Therapy Thursday ~ This Is My Box

I recently realized that I had dropped the ball when it came to doing home therapy with my SID (sensory integration dysfunction) kids. Somehow in my mind, I had decided that taking them to Tomatis every 2 to 3 months was enough. After all, both of them graduated from occupational therapy last year, so my work was done, right? Not so much! I put it out of my mind that SID is incurable and went on studying other issues my kids had.

My Tom Sawyer did very poorly on his reevaluation for OT and Tomatis a few weeks ago. I explained to his occupational therapist that he seemed to be at the end of his rope all the time and was often in distress. Tom Sawyer's meltdowns were increasing in length and he was having them five to eight times a day. His OT decided to increase his Tomatis program to every 8 weeks with 10 day intensives, and we are most likely restarting weekly occupational therapy (at my request).

This prompted me to reread The Out Of Sync Child Has Fun and work on creating a new sensory diet for my children at home. Both boys are diagnosed with severe SID and Goldilocks has some SID issues. On Thursdays, I will be sharing on this blog about what games and activities help my children. I thought I would start by sharing my indoor OT box.

I started my renewed journey with sensory integration by collecting frequently used OT/sensory items in the house and putting them all in one place. I found some things in closets that had not been touched in 6 months or more!! I then took my birthday money from my aunt and purchased this really nice trunk at Big Lots.

This is what is in the box so far: balance board, weighted 4 pound ball, thera-putty, shaving cream, popper, chewing gum, flashlights for vision therapy, pressure brushes, pressure vest, shoe with special laces, gym mat, trays and two books to help me. I will be adding a great deal more over the next few weeks, but this is a start.  I employed the sensory diet during most transitions yesterday, and I did notice an improvement.

Each week I will be posting more of what we are doing in this area. If you want to add your own ideas, leave them in the comment area or email me.

Blessings, Dawn