Homework is a dreaded time of day in most homes. By the time homework rolls around, you and your child have already had a long, tiring day. For a child with sensory challenges, coming home after an exhausting day and facing homework is especially difficult. Whether your child is overly active or completely wiped after the school day, using sensory strategies to your advantage will make the afternoon and evening hours go much more smoothly in your home.

1. Some children are so worn out by the effort of sitting in class and keeping their behavior in check all day that they are bouncing off the walls when they come off the bus. If your child fits that description, incorporate resistive activities (“heavy work”) that are calming and organizing into your after-school routine. Spend 15-20 minutes engaged in these activities to ease the transition to homework. Assign specific chores to your child as great way to integrate these activities into the day seamlessly. An added benefit is that having your child perform these chores will lessen your work load!
1. Raking leaves
2. Shoveling the snow
3. Pushing a loaded shopping cart around the supermarket
4. Unloading groceries at home
2. Many children are exhausted when they come home from school. They need up-regulating activities in order to shake off their sluggishness. Strong movement (vestibular) activities will help your child stay alert and focused for homework.
1. Trampoline
2. Jumping jacks
3. Jumping rope
4. Hula-hoop
3. Once you have employed one of the above-mentioned sensory strategies to help your child achieve a calm, alert state for homework, use rhythm to keep him/her on task for longer. A heavy rhythm is very grounding and organizing, making it a highly effective tool for homework time. A few simple ways of incorporating rhythm into the day are listed below:
1. Having your child chew a large piece of (sugar free) gum before beginning his/her school work.
2. Listen to music that has a strong beat. Consider playing the music over headphones if the workspace is shared and could be a distraction to other family members.
3. Keep a sports-top water bottle at your child’s work station and encourage him/her to take sips regularly.

 Blog by Dr. Chaye Lamm Warburg, DPS, OTR                 1/30/12

It seems remarkable that the summer is coming to a close. In preparation for returning to school, take advantage of the many free on-line resources to get your child back into the swing of school work.

• Tip: It is helpful for a child to do some quiet sit-down work for short periods of time to gear up for classroom expectations.

For younger children, print coloring pages from (http://www.coloring.ws/coloring.html) and have your child color in the lines to practice crayon skills and develop spatial awareness. Pages with thick black borders and simple shapes are best. Alternatively, draw your own simple pictures. Outline with a thick marker around the edges to define the space. Afterwards your child can cut out the pictures to build scissors skills.

To make things interesting, turn your picture into a sun catcher.  Place a clear acetate sheet or baggie on top of the picture.  Help your child outline it with Wikki Stix (http:theraproducts.com).  Squeeze colored glue into each section to build up hand strength and work on pressure modulation. When the glue dries, carefully peel off your Wikki Stix/glue creation and stick it on a sunny window.  It should come off easily and leave no residue.

For elementary school children the end of summer is an opportune time to slide back into handwriting. Make it fun by playing games such as Boggle, Boggle Jr., Tic-Tac-Toe, or Hangman, or have your child help you make shopping lists or the schedule for the day. Tap into your creative side and make a scrapbook of your child’s summer. Have him/her write a caption below each picture and title each page. Use the writing implement that facilitates your child’s best writing.

In addition, there are excellent visual perception games, such as word searches, “same and different”, hidden pictures, tangrams, mazes, and lots more. Check out http://www.primarygames.com/puzzles/puzzles.html  and http://abcteach.com for a wide variety of free games.

To get a head start on building your child’s technology skills, several websites offer free typing games. Once your child knows the correct fingering, keep practice interesting by varying the keyboarding games in your repertoire.  Motor learning research indicates that varied practice is most effective in building up skills after the basics are established.  Check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ and http://www.freetypinggame.net/ for excellent typing programs.

Blog post by: Aviva Goldwasser, MS, OTR/L & Dr. Chaye Lamm Warburg, DPS, OTR/L  

8/22/11

HOW TO GET YOUR HYPER-SENSITIVE CHILD DRESSED IN THE MORNING

Morning routines are rushed and stressful in many homes, but if your child is overly sensitive to the feel of his/her clothing, getting dressed can be a torturous process for both of you. He/she may resist or literally fight you when it is time to get dressed. The good news is that your child is not trying to make your life difficult. For a child who is bothered by certain fabrics and textures, it can be uncomfortable, or even painful to wear articles of clothing that do not feel “right.”

Here is what you can do to make life run more smoothly:

• Sweatpants, yoga pants, and leggings will feel a lot better than jeans
• Sweatshirts, pull-overs, and t-shirts will be preferred to button down or collared shirts
• Let your child approve clothing once you bring it home
• Pre-wash clothing before wearing
• Consider purchasing tagless underwear and shirts
• Look for seamless socks online
• If you cannot find seamless and tagless garments, cut out labels and tags
• Give choices wherever possible to give your child a sense of control, such as giving your child two good choices  of outfits and letting him/her make the final choice
• In order to minimize any conflict that may arise in the morning over clothing selection, pick out clothing the night before. Lay them out like a “person” so that your child can climb right in
• Spend 5 minutes doing sensory preparation before getting dressed. Proprioceptive or “heavy work” activities are most calming and organizing:
• Make a “sandwich” using pillows and blankets.
• Roll up in blankets like a “hotdog”, give a few pillow squishes, and roll out of blanket quickly.
• Jump on cushions or mattresses.
• Play “Hide and Seek” under cushions and pillows.
• Give bear hugs (child faces away from you).
• Give slow back rubs or massages.
• Layer spandex or Lycra exercise-type clothes under regular clothes for calming, evenly distributed deep pressure input

If your child is sensitive to temperature, dress him/her in layers so that he/she can remain comfortable throughout the day

Blog written by: Aviva Goldwasser, MS, OTR
Chaye Lamm Warburg, DPS, OTR, Director POTS

Organization is a struggle for many of us as well as our children, especially children with Sensory Processing Disorder. Just as we teach other important life skills to our children, organizational strategies must be taught directly so that they can implement the strategies independently and habitually. Although children begin to learn these skills as toddlers by sorting and putting away toys, it is never too late to help your child build organizational skills. Initially, it may feel as though you are shouldering the bulk of the responsibility, but modeling and teaching good strategies from the get-go will do both you and your child a big service in the long run.  Here are some ideas to get started.

Posting a large family “calendar” in a visible area is a great way to model good habits for your children and keep everyone organized at the same time.

• What events should go on the family calendar? Family outings, sports practices, club meetings, etc., especially those that require car-pooling so that Mom and Dad are not double-booked.
• Make pictorial stickers of the events to place on the calendar so that preschoolers and beginning readers in your house can keep up
• Color code the calendar by assigning each family member a color

Create individual after-school daily planners for each child to plan out homework time, play time, play dates, birthday parties and other commitments. This can be particularly helpful to carve out time for homework on days that have an after school activity. Working on the planning together with your child is an opportunity for you to teach time management.

• Put Velcro on the back of small pictures depicting daily events to help children who are more visual, or those who struggle to write

Each child should have a daily planner where he/she has written the day’s homework and assignments. Check off each assignment as is it completed.

For specific ideas for organizing homework, check out the Homework Hassle Help blogs on POTSOT.com, posted October, 2008

A monthly calendar is important for listing long term assignments/projects and upcoming tests. Teaching your child to prepare in advance and break down big projects into small, manageable components is a critically important life skill.

Create a “Things to Bring to School Checklist” for each child that includes general materials, such as pens, pencils, and highlighters, as well as notebooks or textbooks for individual subjects. In order to ensure your child is prepared for class with everything he/she needs, display the checklist in an obvious location where he/she packs his/her backpack.

Color code your child’s classroom books, notebooks, folders, etc. so that he/she can easily recognize what subject materials are needed for in class work and homework.

Lighten your child’s load by regularly sorting through superfluous papers. Keep color coded files at home and have them file extra papers according to subject matter.

By: Aviva Goldwasser, OTR

In honor of the American Occupational Therapy Association’s (AOTA) National Backpack Awareness Day’s 10^th anniversary, the event is being expanded to cover back health through the lifespan.  Occupational therapists are educating community members of all ages on safety tips for the whole family, whether you are a parent whose child is carrying heavy books for school, or you are a professional lugging around a briefcase or laptop case. It is important for parents to serve as role models for their children in how to safely transport items that they need for the day and how to protect their bodies from injury.

Key Safety Tips

Children:

• Students should not carry more than 10% of their body weight
• Chooses a backpack that is the right size for your child
• Load heaviest items closest to the child’s back
• Remove any items that are not necessary for the day
• Shoulder straps should be well-padded
• Both shoulder straps, as well as a waist band, should always be secured snugly. Avoid slinging the straps over one shoulder

Professionals:

• Briefcases should be proportionate to body size
• The smaller the briefcase, the better
• Review the contents of your briefcase and remove unnecessary items
• Always place the heaviest items at the bottom
• Briefcases should have adjustable, padded straps to allow for adequate weight distribution. Avoid long, thin straps
• Alternate shoulders by switching bags from one side to the other to avoid over-stressing one side

Travelers:

• Have different suitcases for different occasions: the size of the bag should reflect the length of stay
• Opt for lighter materials such as vinyl or canvas rather than heavier materials such as leather
• Take 2 lighter bags, one in each hand, rather than carrying one heavy bag
• Wheeled luggage should have four large wheels for easy maneuverability

Women:

• Have different size purses for different occasions: smaller purses for short outings
• Purses should have compartments to help distribute weight evenly
• Shorter, wider straps will also facilitate even weight distribution
• Eliminate unnecessary or duplicate items
• Alternate shoulders by switching the purse from one side to the other

For more information about Backpack Awareness, check out the AOTA’s website at www.aota.org.

Blog written by: Aviva Goldwasser, MS, OTR/L

Chaye Lamm Warburg, DPS, OTR/L, Director of POTS