My eldest has just started school this year and I am having some difficulties keeping her calm when we have to do her homework, in particular reading. I was wondering what you do with your kids before or during to help get them into good head space. I have tried putting weighted things in her lap but she refuses. Any suggestions. Lucia

What works best for my son is to have a routine. The hard part is to add something new to that routine. Maybe you can talk to her about homework and reading, now that she is a big girl in school. Make a visual schedule together, from getting dressed in the morning and brushing her teeth, to going to school, and finding a good time to do homework and read. Talk about it, remind her, and be consistent. It'll get easier. Also try heavy muscle work, chewing gum, or a wiggle seat.

At our house, my older son has gotten used to having down time when he gets home from school. I try to have him do something active. When the weather is nice, he rides his bike, jumps on the trampoline when we have it up, or swings on the swing set. We have dinner, then homework, shower every other night, and then reads for 30 minutes before bed. This worked fairly well in the past. Until this year--he started 5th grade and there is more homework. I've been trying to get him to start his homework before dinner so it doesn't get too late at night, but he has a meltdown because of the change of routine. He'll sit down to do his homework without much fuss when it's "homework-time" but cries and has meltdown if I try to have him do it another time. So I need to follow my own advice and set the new routine and be consistent about it.

When I was a kid, my dad played with me prior to doing homework. We burned up some of my energy and I could focus better. He would always choose an activity that used my senses. One of his favorite games with me was to throw a tennis ball on the roof and I had to catch it as it fell from the roof. When I got older, about 8 to 10 years old, he would try to shove me away from the ball so it would be harder to catch the ball. It worked I my ability to focus and added a bit of heavy work, too. It was a fun activity and it allowed better concentration.

Anyway, maybe a bit of excercise using various sensory systems prior to school work would help?

I've heard that for a lot of people it helps if they use an exercise ball for a chair - even people who don't have SPD.

(05-03-2012, 12:10 AM)mummax2 Wrote: My eldest has just started school this year and I am having some difficulties keeping her calm when we have to do her homework, in particular reading. I was wondering what you do with your kids before or during to help get them into good head space. I have tried putting weighted things in her lap but she refuses. Any suggestions. Lucia

Could you be more specific about the type of reading and the type of problems? Does the child need to learn to read, or do some reading for comprehension/information? Is she comfortable with letters, phonics, etc. yet?

As the parent of a kid with a very complex IEP, and that's for cyberschool/homeschooling, I've learned quite a few adaptive strategies for learning challenges, so perhaps you are willing to share more on the problem I could make a few suggestions on reading.

Or the problems primarily SPD in nature?

The first two things that came to my mind if the problem isn't just with reading, and strictly guessing what the problem might be, are that the child has visual processing problems and trying to focus properly to read is painful, or that there could be a better time of day to try in terms of energy/hunger/pent up frustration.

Thanks

Hi,
When you say over-responsive, you mean she's sensory avoidant, right? The strategies for this would be different to a sensory seeking child who would more likely benefit from weighted therapy, heavy work etc. Look at the environment from a sensory overload perspective, including the reading material itself. Does she hate the feel or sound of paper being touched, pages being turned, book being moved, or rubbed against the table? Is there too much distraction? aural, visual, etc? Is the light right, is the chair comfortable? Does she have other vestibular issues, like poor balance, fear of heights, or low tone (floppy)? Would a bean bag or hammock chair be better than sitting at the table? Does she have any other developmental issues? As mentioned above, does she have any visual processing difficulties?

Routine and structure are good to have in place too, visual schedules are great - have some relax time between school and homework time if possible. Move to a quiet space, no music, no other distractions, even cars going past can be too distracting for sensory over-responsive kids.

You say she's just started school, I'm not sure where you are, but does this mean she's 4 turning 5, as it would be in Kindergarten here? or is she Grade 1 (6 turning 7)? Can she do other activities where she is "crossing the midline", using the right hand on the left side and vice-versa? Search for 'crossing the midline OT' if you're not sure what I mean by this.

Bernadette.

(05-06-2012, 06:54 PM)Bernadette Wrote: Hi,
When you say over-responsive, you mean she's sensory avoidant, right? The strategies for this would be different to a sensory seeking child who would more likely benefit from weighted therapy, heavy work etc.

While I agree with the rest of what you've said in your point - my OT definitely told me that specifically reacting well to deep pressure is actually a very common trait of people who are over-responsive. I'm seeking as well, but she was saying that specifically those types of propioceptive input actually has a huge amount of affect on the hypersensitive people, partially because propioception tends to be our least extreme sense.

This agrees with what I read in Sensational Children as well.

Yep Evelyn is a sensory avoider, my younger daughter is a seeker and they do similar heavy wieght and deep pressure activities with their OTs. Very confusing.
Evelyn is 5 going on 6.

Generally she is very fidgetty and just can't seem to concentrate and within minutes starts on "I can't do it" "I'm not smart enough" "I'll never do It" very insecure talk which she does to get me to do the work for her to 'avoid/deal' with the feelings she's got going on. Her coping mechanism.
I like the idea of a picture schedule. We do try to stick to a schedule as much as possible, but maybe the visual. I need to find the right activity before we start. We do go to a quiet room, but maybe not quiet enough for her. We are very time poor and limited in when we can do the homework, especially the reading component. I think there is too much on the page for her as she reads well the sight words on big cards, it's just when they are all on the page with the picture and lines it's too much for her. But at her age the pictures help her find the right word (we are at a very basic level.
I've tried sitting her betwen my legs, weights on her lap, pressure vest, a balnce seat thing. How long do you think I should try each technique?

(05-06-2012, 09:08 PM)mummax2 Wrote: I think there is too much on the page for her as she reads well the sight words on big cards, it's just when they are all on the page with the picture and lines it's too much for her.

What you said right there screams "visual processing problem". After my son was diagnosed with that, we greatly changed the way he does lessons and that resulted in happier kid making rapid progress. Before, his brain could not "decode" what his eyes saw and he felt like a failure at reading. After we came to understand how to adapt material, the change was dramatic.

Visual processing is not the same as vision; he has 20-20 eyesight.