Our experience with Therapeutic Listening!

A week or so ago I told you all about Therapeutic Listening and that children with SPD, among other things, can benefit from it. I also told you how it can make your child sick if not done properly. TL is very strong and should not be fooled around with. Well now I have my own proof to that.

Last week Little Man was at his weekly OT appointment. After about a half hour he and his therapist came out and she told me he had thrown up. He was white and when I say white I mean he was as white as rice! You could tell he didn't feel well. His therapist, who I really like, said that she thought it was because he was in the swing while doing the TL and was in it too long. I felt so bad for him and so did she. But after about 20 minutes, some water on his face, some water to drink and some down time he was back to his normal hyper self.

This past Monday Little Miss had an awful day! She was throwing tantrums, having major meltdowns and was very clingy, screaming and crying, etc. and so on. Nothing I did made any difference so I decided to sit her at the table with her TL headphones on and give her a sensory activity to do along with it. After about 10 minutes she was done. The strange thing was she was worse then she was before. I finally had to put her in her crib because I was afraid she was going to hurt herself (she bangs her head against things when she gets in one of these meltdowns.) After about 5 minutes I got her out of her crib and sat her down for dinner. She ate and ate and ate! All together she had about 4 kid sized plates of pasta, applesauce and cauliflower. She was an empty pit that wasn't getting full. She has been behind in communication but has been getting better with ST, OT and DT so she is saying some new words and new signs.

I spoke with her OT about it yesterday and she said that is was probably because she was so hungry and didn't know how to tell me and the music made her stomach hurt. Well then I just of course felt terrible! So now we are working on the "eat" sign! So my whole point is that even if your therapist helps you with TL and tells you what to do you need to be very observant of your child so that if they begin to feel sick you notice and stop the music. Having a child with sensory issues and having them not feel well equals major meltdowns!

This is my first hand experience with TL and my kids being overwhelmed by it. Please be careful when you do TL with your child(ren). Don't ever attempt TL on your own without the supervision and advice of your therapist!

For those of you that already do TL with your child(ren) here is a small list of things you can let your child do while listening to the music to give added input.

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Sensory play activities to pair with headphones and music:

~ Washing cars in a basin or bowl

~ washing babies in a basin or bowl

~ yogurt or pudding paint on paper, mat or themselves

~ magnets on a pan

~ sorting balls, cereal, etc in muffin tins

~ markers, crayons and paper

~ bingo dabbers

~ puzzles

~ necklaces made out of cereal

~ hide small beads in some playdoh and let your child go through and pick them out and sort them however you want.

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Do you have any more suggestions that we can add to this list? Please leave your suggestions in a comment!

Therapeutic Listening

If you have a child with SPD or any sensory issues then you probably already know about Therapeutic Listening and what it offers. But in case you don't know what I'm talking about then let me explain a little.

Therapeutic Listening is basically a therapy of music. The specially designed music works with your child on vestibular, sensory, auditory, etc. and is very powerful. The music goes really high pitched and low pitched. It's like a roller coaster of sounds and can make you dizzy or even sick if you listen to it too long and/or don't need it. To learn more please click here. Although TL is great, it is expensive and is not recommended for every child or every need. It is not something to mess around with and should only be done with the support and supervision of your Occupational or Developmental Therapist that is trained to work with it.

We are starting TL with Little Miss and today did a little extra. We (April & I) put her at the table with her headphones on and some sensory activities to play with. Doing both at the same time gives extra input and can really help their mood, behavior, spacial awareness and so on. Little Man does TL in a swing at his therapy sessions once a week too. Swinging while doing TL is another great way to give your child extra input.

We started with a very low CD for her called Rhythm & Rhymes. It is great for Little Miss because they're actually songs she will listen to and at some point start singing along with the music because they are toddler songs that every kid listens to and enjoys but redone in a way that works with certain issues. Little Miss did great with it today. She sat at the table, listened and played with a water activity and then some whip cream on a place mat. Those two activities are great for sensory play. After about 10 or 15 minutes she decided she was done and gave them back to me. Here are a couple pics of her this morning.

If your child has sensory issues and you're interested in learning more about Therapeutic Listening ask your OT or DT about it! Most therapists that are trained in it will have items that you can borrow. Like Little Miss' therapists; April (DT) gave us the headphones, travel pouch and a couple cds to start with. And Little Miss' OT gave us a kids therapeutic cd to work with. But please do not attempt to start Therapeutic Listening on your own. ALWAYS consult with your child's therapist(s) before starting any therapy.

I would also love some feedback from those of you that are or have used it with your kids. Did they like it? Did it help? Would you recommend it? What are your overall thoughts on it?

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!**

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?