Dove Rehabilitation Services

Swing Into Spring! Use of swings primarily activates the vestibular system, which in turn tends to generate a three-part outcome to stimulate:
1. Activation of the vestibular nuclei with their contribution to balance and awareness of positioning the body in space.
2. Activation of the ocular motor complex with their contribution to visual pursuits and visual discrimination.
3. Activation of the auditory cortex to promote both receptive and expressive language.

When working with an indoor swing, it is a good idea to incorporate visual targets with the task.

When working outdoors with a swing, try to use weighted sensory gear (ankle weights, a weighted belt or weighted vest for additional proprioceptive input to stimulate body awareness and core strength.

For additional information check out this blog post: https://doverehab.com/2019/01/activating-the-vestibular-triad/

The body’s nervous system is designed to respond to the sensory input of pressure. Children who are overactive often tend to respond well to “deep pressure”. Deep Pressure is the sensation produced when an individual is hugged, squeezed, stroked, orheld comfortably. This type of sensation produces the sensation that tells the brain to “slow down” and to regulate itself.

The equipment shown here is commonly used by therapists to provide children who have Sensory Processing Disorders to simply “calm down”. Use of these tools can helpthe child to better manage their responses to challenges they find in both social and physical activities. In this way, the sensory tools can be used at home and at school.

Many children enjoy “playing” with food. They will look at and participate in such play with little prompting. When playful visual images are presented for food craft, attention is easily captured and sustained.

Positioning parts of the food craft at angles of interest is an important feature. For example, the Nutter Butter dog ears have been positioned at the top of the cookie. Meanwhile, the eyes were set apart within the inner curve of the dog ears. Meanwhile, the dog’s snout and nose have been deliberately positioned at the bottom of the cookie. These are visual perceptual features positioned for specific attention.

In a similar manner, the small grapes and blueberry on the Oreo cookie flower require attention to finger grip patterns of both hands for success with this task. The child who is assembling of the spiders’ legs is incorporating spatial language in order to arrange the grapes appropriately. And, by the way, they are having fun while learning these skills!

The ability to sustain attention is an essential element of success in school at all ages. Key ingredients for sustained attention include:

Nutritional support: many children eat foods that are not healthy for attention and avoid foods that boost attention

Exercise: not just moving around, but workouts that involve antigravity and
resistance to build a strong core

Sensory tools as needed: ideally, the specialized sensory tools should be
recommended by the occupational therapist since each child is different.

For further information about attention with SPD children, take a look at these blog posts:
https://doverehab.com/2020/06/resistive-exercise-heavy-work-and-attention/
https://doverehab.com/2017/09/attentive-behaviors-part-1/

Key components of fine motor skills incorporate the ability to integrate three very basic components:

1. Attention is a basic component of fine motor skills. The ability to keep sustaining attention to the steps oft he activity is essential.
2. Another basic component of fine motor skills is the ability to sustain control of the eyes as they work together in guiding fingers and hands for ongoing positioning of the target.
3. Finally, the ability to continue in planning and carrying out the needed motor sequences of movement is also a key component that is essential to success with fine motor skills.

For more details refer to:

https://doverehab.com/category/fine-motor-skills/

This fun fidget is easy for the child with SPD to make and enjoy. You’ll need two round balloons. It’s easier to use two balloons that have different colors. Plan to use one balloon with a dark color and a second balloon with a lighter color.

Have your child cut out a few medium sized circles in the balloon with the darker color. Then use the eraser end of a pencil to push and slide the lighter colored balloon into the balloon that already has the holes.

Pull open the mouth of the lighter colored balloon that is inside the brightly colored balloon and slowly pour water into it. Fill the lightly colored balloon until it is somewhat full and tie it tightly.

Next pull the mouth of the balloon that has the holes up and over the water filled balloon. Also tie it tightly. Squeeze the toy gently.

A playground can offer a world of opportunities for remedial fun for a child who has Sensory Processing Disorders, rather than have the child simply run around to let off steam.

Two key Ingredients needed to transform a playground into remedial fun are:
-->Adding weight to body parts that helps to increase appreciation of where, when, and timing of moves of the body segments
-->Adding visual targets to the “games” by using bean bags (or non-bounceable toys) and buckets for targets placed strategically in relation to the playground equipment

Ankle weights, wrist weights, weighted belts, and weighted vests can be excellent tools for adding awareness of body parts. Take advantage of playground equipment that offers opportunities for whole body moves. Climbing equipment, slides, and swings are best for these types of activities. (Therapists have reported that the total weight added should be close to 10% of the child’s total body weight).

Many children who have SPD have poor awareness of where their body segments are in space from moment to moment as they move. Awareness of joint positions and moves of body segments as they contact playground equipment can become helpful play with simple prompts such as “let your right foot touch the slide as you glide down”, or “toss that beanbag into the bucket as you slide down”. Playground equipment that offers specific places to put body segments (such as overhead rings, climbing dome, etc.) are a great help for these types of “games”.

Food crafts are a fun way to capture the attention of the child with Sensory Processing Disorders to coordinate moves of the eyes and hands together. Use of complementary food colors, textures, tastes and treats arouses the intent to play rather than avoid craft activities .


Selecting foods with different shapes requires positioning of the hands and fingers in a variety of poses in order to gather the food parts together. In addition, positioning parts of the food so that they relate to each other typically requires use of both hands working together with intention. The ability to integrate touch, movement, and vision tends to emerge when children play to create food craft projects that look like fun.

When visual perceptual difficulties co-mingle with Sensory Processing Disorders, the visual issues are often found to be paired with the subtype of sensory disorder the child has. For example, the child who has SPD with coordination difficulties, often has difficulties coordinating muscles of the eyes. These are often shown to teachers and parents as difficulties with activities that require visual tracking. Handwriting or catching a ball are examples of activities that require the ability to move the eyes along with a moving target. In a similar manner, the child with the type of SPD that involves difficulty discriminating specific types of sensory input such as touch, may also have difficulty with visual discrimination skills. Another common finding among children with SPD who have difficulties with balance is that they frequently have difficulty with visual spatial skills as well. These children often have great difficulty knowing and/or expressing where objects are in space. Symptoms of poor visual spatial skills, such as writing letters backward, ongoing difficulty with tying shoelaces, or completing jigsaw puzzles are commonly seen among children who have poor balance. Difficulties with visual associative skills, (the ability to associate names or functions of objects) often accompanies visual associative deficits when children have SPD. Common symptoms of this disorder includes a tendency for the child to use “this” or “thing” to describe items, rather than use the name of the object being referred to. For further information, please click on references below: https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/visual-processing-disorder.html
or https://padulainstitute.com/vision-problems-in-children/

When children have difficulties with their fine motor skills, it is helpful to keep in mind three key points.

-->The arms, hands, and fingers develop skills as they are used in tandem with the rest of the body. They do not develop fine motor skills all by themselves. The arms, hands, and fingers develop optimally when their skills emerge from steady, wholistic moves of the upper body, neck, and head. When activities that strengthen the upper body as a whole are used in conjunction with the arms, hands and fingers, these body parts learn to work together as a team. When children experience difficulties in developing fine motor skills, it is a good idea to begin with work that focuses on the upper body as a whole. This means, sitting up straight, rather than slouching, and using activities to strengthen the upper back and neck.
-->Toys that offer resistance to the hands are helpful in developing strength for fine motor skills because they require pushing and/or pulling moves with the hands. These types of toys also require use of both hands moving together in order to play with them. Use of toys that require strength for play teach children how to use their hands in give-and-take motor patterns. This means that while one handholds a part of the toy still, the other hand will be turning a part of the toy to push, pull, or rotate it into place.
-->The eyes are key players for the upper body team. Incorporating activities that have images or instructions to follow along with the activity, stimulates the upper body team to slow down and to pay closer attention. Using small toys that have differences among the pieces can be helpful in activating small movements of the fingers in response to what is seen.

For more information about developing fine motor skills, click on the link below:https://www.doverehab.com/2020/06/fine-motor-skills-are-essential/

Dopamine is a chemical that is released by nerve cells in the brain that serves to strengthen signals sent to other nerve cells. Dopamine plays a key role for children with Sensory Processing Disorders by firming up attention, coordination and thinking skills.
Types of resistive play that produces Dopamine includes:

Indoor gross motor activities
-->Climbing stairs• Physioball exercises• Exercise routines such as jumping jacks, squat thrusts• Singing and marching along with action song (If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands, stamp your feet, etc.)• Balancing toys, sit and spin, spin disk• Rope pull scooter along a carpet

Resistive toys:
-->Big Bolt• Brio• Big Building Blocks• Zoobs• Clip and Create Builders

Building toys that use tools:
-->Educational construction toys with drill, hammer, pliers such as: Brickyard• Following Directions Building Set

For more ideas about using activities to address attention, motor skills, and organization skills click on the website below: https://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/2020/03/23/gross-motor-skills-and-activities/

Recent studies have demonstrated that children who have a variety of developmental issues, including deficits with attention, coordination, social disabilities, and sensory processing disorders may find help through nutritional support.

Promising research has demonstrated that the B vitamins may also be helpful in addressing low muscle tone. Foods that are rich in B vitamins include whole grains, red meat, and eggs. The B vitamins are known for converting food into energy, thereby helping to maintain healthy brain cells and their metabolism.

L-carnitine helps provide energy to the body and is helpful for children that have low muscle tone (weak muscle strength). L-carnitine is a nutrient that is found mostly in red meat and dairy products.

Foods that provide Magnesium (mainly green leafy vegetables and red meat) have been found to be of value for these children. Magnesium is known to assist the nervous system in combining proteins for muscle and nerve interactions (for example, by regulating muscle actions and aiding brain development).

Food crafts open a door of opportunity for stimulating hand function while engaging attention and mindfulness of the child who has Sensory Processing Disorders. Who can resist use of simple, yet visually attractive food treats that are fun to make?

Hacks To Use:
--> Plan to use seasonal items when possible.
--> Keep the task short and simple. Limit the activity to a simple project that can be completed within 5 – 15 minutes.
--> Select a food craft that contains small parts that encourage fingertip manipulation skills. These types of crafts will inherently require use of both hands. One hand will be needed to hold the body of the project still, while the other hand will be needed to manipulate and “glue” the small parts onto the body of the craft with the fingertips.

For example, the pear face shown on this Facebook post was planned so that one hand could hold the top of the pear still. Meanwhile the other hand would apply one dab of “food glue” at a time in order to set each eye, nose, and mustache into place

Sensory Processing Disorders (SPD) is a medical condition that emerges in childhood and continues through adulthood unless intervention is provided. SPD presents with a wide variety of conditions that may be grouped into three major categories including: (1)Modulation Disorders, (2) Sensory Based Motor Disorders, and (3) Disorders of Sensory Discrimination.
(1) People who have Modulation Disorders may show deficits in attention (with hyperactivity or inattentive types), deficits with social engagement skills, or issues with organizational skills.
(2) People who have Sensory Based Motor Disorders may include difficulties with postural control and muscle strength, deficits using both sides of the body with reciprocal patterns of movement, balance, or the ability to plan and carry out step-by-step motor sequences.
(3) Those who have Discrimination Disorders may present with difficulties discriminating among visual objects such as letter reversals (i.e., “p” versus “d”). Alternatively, sensory hypersensitivities in the auditory, tactile, or gustatory (taste) domains may be present with dislike of certain types of sounds, touch, or tastes.
For more information, please visit our blogs with further information about SPD at: https://www.doverehab.com/2021/10/children-with-spd-and-school-performance/ or
https://www.doverehab.com/2021/03/sensory-processing-disorders-and-visual-perception/

Resistive exercise helps the body to produce Dopamine.
--> Physical activity triggers a release of both Dopamine and Serotonin.
-->This is can be a powerful win, win situation in that these two brain substances working together support the body’s ability to produce chemicals needed for both memory and mood

Resistive exercise helps the brain process information from integrative pathways needed for body awareness and spatial organization.
--> Resistive exercise triggers underlying sensory receptors of the joints and muscles that relay information to brain regions involved with body awareness and production of motor skills

Regularly scheduled resistive exercise helps to produce strength and agility through the core regions of the trunk.
--> Muscle strength and stability through key regions of the trunk, shoulders, and hips help to position the trunk for follow-up step-wise movements of the limbs.
--> The ability to hold the trunk steady through planning and sequencing moves of the limbs helps to offset the tendency for slips and bruises commonly found among children who have Sensory Processing Disorders

Coordination and Sensory Processing Skills
The ability to process sensory information needed for coordination requires:
• Body Awareness – an appreciation of where the body parts are and how they are moving on a subconscious level. Body awareness frees the cortex of the brain to plan for the sequence of movements required to complete a motor task
• Motor Planning - the ability to organize and direct use of body parts together in terms of force, direction and timing. In this instance for the arms and legs to work together in synchrony as needed to move the soccer ball down the field.
• Eye- hand coordination- the ability to use vision to guide moves of the hands and fingers onto a target, such as needed to guide lace tips through holes of a sneaker.
For more information about coordination challenges for children who have sensory processing disorders, visit our blogs at:
https://www.doverehab.com/category/coordination/
https://www.doverehab.com/2018/06/integrating-vision-with-body-awareness/
https://www.doverehab.com/2018/05/eye-hand-coordination/

Sensory Processing Disorders And Red Flags in School Performance

Children who have Sensory Processing Disorders tend to stand out at school in fundamental areas of classroom skills. These skill areas tend to mirror the three primary types of Sensory Processing Disorders. Namely difficulties with:
* Self-regulation
- ability to control attention
- ability to ignore non-essential information
- ability to control energy level (neither over or under active, ability to maintain the “just right” level of energy for the task at hand)
* Coordination
- ability to integrate hand and eye movements together
- ability to organize control of movement and posture * Sensory Sensitivities
- ability to adapt to visual details – impacts reading and social skills
- ability to adapt to auditory details – impacts language skills
- ability to adapt to tactile and touch sensations – impacts skilled handling of classroom manipulatives, arts and crafts materials, etc.

Many children with sensory processing issues tend to repeat what they do well and avoid activities that are new or challenging. In this way the child tends to limit opportunities for learning by experience. A menu of options for well-balanced play helps to offset this tendency. Using a menu of key activities can help the child with SPD maintain developmental goals through the summer months.

Summer offers a wonderful time to turn seemingly, purposeless play into mindful learning opportunities.
Key features to keep intentional include:
1. Keeping the activity at an appropriate skill level. Activities that are too hard are not really fun, and children with developmental issues such as SPD/ADHD/DCD will avoid rather than engage them.
2. Engaging the “Fun Factor” by incorporating a favorite theme that you know the child enjoys.
3. Planning ahead to capture the interest of the child.
One checklist that may help parents determine “Fun Factors” for their child:
• What makes your child smile and laugh?
• What gets and keeps your child’s attention?
• What gets your child excited?
• What are your child’s favorite things to do?
• What does your child work hard at doing?
• What “brings out the best” in your child?
• What gets your child to try new things?
• What does your child choose to do most often?
Plan to build these elements into the environment to design meaningful learning skills that will last a lifetime.

For additional information see: https://dove.click/kir or https://dove.click/2if

Motor planning may be defined as the ability to organize the body's actions: knowing what steps to take, and in what order to take them in order to complete a motor task. Motor planning includes a variety of ingredients such as:
• Attention
• Body awareness – mindfulness of the body parts, where they are and what they are doing from moment to moment
• Bilateral motor coordination – the ability to use both sides of the body together
• Postural control – the ability to organize balance through the midline of the body
• Visual Motor Integration – the ability to combine visual perception with motor skills
These ingredients are often compromised when children have difficulty with coordination. Activities at home that address deficits in motor planning skills include those that incorporate whole body actions. Playground activities, sports and household chores that incorporate heavy work, are likely to be helpful in addressing deficits in motor planning skills.

For more information and resources see our blog post on motor planning: https://www.doverehab.com/2019/10/motor-planning-and-coordination/

Food craft activities are inescapably tied to use of eye-hand coordination skills. For success in controlling food craft media, the child’s eyes must take in key ideas about the shapes being manipulated and how best to grasp them. Planning ahead for sustained eye gaze coupled with hand movements are key factors for success.

Children often grow rapidly during springtime, when having been cooped up over the winter finally yields to the need to move around outside. At this point, the muscles of the body are typically growing unevenly. This type of rapid, uneven growth generally impacts the small muscles of the eyes and hands as well as those core muscles of the trunk.

Food crafts are an engaging way to capture the child’s attention because the outcomes usually are fun to eat. Children usually enjoy these crafts, and they tend to rehearse, rather than avoid the fine motor repetition that yields success. The outcomes of food crafts also tend to bolster the child’s sense of accomplishment since they generally look good and are fun to share.

Other references for more ideas about how to strengthen finger function and more about using Food Crafts include our blogs. Simply click on a link below:

https://www.doverehab.com/2020/06/fine-motor-skills-are-essential/

https://www.doverehab.com/2018/07/strengthening-fine-motor-skills/

https://www.doverehab.com/2018/09/impacting-your-environment-fingers-please/

Helping your child through growth spurts that impact body awareness

Signs of rapid growth impacting body awareness and coordination include frequent episodes of:

●slips, falls, collisions ● loss of balance ● Incoordination ● disorganization ●

Helpful activities during rapid stages of growth are those that incorporate use of vision with body coordination. Activities such as:

Hopscotch
Games that incorporate use of a swing, or alternately balance beam activities
Jumping rope
Bicycle riding
Obstacle courses on a hop ball
Sports and movement games (especially those that incorporate use of a tool such as a paddle, racquet or ball)
Building toys that show step-by-step instructions

Here is a link with more helpful information about body awareness and what you can do to help develop improved coordination for your child.

https://www.doverehab.com/2021/05/coordination-and-body-awareness-during-growth-spurts/

When muscles of the eyes perform well, they result in the ability to
maintain steady gaze upon a target
visually pursue the target with the eyes
Improve the understanding of
what the target is
where the target is
how the target is associated with other objects in the environment

Helpful activities include visual motor skills as shown. Additional activities include crafts that incorporate resistive work for the fingers and attention to small targets. Try this one: http://ezebreezy.com/easy-pipe-clean-spider-craft/

Gross motor skills incorporate activities that move the large muscles of the body. Muscles of the shoulders, back, stomach, and hips are included in this group of muscles. These are the muscles that are involved in activities such as stacking groceries, hauling trash, carrying laundry baskets, making beds, as well as lifting and moving heavy objects in the home on rainy days.

Alternatively, activities such as running, jumping, swinging, bike riding, shooting hoops, swinging on monkey bars, jumping rope, jumping on a trampoline, and playing hopscotch are types of outdoor activities that also move the large muscles of the body.

These types of activities are commonly referred to as "heavy work" by therapists. When the large muscles of the body exercise through use of heavy work activities, key chemicals are produces throughout the nervous system. These chemicals help to balance out emotional control, attention, and coordination.

Want more information? Check out our blog post: https://www.doverehab.com/2020/06/resistive-exercise-heavy-work-and-attention/

We use many different visual perceptual skills to help us navigate multiple environments as adults. However, there are basic visual perceptual skills children use to help them learn straightforward daily living skills. Activities such as dressing, bathing, eating, walking - including navigating steps, curbs, ramps, schoolwork, and playing.

👀Visual fixation –eye movements holding still upon a target allows a child to find an object of interest, such as a missing sock, a letter of the alphabet, or even a favorite toy
👀Visual tracking/pursuits - using eye movements to follow moving objects allows a child to learn about how people, animals, and objects in the environment such as clouds or a flock of birds move from place to place.
👀Visual association – when visual input is translated into language, it allows for the ability to determine functionality of objects.
👀Visual spatial orientation – using vision to determine the directional heading and location of objects or knowing where a given object is in space allows for positioning objects for function. Buttoning, aligning numbers into columns, and riding a bike to a friends’ house are examples of how children use spatial orientation in daily activities.

When any one of these key visual perceptual skills is diminished, activities of daily living become more problematic at home, at school, and in social situations. For more information, check out our blog at: https://www.doverehab.com/2019/03/visual-spatial-orientation/

Many children who have Sensory Processing Disorders also have issues with coordination. This may because of:

•Challenges involving the ability to sustain attention to task
•Atypical tone (low, high, fluctuating) in the muscles of the body
•Problems planning and/or sequencing step-by-step moves of muscles needed for a particular task
•Errors of timing regarding when to move which muscles for multi-step motor moves
•Failure of directed eye-gaze, sustained visual attention needed to guide the body parts into action

A general finding when children with SPD have coordination deficits is the inability to stabilize themselves when moving. From a developmental perspective children learn patterns of movement while on their backs and stomachs before they learn to sit or stand. While lying down, the core muscles of the trunk learn how much to contract and relax in order to lift the head up and move the arms and legs. These early moves are designed to become integrated into basic patterns needed for self care, play, academic, and sports activities that make like meaningful.

The need to stabilize the body and hold key parts steady is a fundamental component of motor skill development that is often missed by children who have SPD. Basic patterns of postural stability include:

--> The ability to hold one side of the body still, while parts of the other side move (for example, using a knife to keep food from slipping off a plate or using one hand to hold paper still while the other hand is used to manipulate a pencil )
--> The ability to hold the top of the body still (arms, hands, head) while the lower half (hips, legs, feet) move (for example kicking a soccer ball toward the goal)

Providing the child who has coordination deficits with multiple opportunities to practice stabilization will enhance this essential component of motor skills. To learn more, visit our blog post at: https://www.doverehab.com/2020/09/coordination-of-motor-skills-planning-and-sequencing/

Many children who have developmental issues also have issues with attention. Signs of difficulty with attention may include:
• Over–activity: an energy level that may include a tendency to become easily excited, frequently fidgety, impulsive, mood swings, total enjoyment of physical activity
• Under-activity: an energy level that may include loss of focus, forgetfulness, sedentary with enjoyment of quiet, sedentary games
• Difficulty following instructions
• Poor social skills such as intruding on the personal space of others, or avoiding interaction with peers

Speak with your Occupational Therapist about including special types of activities in the Home Program for the child with SPD that also has difficulty with attention.

Resistive antigravity work can be a helpful addition to a home program for children who have Sensory Processing Disorders. This type of Heavy Work is known to produce brain neurochemicals that are responsible for stimulating attention to task, information processing, and motor skills.

Ideally, this type of indoor work out would be scheduled for 10 – 15 minutes before times of sustained mental learning activities such as a virtual classroom lesson, homework, writing an essay or book report. Heavy work helps to enable the ability to gather thoughts necessary to organize projects. The results help to bring together a stream of step-by-step actions needed to carry the project to completion.

For more information, take a look at our blog post on Resistive Exercise and Attention: https://www.doverehab.com/2020/06/resistive-exercise-heavy-work-and-attention/