Kids thrive on routine throughout their day and bedtime is not any different. Set a specific bedtime for the child each night and do the same routine, in preparing for bed. Calming or relaxing activities for the 60-90 minutes prior to bedtime, help prepare the child’s system to relax. Examples of calming/relaxing activities are a warm bath, lotion massage after bath, reading bedtime stories, rocking or swinging in a linear movement and soft music playing in the background. An occupational therapist is trained in sensory integration therapy and would be able to evaluate and identify the child’s specific sensory needs. << Close

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This is called auditory sensitivity. The child’s ability to process auditory information is controlled by his/her nervous system. Our nervous systems are programmed to have a “fight or flight” reaction to threatening information that enters our bodies. There are several ways to work on desensitizing your child’s auditory sensitivity. Examples are doing some heavy work activities such as wheelbarrow walks, jumping, pushing, pulling, etc. This give the child’s body input, that calms the nervous system so that it does not have the extreme adverse reactions. You can also use social stories to talk about the noise at the party and how the noises are temporary and normal. Talk about how other children react, the noise of a balloon popping, and the noise of singing the “Happy Birthday” song. Also discuss appropriate reactions to the noises if the child needs a break, such as walking outside or covering his/her ears for a brief moment. This prepares the child for the situation they are about to face and gives them some coping strategies if the information coming in gets to be too much the child. An occupational therapist is trained in sensory integration therapy and would be able to evaluate and identify the child’s specific sensory needs. << Close

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There are “typical” patterns for speech development and different speech sounds. A child can have poor pronunciation of certain words and still be considered “typical” because the sound may not be expected to be mastered until a later age. The pronunciation of words is referred to as articulation. The articulation of words and certain letter sounds develop differently in children that speak only one language than compared to children that speak more than one. A speech language pathologist is able to evaluate a child and identify if his/her articulation of words and sounds are delayed and require intervention or if it is a normal pattern of development. << Close

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This is called tactile sensitivity. Tactile sensitivity is when tactile information is received by the child’s nervous system and registers as offensive or not pleasant. The reaction of the child’s nervous system to offensive information is to “fight or flight.” Through sensory based interventions, a child can teach his/her bodies to process the tactile information appropriately so that it will no longer be offensive. This is done through a series of steps. Some of the steps may include introducing the messy substance, such as shaving cream, pudding, paint, etc, in a safe manner, such as with a paintbrush. This gives the child a positive interaction with this type of substance that will register in their memory banks. Then a therapist would slowly incorporate messy play into a child’s therapy session in small doses to keep building the child’s trust. Eventually the child will learn that messy play is safe. It is not going to hurt him/her and that he/she can wash it off when they are done. An occupational therapist is trained in sensory integration therapy and would be able to evaluate and identify the child’s specific sensory needs. << Close

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Handwriting is a complex task and many skills have to be mastered and developed to be successful with handwriting. The child should have strong bilateral coordination skills (where both sides of his/her body are working together for a common goal), visual motor/perception skills ( where the child’s eyes are working with his/her hands to coordinated the proper movement of the pencil and that the child is seeing what is actually written), and spacial awareness (where things are in space). If a child does not have a firm foundation of those 3 areas, handwriting would be very difficult. An occupational therapist is trained to evaluate these specific areas of development and identify which area may be causing your child to have difficulty with hand writing. << Close

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