...Today I am going to post about a Sensory Diet ,this is the most neglected part of our kids and usally always left up to the schools OT to do ,but not today your going to learn how to identify different types of sensory needs. There are 6 types of sensory issues your child may have vision, audition, tactile, olfactory, taste, proprioception, and vestibular. Lets start with the easiest first, Audition is just issues with hearing you can identify the need by how you child acts to certain stimuli here are some examples that I am taking from my own son, he flushes the toilet with his elbow so he can cover his ears with his hands, he listens to the TV loud because it helps him tune out other noises, he does not react to fire alarms ,these are just a few but I am sure you get the gist. You can combat these isssues with sound minnimizing headphones like the ones used on a firing range ,so they can participate in all aspects of the home. Regular headphone use to watch TV or listen to music you can buy the remotes with the headphone jack right in the remote ,the therapy for the auditory is pretty simple as well like slow introduction to different sounds ,a therapeutic listening program and it helps with more that just the auditory issues. The most important things you can do is keep it calm in your home ,talk slowly ,reduce distractions ,have child repeat back instructions to you. Vision is hardest for me to identify because sometimes its masked by Autism in general, but you can recognize it by the thing they do, limited eye contact , walking through people ,sensitivity to lights ,hand flapping ,touching walls as they move about the house ,these are all associated to Autism as well ,but how I found out was my sons hates shadows and he will slap them or dim lights to avoid them. I have not found anything that address this area as of yet only ways to avoid like draping bandanas over lamps ,diming lights , touching Jakes arm on the side to get him to scoot to one side so he doesnt walk into people or objects ,if you know of any method to help please let me know. Taste should not be confused with tactile or smell ,and your child can have all partaining to the mouth ,but right now its just taste ,to identify this problem they my avoid a certain taste like salty ,sweet ,ect or under react to spicey ,bitter ect. Introduce ,Introduce ,Introduce is the key in this diet let your child wash their hands as much as they want when your trying to get them to eat different foods ,let them plug their noses whatever it takes to get a bite in ,because they might not just be fighting the taste issue ,but also the smell, and the tactile. Never force your child to eat it should always be served and incouraged ,but never forced!!!! Smell or Olfactory ,this is easy ,your child will avoid certain smells ,or they will search out smells ,youll walk in the bathroom and OMG it smells like a whore house ,because your child decided to bath himself in your perfume or he may puke when he walks into a pizza shop. You can help this by reducing smells the the home and making times in the home for smells like using scent candles and baking cookies its very simple to increase decrease and adding the smells so your child can become accustom to every smell he will come in contact with just start small meaning dont light a candle and ask them to clean their room at the same time ,but you can later after they are very familiar with the scent and start out with a simple task and increase as they maste. I only use vinagar and water as a cleaning agent in our home I make my own laundray detergent ,so my son can manage with the outside smells. Tactile ,I personally hate this one. Your child my hate to be hugged or your child may love to be hugged tightly may only eat soft ,or only crunchy foods. They may only tolerate certain fabrics and not recognize the cold or the heat. they might eat food intirely to hot or to cold. I am a huge fan of brushing for tactile issue ,but this is not simple at all because it has to be done every 2 hours or your child will feel sick in the beginning and feel like ants is crawling on them ,If you wanna do this try it on yourself first ,so you get an idea what is going on in your child and what happens if you are not able to keep to the routine ,but the outcome is so worth it and the changes are dramatic with your child ,like I said I am a huge fan ,do your research before you start. I may have a real dislike for this sensory issue ,but it has the most methods of therapy in a sensory diet ,and its all fun ,and great play ,I am giving yall a link because their is so many voices.yahoo/sensory-diet-tactile-system-7865984.html?cat=51... Proprioception in an issue with balance and a lack of awareness of body ,Jake tries to constantly find himself in his enviroment though rocking ,jumping ,crashing , stomping ,they may even hurt animals because they can not feel the force they are petting and animal. This issue requires tons of input ,heavy work like scooting a filing cabnet across the floor ,crushing cans , wheelbarrel ,anything they can do with their bodies ,andy sensory input you can think of is the wat to go ankle weights is helpful realy this issue the sky is the limit ,like trampoline ,swimming , all sorts of sensory input that gets their body moving. Vestibular well this happens in the ear and its got to do with balance ,movement and this is the first thing to develpope in a child ,so your child may react to things on instinct instead of thought this is the hardest ,so I wont be giving you guys any examples, I actually had to get a professional to test Jake for this problem. Althought I dont understand this very much ,I do know of the sensory diet to help. Swinging is the best ,but not back and forth but aroung in both directions ,and scooter board on the floor flinging child in all directions ,spinning in a computer chair this will set the inner ear back on track. I hope this helps on your child sensory diet!!! I wanna say this that if you help with the sensory it will help with all aspects of autism, from meltdown to toilet training, to community outings ,this is a must have for a child with Autism. Thanks all!!!!
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:18:18 +0000
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