Massaging Action Teether Review/Giveaway

Ok everyone this is my first review/giveaway here on the SPD Life. Thanks to the generosity of One Step Ahead I received a Massaging Action Teether to do a review and giveaway on. The Massaging Action Teether is not only for infants, it is great for children with SPD too! It vibrates when the child bites or chews on it and helps give your child oral input. And of course it's also really good for those teething babies.

Now I know that you all have children with SPD issues but for those of you whose child(ren) have issues with oral gratification (i.e. over stuffing their mouths with food, chewing on non-edible objects, etc.) this is a wonderful product to try. Little Miss mouths everything! Her therapists have told me that getting her a vibrating toothbrush or teether would be good to help give her input so that she won't over fill her mouth while eating and it would curb her chewing on toys and such. One Step Ahead has even partnered up with the National Lekotek Center —the leading not-for-profit authority on play for children with disabilities—to offer a different kind of toy selection. Click here to view their toys and ratings.

When we got this Massaging Action Teether in the mail I cleaned it up and gave it to Little Miss and I sat down to see what she would do with it and waited for her reaction to the vibrations. SHE.LOVED.IT! She walked around with it between her teeth for a long time, just enjoying the vibrations. She has been chewing on it everyday since we received it. This is something safe for her to chew on. No toxic chemicals and no small pieces to break off that she could choke on. Plus it's soft, multi-textured and the sealed internal battery lasts 8 hours! At only $7.95 they're a great buy but this is your chance to win one for free. One Step Ahead is going to give one of you lucky readers one of these! Here's how you can enter to win:

Mandatory Entry:

~ Go over to One Step Ahead and come back and tell me in a comment your favorite product. (3 entries)

Extra Entries:

~ Blog about this review/giveaway with links back to this post and One Step Ahead.
(5 entries)

~ Follow us on Twitter
(3 entries)

~ Fave us on Technorati
(3 entries)

~ Follow the SPD Life
(3 entries)

~ Grab our button
(1 entry)

~ Tweet about this review/giveaway
(unlimited entries)

* We are trying to get more followers to join us here. If you know anyone that has a child with SPD or sensory issues please send them here to join in on the review/giveaway or just the blog. Or if you belong to any mom boards, sites or forums please do a post letting them know where to find us. Doing this (after verified) will give you 5 more entry points!

*Each time you do one of the above leave a comment for each entry. For example if you blog about this giveaway do this: "Blogged about this review/giveaway. Here's my link: (Your URL TO the post) #1" Then come back and do the same thing 4 more times in separate comments. If you tweet about this review/giveaway then leave the tweet URL in the comment.

You have the chance to do 12 + entries. You don't have to do all of them though. Do the first one or all of them if you want! First Mandatory Entry must be done first to enter the rest of the entry requests.

Contest will end on April 30th and winner will be picked using the Random.com generator and announced on April 6th. Good luck!

Any comments that do not follow the rules listed above will not be entered into the contest to win. So please make sure to follow the rules. Thanks!

*Check back because I will be doing more giveaways and reviews on products that benefit children with sensory issues and more!

Don't forget about Therapy Thursdays!

Don't forget about Therapy Thursdays. If you would like to submit a question for this weeks Therapy Thursday please email me at bloggymommy3@yahoo.com by tomorrow evening so I can get the email over to one or both of our therapists to answer. Thanks and hope to hear from you soon! :)

**Oh and just to let you all know, I will be hosting my first review and giveaway here on the SPD Life sometime next week so make sure to check back!**

Join us for Therapy Thursdays

Hello everyone and welcome back! I am here to tell everyone that now on Thursdays we are going to have something called Therapy Thursdays. All you have to do is email me or Michelle with any questions or comments that you want either heard or answered and we will put them in a post with the advice from one of our therapists on Thursdays.



We are bringing two therapists on board to help with questions, comments, new ideas and so on. They are Little Miss' Developmental Therapist, April (we will post her intro as soon as we can) and Little Miss' Speech Therapist, Shireen (who has already posted her intro). Please give them a warm welcome and have your questions and/or comments in by Tuesday of each week so they have time to answer all of them.



From time to time they may also post links to new places for you to check out, new ideas on different therapy ideas, at home recipes for you to try with your youngins and so on. I can't wait for our first Therapy Thursday which will start next week. So mark your calendars and submit your questions by Tuesday. See you all then!

Interview: Lori's Child

Ok everyone here is another new interview. Lori found us and asked to do an interview. She adopted her son from China and recently found out that he has SPD. Please give her a warm welcome and show her some support. Thanks!

My name is Lori and I am a 43 year old stay at home mom to one child, "M". Our family -- "M", and my husband and I -- live in the Ohio.

~ How old was your son when you adopted him?
"M" was 10 months old when we adopted him.


~ What was his life like before he was blessed with you?
"M" lived in an orphanage for the first 10 months of his life. We did not get to visit the orphanage, but we did see pictures of it and it appeared to be in good repair, well kept and clean. His primary caregiver had 7 children that she cared for at the orphanage. When we adopted him, his head was very flat on the backside indicating that he spent most of his time on his back in his crib. He also held his arms at an odd angle -- at 90 degree angles to his body, which is the only place he would be able to see his arms if he was lying down. The flat head has corrected itself and the odd arm holding disappeared after a couple of months with us.

~ How old is your son?
"M" is currently 28 months old.

~ When did you first notice that something just wasn't 100% with your son?
We always thought that something was different about "M". The adoption agencies always tell you that it takes about a year for these kids to catch up. At 10 months old, "M" could not sit up by himself or roll over. In the first few months he did catch on to lots of things pretty quickly. I remember the first night he rolled over he was about 11 months and he did it all night because it was so exciting to him. He did not sleep a wink that night.

After we had "M" home for a year, it just didn't seem like he was catching up anymore. In fact, in some respects it seemed like he was falling further behind. Also, he mastered things in very strange ways. For example, he would walk between my husband and I at about 13 months, but he completely stopped doing that after about a month. I attributed it to the fact that he had learned to crawl and that was good enough with him, but he did not attempt walking again until about 20 months. He mastered using a spoon at about 18 months. Over the last 10 months, he has regressed with respect to utensils. Sometimes he will use them like a champ for several weeks and then refuse to use them for several weeks. Right now, he is refusing to use any utensils or plates. He learns new words and then never uses them again. Occasionally, he will revert to crawling.

The biggest thing that clued me in to a potential problem was the fact that "M" did not "play" with toys. He just mouthed them and put them places -- even at 2 years old. When in a group play setting, "M" did not participate -- just fluttered around the edges doing his own thing. "M" does not like to crawl up on things, go down sliding boards, ride on riding toys or play with balls (he just hugs them and carries them around -- very sweet but concerning).

~ When was your son diagnosed? And how old was he?
"M" was just officially diagnosed this week, though I did my own diagnosis weeks ago. The way it all came about was very strange. We had been seeing an occupational therapist since October for help with "M's" fine motor skills. At one appointment in January, "M" was acting up, throwing tantrums, not wanting to participate. The OT suggested that "M" may benefit from a brushng protocol. She explained it to me and I thought it sounded very strange. I went home and did some on line research and discovered Sensory Processing Disorder. At this point, no one had told me anything about this disorder. I got several books and read them and knew that this is what afflicts "M". It was kind of like being told you need to have chemo for a liver problem, going home and looking on line to find out what chemo treats and finding out you had cancer -- strange! I knew I had to find a local "expert" to help us and I was able to do so. We met with her this week for an evaluation and she confirmed what I have known.

~ What kind of therapy (if any) does your child receive?
"M" currently receives Occupational Therapy once a week and Speech Therapy once a week. We are seeing the Physical Therapist who is the Sensory Processing Disorder expert twice a month and an Early Intervention Specialist twice a month.

~ Do you feel like the therapy is helping?
I have not had an overhelming feeling that any of our therapies are helping tremendously and I feel like it is because of a lack of focus on SPD thus far. Now that all therapists involved know about "M's" sensory issues, I feel like we are going to be getting more focused therapy and that we should see improvements.

~ What is your biggest challenge that you face with SPD?
I think "M" is so inhibited physically that it is affecting everything he does. That is "M's" biggest challenge. My biggest challenge is finding enough time in the day to get all of his therapies completed, get play time in, feed my family, get "M" to his multitudes of therapy appointments and still find time to clean my house! AND I'M A STAY AT HOME MOM! I really don't know how anyone who is working can keep up with it all.

~ What are some of the things you do with your son to help them during a meltdown or tantrum?
"M" responds well to giant bear hugs. Also, if I can get him to laugh, we are done with the tantrum. Tickling sometimes does it for him and I know that sounds strange as many children with SPD do not resond well to tickling. It seems to work for him. His latest thing is hitting and head butting -- that is a challenging one as I sometimes cannot get close enough to give him a hug without getting a head butt to the lip. In fact, I had a bloody lip just this morning.

~ What are some of your son's symptoms?
"M" has a very interesting way of eating. As I described above, he refuses utensils and plates but that isn't the only eating issue. He will put food in his mouth, chew it and then spit it out. He has done this since he started eating table food and we, of course, had hoped he would "outgrow" this lovely trait by now, but he hasn't. It makes for some very messy meals.

"M" has very distinct "good" days and "bad" days. On bad days, he just wants me to hold him and listen to music. He walks around crying alot. Thankfully, we have not had a full blown bad day since early January. Can that be because of brushing as that is when we started? I'm not sure. Good days are peppered with lots of giggling, lots of energy and lots of energetic head shaking and ear covering. We have tantrums on both kinds of days.

~ How do you deal with your stress?
I have discovered the awesome benefits of strenuous exercise. I get up at 5:20 to get to the gym by 6 and home before "M's" dad leaves for work. I know I'm going to be exhausted by "M's" naptime anyway, so since I'm going to nap at that time, I figured I might as well get up early. It is also of huge benefit in handling my stress to interact with other parents who have children with these same issues.

~ What is something you want all parents of children with SPD to know?
I don't really have enough knowledge to answer that question yet but there is something I want all parents of ALL children to consider. It seems to me like MOST learning disabilities are based in some way to sensory issues, and our local "expert" agrees. If parents don't address them properly then they may just end up on the ADHD/ADD drug bandwagon needlessly. Also, if you THINK that something isn't 100% about your child, you are probably right. Find out what it is because the younger your child is when these issues are brought to light, the easier they will be to remedy. It could mean the difference between 6 months of therapy vs. years of therapy. These aren't issues that children just "outgrow", they grow around them making it more difficult to get to the source.

Thank you for interviewing me! I hope I've been of some help to someone.

If you have any advice or kind words for Lori and her family please leave a comment. Let's all give her a big thank you for joining us and telling us about her and her family.

Thanks Lori!

Giving your SPD child more options

So far to help her throughout the day we have been doing yoga ball exercises (explained here). This is something she really enjoys and seems to really help her.

We are also getting her "control book" ready. I took pictures of all her things: things she eats, things she plays with, things that are in our schedule and so on. So starting, hopefully tomorrow, we will be able to let her have more control over what she wants. So tomorrow I will sit her at the table and give her two choices. I'll show her a picture of cereal and a picture of a bagel and let her pick which one she wants. Now this will be a little tricky because Little Miss doesn't point to things that she wants. She does, however, sometimes point to things that she wants us to look at but just not at whatever it is that she is trying to get.

Then at playtime I'll show her a picture of her little toy phone and a picture of her stuffed animal and let her choose which one she wants to play with. This lets her have more control over things throughout her day, which in turn will make her feel happy because she got to choose what *she* wants.

We will also show her pictures and explain what is going to happen next. Like a picture of the bathtub, "Ok Little Miss, now Mama is going to put you in the bathtub and (showing her a picture of her ducky) you get to play with your duck." Then at bedtime, "Little Miss now it's time for bed. Let's say goodnight." This lets her know what's coming, helps her put words with actions and routines *and* prepare herself for the next step.

Letting your child have more options is great. And after they get the idea that you show them the picture, they pick and you give it to them then you can move onto step two of the 'control book' process. If your child is like mine then helping them put words together and begin to form those words is a huge, very important step. So after she gets it I will then start to hold up two different pictures for her to choose from and ask her, "Little Miss, do you want the banana? Or do you want the apple?" but when I ask her I will hold the picture up close to my mouth and over-exaggerate the words. "...b-a-n-a-n-a?" or "...a-p-p-l-e?" and hopefully after a while she will start watching my mouth and start trying to say, instead of point, to which one she wants.

I am going to laminate my photos for her so that they will last a long time. You never know, maybe after she gets all this down we can figure out some new thing to do with them. But for right now this is enough. If you decide to do this with your child I highly recommend saving yourself some laminating sleeves and doing pics of foods on one side and pics of objects on the back. That way you can turn them over to do the next picture instead of having 100 pictures all one-sided.

What are some things you have made for your child that help in your everyday life?

Suggestions for children with SPD

So yesterday was our appointment for Speech Therapy. I have to say that I *love* our Speech Therapist! She is patient and seems eager to get to know Little Miss! She always brings toys that get Little Miss' attention and are good for children with sensory issues. We are trying to find out which textures and things she likes and doesn't like.

She did have a tantrum when she was here but it was only a small one. She came out of it after a little bit and we had to remove the cause of the tantrum which was a toy that she wanted to open but didn't open. She loves the textured puzzle that she brings with her and *loved* the bubbles! In fact that's how we finally got her tantrum to end. The SP blew bubbles and that was enough to distract her and get in interested in something else. Since Little Miss doesn't have a lot of words we are trying to teach her baby signs. I don't know which (verbal communication or baby signs) is going to be easier for her to learn and start using but I really don't care which one it is. All I want is for her to be able to communicate with me other than screaming and throwing fits for whatever it is that she wants.


Our DT (Developmental Therapist) is coming for the first time on Monday and I cannot wait to hear what she has to say. I will update on Monday night or Tuesday on what happened and how everything went.


Here is a list that our SP left with us for me to do with Little Miss. I hope that some of these things will help you out with your own little one.


Suggestions:


1. Take pictures of everyday objects that are familiar to her and make a small photo album to show her the pics and give her choices on what she wants. (Ex. picture of a banana and a picture of grapes. "Little Miss, would you like to have a banana or grapes?" This way she gets to make the choice and it makes her feel more in control.)


2. Establish a sensory diet to calm and prevent tantrums.


3. Get a therapy net swing to put in the house for part of her sensory diet. Everyday at a scheduled time swing her so that she can feel better and hopefully throw less fits.


4. Use a toothbrush before meals to increase awareness in her mouth. (Little Miss has a bad tendency to over fill her mouth with food almost to the point of choking. This is because she cannot accurately feel when her mouth is too full. This will help 'wake up' her mouth so that she won't do it as much.)


5. In nice weather, go to playgrounds that are fenced and not crowded.


6. Stack up mountains of pillows for her to climb on. (Little Miss has no safety awareness and climbs on everything! This will allow her to climb but keep her from getting hurt.)

7. Let her jump on the trampoline with supervision.

8. Teach her to take one bite at a time by saying "One bite" and giving her one bite on her plate.

9. Offer her choices whenever possible to give her sense of control and reduce tantrums. (Yep, she's gonna be a control freak just like her mother! lol)

10. Use 'if' and 'then' when speaking to her about events. (Ex: "If you get your shoes on then we can go outside to play.")

Tantrum Strategies (ARTICLE)

This article was given to me by Little Man's O.T., and hopefully it can help some parents out!

1. BEST TREATMENT: PREVENTION

a. Pick your battles: Avoid confrontations when it really doesn't matter. If they are not at risk for harm or harming something, give them time to get bored and try to get your way later.

b. Identify when and where your child has tantrums to see if there are particular triggers. Is it only in public, when they are hungry or tired? Is it during transitions from one activity to another? Knowing this info will help you prevent tantrums.

c. Be careful about setting yourself up for a NO answer. Do not ask your child a question if they don't have a choice to make. "We are going to leave now, okay?" is better stated, "We are leaving the store in 1 minute". Don't ask, "Do you want?" If you can't have the answer no!

d. Make a big deal often during good behavior that your child does. The key is letting your child know what pleases you and will get positive attention for.

e. Give your child cues that will help them prepare for what lies ahead. Sometimes telling a child when they have 5 minutes, then 3 minutes, then 1 minute until a transition is to occur helps them prepare for a change.

f. Always leave a small toy handy in your bag for distracting or providing an activity for those tantrums caused by boredom. If the toy is reserved only for when you are 'out', the interest in it will last longer.

2. DURING A TANTRUM:

a. Stay calm! The crazier they are, the calmer you need to be!

b. Let them know that you understand what they want, but that it is not going to happen now, then you stop talking!!.

c. Be careful not to reinforce the tantrum with extra attention and words that may actually be encouraging or rewarding the tantrum. Kids want our attention more than anything and often even negative attention is better than no attention at all. to work effectively, a tantrum needs a sympathetic audience.

d. Use isolation when ever possible for the tantrum. Establish a routine with total predictability. Put the child on a soft surface and IGNORE them for a few minutes, staying close enough to make sure they are safe. Occasionally reassure them that when they are calm, they can go play.

e. If they get up and move, do not chase them but make sure they are safe. If they are tearing up a room, then hold them on our lap tightly until you feel their arms and legs surrender. Holding can be reinforcing for some children.

f. Some kids can't calm themselves, and the tantrums last for longer than 30 minutes. These kids sometimes need to be rocked and held quietly when it appears they are 'stuck' and can't calm themselves. Sometimes giving them a pillow and a favorite blanket helps them to calm.

g. When the tantrum is over, let it go. Give them a hug and let them know that it is their behavior you don't like, but you love them all the same.

h. BE CONSISTENT with your words and actions. It is normal for tantrums to increase in order for your child to see if you react the same way every time. If the tantrums then decrease, your strategy is effective!! If the tantrums do not decrease, then you are doing something that the child finds reinforcing!!