Sensory Processing is "Real"

Been traveling and gone a lot lately, but I will get busy and work on another post...  In the meantime, I ran across this post this morning, that I personally could relate to, and I am sure many parents of sensory kids can, too.  Enjoy~

http://binkiesandbriefcases.com/sensory-processing-disorder-know-real/

Board/Card Games!

Ants in the Pants game

Wondering what you can do with your child/kids to encourage their skills to develop over the summer? Sometimes doing so is a lot easier than you might think.  Just playing simple board games and cards can address many skills, and it just seems like playing, not work!  (Yea, iPads are great, but try getting back to old school and leave the electronics and technology alone for a while!)  Playing board games with small pieces encourages fine motor skills.  Board games encourage motor planning, sequencing, gross motor skills, following directions, counting, joint attention, turn taking, I could go on and on.

And, it can include you, interacting with your child and having a good time.  The games listed below are primarily for preschool age and up, and are pretty inexpensive.  Some of my faves:

• Ants in the Pants (Cootie Games by Milton Bradley)
• Don't Break the Ice (Cootie Games by Milton Bradley)
• Don't Spill the Beans  (Cootie Games by Milton Bradley)
• Cootie  (Cootie Games by Milton Bradley)
• Old Maid card game
• Go Fish card game
• Candy Land (by Hasbro)
• Hi Ho Cherry-O (by Hasbro)
• Dominoes
• Operation (by Hasbro)
• Chutes and Ladders (by Hasbro)
• Sorry (by Hasbro)
• Twister (by Hasbro)
• Trouble (by Hasbro)
• Cranium Cariboo (by Cranium)
• Connect Four (by Hasbro)
• Checkers
• Guess Who (by Milton Bradley)
• Hangman (by Hasbro)
• Cranium Hullabaloo (by Cranium)
• Blokus (by Mattel)
• Cranium Balloon Lagoon (by Cranium)
• Memory (by Hasbro)
• Scrabble Junior and Scrabble (by Scrabble)
• Apples to Apples Junior and Apples to Apples (by Mattel)
• Kerplunk (by Mattel)
• Bed Bugs 
• Pick Up Sticks
• Let's Go Fishin' (by Pressman)

Go Fish!

Adaptive/Alternate Shoe Tying

Learning to tie your shoes is an important skill for kids!  It's a skill that's encouraged in kindergarten, and expected of elementary age kids.  But, shoe tying is a task that takes some complex skill~  motor planning, bilateral coordination, dexterity, hand strength, visual perceptual skills and visual motor integration are all components that are needed just to tie shoes!  Imagine if your child has deficits in one or more of those skill areas.  That makes learning to tie shoes extra tough!

If you've tried and tried to help your child tie his/her shoes and used several ways to try teach it without success, there is a way that most kids can master.  Usually, when I am teaching shoe tying, kids can always seem to get the first step- crossing over the laces and pulling it tight.  It's the next steps that trip them up- the loops.  So... here's something to try:

Change the way that your child's laces are laced by making a loop as above.  Knot the end of the lace on the inside of the shoe.  Do the same to each side.

Here's the easy part:  have your child hold onto the loops and do the first step of shoe tying~ cross over the laces, and pull tight!

Now, do the first step of shoe tying AGAIN~  cross over the laces, and pull tight!

And there it is!  A tied shoe!

Hooray!  A tied shoe!

Children's Book Week!

What kid doesn't like to be read to?  Encourage reading in your young children and your tweens/teens~ check out some of the awesome award winners that kids themselves have voted on.

Join @CBCBook in celebration of the 95th annual Children's Book Week, May 12-18, 2014! 

http://www.bookweekonline.com/

Lazy 8's

Lazy 8's

Remember the recent Double Doodles blog post from 4-16-14?  In that post, I mentioned that Double Doodles and Lazy 8's are a couple of Brain Gym based activities that I like to use with my students.  As a re cap, I mentioned that these 2 activities promote bilateral coordination.  Kids who have difficulty with bilateral coordination have difficulty using 2 hands or the 2 sides of their bodies together. You might also notice that they have trouble crossing midline (the imaginary line running down the center of your body), or that they do not have an established hand dominance (they switch hands frequently). These activities encourage the integration of the left and the right sides of the brain, and the integration of coordination between the 2 sides of the body.  These activities are beneficial for all students, regular ed and special ed, learning issues or not.  I have already discussed Double Doodles in that last post...here are a couple more examples of some of my students' work regarding that activity:

Here is an example of a student's double doodle activity.  Fairly good symmetry on this one.

Some difficulty with midline on this Double Doodle task.

The end result of the above child's work. Note the difficulty with the left side of midline.

Lazy 8's is a 1 and then 2 handed drawing activity that involves tracing a horizontal 8 (or infinity sign) repeatedly.  The activity is most often done on a vertical plane (chalk board/white board or on a large piece of paper on the wall), but can be done on a table top as well.

• Draw a line down the center of the paper, or draw a vertical line on the board. Have the child stand or sit directly in front of that line so that it correlates to the middle of their body.
• Draw a large horizontal eight across the vertical line on the paper or board.
• Have the child trace the horizontal 8 repeatedly along the curves with his/her finger or with a marker or piece of chalk. 
• Have the child complete the tracing activity several times with each hand and then several more times holding the marker with both hands together.

The upper extremity arm movements encourage fluidity of movement that promotes eye-hand coordination and encourages visual tracking, as well as providing a multi-sensory experience.  The motion also incorporates the same movements needed to form letters of the alphabet.

Teacher Appreciation Week~

Don't forget to thank the FABULOUS teachers/educators that you know this week!

Mental Health Awareness Month

May is Mental Health Awareness Month~ this month, think about how supportive you are or could be to friends, family members and families in your community who deal with mental health issues.  Educate yourselves, and learn compassion.