much better day or afternoon.

When children are sitting on an old hurt from just now, hours ago, yesterday, last year... it can sometimes bubble up to be heard and if we can meet this with "Staylistening" (coming in close and allowing the feelings without interruption, judgement or fixing, just warmth and empathy), they can heal and the result is more lightness, cooperation and better connection.

Search "Staylistening" on our website for more on this powerful tool that will have you looking at emotional release as a welcome gift for you and your child!

Thanks, Our Mama Village via Institute of Child Psychology

If you look at the iceberg image above, you’ll notice that the image depicts an iceberg with activity words above the water level. These tasks depict the heavy work actions that we see in action.

Heavy work may include:
Pushing, Pulling, Lifting, Carrying, Chewing, Jumping, Carrying, Squeezing, Climbing, Pinching, Brushing...and Any other actions that use the muscles and joints with weight of the body or object

Under the water level, you’ll notice words and phrases that depict underlying skills. These are the components of heavy work that you might not “see” in action, but they are occurring with and through heavy work.

These are skills that we need for everyday tasks. Heavy work involves these components, and are what makes body awareness and movement happen. These are the skills that contribute to the organizing and regulating capacity of heavy work. The potential of these underlying components to contribute to the effectiveness of heavy work activities.

These underlying components include:
Proprioception
Interoception
Core strength
Coordination
Motor planning
Body awareness
Vestibular input
Core strength and stability of the shoulder girdle
Proximal joint strength and stability (elbow, wrist, etc.)

We like to say that it’s like the chicken and the egg saying. The underlying and contributing factors of heavy work contribute to the heavy work actions and the heavy work actions contribute to the underlying contributing factors.

HOW TO USE HEAVY WORK ACTIVITIES
Now you are ready to use heavy work sensory input...

Some deep pressure work activities require no equipment and very little space. Others may require some props and a bit of space. Select your heavy work activity according to the space and items available to you.

And have a few options available. Each child has a different sensory make up and preference and will respond differently to the heavy work input that you introduce. Fine out more here:
https://www.theottoolbox.com/heavy-work-activities/

Clapping Games are an Awesome Way to Work on Motor Skills

Miss Jaime writes "As a school-based OT, I use clapping games often with individual children, small groups, and whole classes. The things that I can learn about a child from watching them learn a clapping game are amazing. I thought I would break it down for the rest of the world so I can spread the love of clapping games!"

Read more here > https://missjaimeot.com/why-you-should-teach-your-child-clapping-games/?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com

Did you know that your child’s development is closely linked to an incredible internal GPS system known as the Vestibular System?
https://ilslearningcorner.com/2016-04-vestibular-system-your-childs-internal-gps-system-for-motor-planning-and-attention/

Check out this fantastic article that highlights 10 incredible toys to enhance your child's jumping skills! https://ilslearningcorner.com/2016-10-toys-to-help-your-child-learn-how-to-jump/

Do you have a pile of pennies in the bottom of your purse? Use them to support fine motor skill development, visual motor skills, and more! Here's our tips and tricks>>> https://www.theottoolbox.com/manipulating-coins-fine-motor-skills/

Creating a sensory friendly classroom does not need to be complicated or expensive. Here are 5 tips that are easy and budget friendly!

https://sensoryprocessingexplained.com/5-tips-for-a-sensory-friendly-classroom/?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com

Nose blowing is totally a developmental process...and one that needs taught! Here is what you need to know about teaching kids to blow their nose. Including the developmental components, sensory considerations, and nose blowing tips!
It's that time of year! 🤧
https://www.theottoolbox.com/tips-help-kids-learn-how-to-blow-their-nose/

When I try to define the word “proprioception” I usually refer to it as “deep body sense”. The sensing part of it also has to do with your sense of body in space and your body in relation to itself and other objects. Proprioception is sometimes called the “universal regulator” in that nearly everybody in the world finds proprioceptive input to be regulating to their body in some way.

Proprioceptive sensory input is sometimes called “heavy work”. Because of its role as the universal regulator, it is described throughout sensory-informed websites, images, etc as a good tool to utilize with almost all kids (and humans in general), regardless of whether you know their sensory profile or not. With kids who are sensory-seeking, proprioceptive input is likely to meet their active, seeking needs for high sensory input. For kids who are sensory-avoidant or sensory-sensitive, proprioceptive input may help their body stay settled and regulated even when other overwhelming input is present. For kids who are sensory-missing, proprioceptive input may help raise their baseline awareness of what’s going on in their body, or even if it doesn’t raise their awareness, it might help keep their body regulated and open up space for attention to other things.

This next part is out of my own describing and classifying, not taken from a different source, so I make no claims that it’s definitive or exhaustive. It’s very possible that I might’ve forgotten something. But as best as I can describe it, I think that proprioception —proprioceptive sensory input — can be subdivided into three types: exertion, impact, and pressure.

🟪Exertion would be like pushing, pulling, lifting, climbing, hanging, tensing, using muscles.

You can take these verbs and plug them into different environments to figure out what would fit. How do you push safely at home? Maybe pushing a vacuum cleaner, pushing against the wall to do wall push-ups, or scooting heavy things around to build a fort (couch cushions, mats, mattresses, heavy comforters/blankets)…? How do you lift safely at school? Carry books, put away chairs, carry something on an errand to another teacher or to the office, carry around a backpack, be the “door helper” and hold the door open…?

🟦Impact would be like wrestling, falling, jumping, running, hitting, kicking, banging.

Again, you can take these and plug them into a setting to try to figure out the best way to meet those needs. Maybe you can’t wrestle at school and you can’t hit or kick people, but you can certainly kick a ball or jump (which is “hitting” your feet against the ground!) Impact-seeking proprioception tends to alarm adults, or they want to tone it down somehow, but putting it into its own category helps us see how for example, pushing or lifting something may not actually satisfy a need for impact-proprioception, but maybe jumping or running would.

🟩Pressure would be like squeezing, leaning, draping, weight, holding or keeping something on or in that body part to “wake” it.

Pressure may be a little harder to intuitively understand if you haven’t spent much time in the OT/sensory-informed world, so some examples of it might be:
-wearing a weighted vest
-wearing a squeeze/spandex vest
-using a weighted blanket
-using a spandex/squeeze sheet
-wearing a heavy coat even when it’s not cold
-keeping an object held in your hand in order to “wake it up”
-wanting to wear shoes all of the time
-getting a tight squeezy hug
-rolling up in blankets
-burying self in cushions

The most societally acceptable seeking of pressure-proprioception is usually to seek out a hug. I know many kids who try to continue to wear heavy coats or hoodies if they aren’t made to take them off, because the weight feels soothing to their body. Carrying around a heavy backpack or purse can also be this way.

Again, this is fully only coming from my observed experience and thoughts and no source material or studies, but in that limited experience, I’ve observed different types of proprioceptive input being the primary type of regulator for different forms or root emotional causes of dysregulation.

I think that exertion tends to be the go-to proprioceptive subtype for when many humans are fearfully or angrily dysregulated. Impact (and exertion) tends to be the go-to subtype for when many humans are silly-dysregulated. Impact (and pressure) is sometimes the subtype that people choose when they are in pain or physical distress. Pressure tends to be the go-to subtype for when many humans are sad dysregulated.

These are not universal, because everyone is different and may reach for different things, but this is a pattern I’ve observed in my own life, children, and practice.

People with substantial sensory processing differences may experience extremes, or show “deficits” in one of these areas. For example, kids may struggle to gauge how much pressure is the right amount to write with a pencil, and snap the pencil — or conversely, write in such faint writing you can barely read it. Or how much pressure is the right amount to push in a chair, and slam it in. They may struggle with gauging the right amount of impact for things and hit too hard, hug like a tackle, or wrestle too rough when they try to do these things. They may have difficulties with over- or under-exertion, either filling up too fast on the sensory input and having no energy left for things or needing an endless amount of it to feel right in their body.

Why is it worth writing all this kind of information out like this? I believe that having language to describe what it is that we’re seeing (or personally experiencing) helps us make sense of it. If you can put more specific words to what is happening with a child than just “he’s bouncing off the walls” or “she’s being wild and rowdy” then it helps you see what it is that is actually happening. He’s seeking regulation via proprioceptive input and he’s tending towards seeking out impacts. She’s using proprioception to regulate herself and she’s tending toward exertion. Those are harder statements to parse if you don’t know what they mean, but if you do, they’re much more actionable.

[Image description: A visual titled "Proprioception subtypes" that is divided into three columns. The first column is "Exertion - Pushing, pulling, lifting, climbing, hanging, tensing". The second is "Impact - wrestling, falling, jumping, running, hitting, kicking, banging." The third is "Pressure - squeezing, weighting, holding, draping, leaning." The columns are color-coded with purple, blue, and green which were also used in the body text of this post as bullet points for the different subtypes of proprioception. End description.]

It's that time of year! Here are OT tips to teach kids to blow their nose, even is there are sensory or other challenges: https://www.theottoolbox.com/tips-help-kids-learn-how-to-blow-their-nose/

What does sensory overload feel like? We asked some kids to explain it to us.

Click here to read what they said > https://sensoryprocessingexplained.com/what-does-sensory-overload-feel-like/?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com

THE POWER THAT MUSIC HAS ON THE BRAIN

"Apart from being the entertainment staple for most of the humans, music rewires the brain is a medicine with time-tested effectiveness to back its reputation."

https://www.merriammusic.com/research/the-neuro-plastic-side-of-melodies-how-music-rewires-the-brains-cognitive-sockets/

Risky play for children: Why we should let kids go outside and then get out of the way It turns out play with an element of risk may be exactly what today’s kids are missing

Sign up to our Dyslexia Course for Primary School Teachers.

On the course teachers will develop a deeper understanding of what dyslexia is and the identification of dyslexia. The course also explores the principles of best practice for inclusion in the classroom and developing support for individual students.

The course begins on the 15th January 2024 online and teachers can sign up now. ⬇️

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/dyslexiaireland/1033970

The Right Brain Develops First ~ Why Play is the Foundation for Academic Learning by Vince Gowmon. Article by Vince Gowmon. Did you know that the right brain develops first? It does so by the time children are four years of age. The left brain, on the other hand, doesn’t fully come online until children are approximately seven years old; hence the first seven years being recognized as such a cr...

What a cute idea!

(source unknown)

BENEFITS OF RECESS AS A REGULATION TOOL FOR KIDS

Kids need recess as a regulation tool to help them sit still during class and to attend and focus for longer periods of time. Here's why...

10 Interoception Activities and Strategies for Kids

https://www.growinghandsonkids.com/10-interoception-activities-and-strategies-for-kids.html?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com

Love this! Print this out, laminate and place in your calm down corner. ♥️

Download here: https://www.theottoolbox.com/rainbow-breathing/

5 tips for correcting your child's pencil grasp.

Get the ideas here > https://www.growinghandsonkids.com/5-tips-for-correcting-childs-pencil-grasp.html?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com

Cup stacking activities that may help improve reading scores... https://ilslearningcorner.com/2017-01-cup-stacking-studies-show-cup-stacking-improves-reading-test-scores-and-cross-patterning-brain-development/

How to Foster Problem-Solving Skills in Children Parents and caregivers often find it hard to watch their children struggle. Our instinct is to swoop in and eliminate obstacles they encounter. But is it

Thanks to The Kennedy Center ❤️

POSTURAL CONTROL: When Core Stability is Compromised, Your Child's Learning is No Longer Automatic - Integrated Learning Strategies Why your child's core stability and postural control must be on autopilot for greater learning development.

How Movement in the Classroom Helps Kids Focus Allowing students more movement – both in the classroom and at home – is a win-win for teachers, parents, and kids alike.

DreamGYM brings the fun of the outdoors into your home. Our product line includes a variety of doorway gyms and sensory swings that allow children to self-regulate and have fun in the comforts of their own homes.
https://kidsdreamgym.com/collections
Children will have a blast climbing ladders, swinging on trapeze bars, doing flips on gym rings or relaxing in sensory hammocks. Parents love the ability our swings have to calm down overwhelmed youngsters on the verge of a meltdown.
DreamGYM's unique design installs right into your doorway and ready for play in minutes.
DreamGYM is a family-owned business founded in 2007 in Canada. Our mission is to keep families regulated and in motion.

Speech Therapy Technology ESTA calls for research participants re experiences of speech and language therapy for children in Ireland. ESTA is a new research project, focusing on using AI to enhance Speech and Language Therapy for children. Why is this study being done? The speech and language therapy service in Ireland faces...

A look at some of the common IEP green flags for special education or, in other words, the positive signals that you want to see in an IEP.

https://www.andnextcomesl.com/2023/10/iep-green-flags.html

POSITIVE SIMPLE PHRASES TO ENCOURAGE AND UPLIFT YOUR CHILD

Autism and ADHD Diagnostic Assessments Timely, Accurate and Affordable Diagnosis Assessments of Autism and ADHD At Neurodiversity Training International, we understand the importance of a timely and accurate diagnosis for individuals seeking support and guidance in managing autism or ADHD. Our comprehensive assessment process, provided i...

Did you know all of the moving pieces that impact a functional pencil grasp? These fine motor skills are so important for functioning and completing every day tasks!

Read about what all of these terms mean and how to develop each area through play: https://www.theottoolbox.com/fine-motor-skills/

7 Social Skills You Can Start Teaching Your Child Now Social skills for kids are essential for helping children make friends and grow emotionally. Learn the most important social skills and how to teach them.

Your Therapy Source

Research indicates that integrating physical activity to facilitate learning in a preschool classroom resulted in improved learning outcomes. http://ed.gr/go23

Sensory Digest

Swing Consultation & Implementation