Evolution

On any given day, my living room looks an awful lot like this....

 ....only it's way more spread out and diffuse- I would need a wide angle lens to fit it all in and that just isn't in the budget!

So this blog is a place where I try to be open and honest, and give you a bit of a glimpse inside our lives. I think that it is important to share ideas and insights, and help people where and whenever I can. It's also a place for me to admit to my many parenting mistakes. I don't so much like admitting to them I'd far rather just sweep them under the carpet and pretend they don't exist. But they do. In multitudes. Parenting is a learning process and it doesn't always come easily. Even if we had instruction booklets for each kid we wouldn't have the time to read them, would we?

You are probably wondering how Lego, occupational therapy and fine motor skills somehow add up to a  parenting mistake, aren't you?

A long time ago in therapy (Owen was about 5 at the time) he was given the task of assembling a car by reading the instructions in little manual. He had a terribly difficult time with it but he kept at it-  of course the end result wasn't exactly what was pictured. The therapist was gently suggesting that it was a skill he may never develop. At the time it bothered me immensely because I knew that he really wasn't a "car" type kid- we've got hundreds of them laying around because cars are one of my stepson's favourite things in the world. Owen has always been more interested in "people" toys. One of his first favourite games was to use spoons as characters- even before he was verbal he would put them face to face and make interesting intonations with his voice. But thinking that maybe he needed some extreme help in the area of putting together Lego cars we set to work on practising that skill.

Perhaps not one of my finer moments. Oy.

If you aren't interested in something, it makes it super hard to learn. I sort of gave up after a while because while I know it was great for him to work with Lego for his fine motor skills I didn't want him to think of it as torture. It REALLY IS an amazing tool for so much learning- problem solving, hands on technology, literacy, math, lateral thinking, construction design.... soooooo many things... I'm barely scratching the surface of it's educational benefit.....

So I took a step back. And I let HIM find a passion. Mario? MAAAAARIO!! THIS-

Which then changed to THIS-

Which grew into this-

 And then turned into this-

Which transformed into THIS-

So what I learned through this process is something I already knew, but sort of ignored in a moment of weakness- we learn better and far faster if we have passion in the subject. Our imaginations and brain capacities ARE NOT LIMITED if we are provided with opportunity. And we don't all follow the same path. For Owen, (since he loves computers and Mario to the moon and back) we first introduced the larger concept of pixels. Oh my Heavens the boy thinks in PIXELS! Then he spent a lot of time reading about all of the different inceptions of Mario over the years. He can not only build them, but he can tell you which one is which. I had NO IDEA that 8-bit Mario looked different than 32 bit Mario and I am still struggling to grasp who is who! The picture below should give you a good idea of just how many Mario's we've seen over the last 2 years. I haven't taken a picture of every single one I just don't have the space on the hard drive!

And he still has no interest in building cars! :)

This  post is part of  #TherapyThursday, which I hope gives you a glimpse inside our lives.  Care to join me in raising awareness of Special Needs?  Post a blog, picture or tweet about it using the hashtag #TherapyThursday.  Feel free to post a link below in the comment section!  Remember that there are many different types of therapy- Occupational, Physical, Feeding, Speech Language and Behavioural to name a few.  I hope it will serve as yet another way to spread awareness of special needs!

Play Dough and Fine Motor

Whether you call it play dough, therapy putty, modelling clay or play clay it is a whole lot of fun to play with, and pretty easy (not to mention cheaper) to make at home.  We have spent the last few months experimenting in the kitchen with different recipes and I thought it might be a good idea to share the results.

Play dough is a really versatile occupational therapy tool at Casa Sprung. Because of the malleable nature of the clay it is an excellent tool for stretching the tendons and strengthening all of the muscles in the hands, helping prepare them for better fine motor skills. Fine motor activities include anything that requires the strength, coordination and precise movements of the hand muscles- so think hand writing, using scissors (or utensils, tools of any type really), zippers, tying shoes, manipulating small objects (think Lego- I'll post next week about that)- things that require precise motor movement to complete and often delicate task.  Both of my boys have difficulty with fine motor skills, but for slightly different reasons.  Did you notice the super bend-y fingers in the photo above? They bend both ways- forward AND backwards. The oldest has "hypermobile joints" which means that his joints bend much farther than normal. Unfortunately, this can cause a lot of additional stress on the joints. Fatigue is common (other muscles have to work very hard to compensate for the joint instability) and it's difficult to complete tasks because of it.


At Christmas we bought the Littles some scented play dough thinking that it may be a fun way to focus a bit on fine motor tasks.  It turned out to be the favourite gift- they ALL played with it for hours, big brother included. The only trouble was that Daisy wanted everything to dry so she could keep it- and I quickly realised that it was going to be expensive to keep them in play dough. I also noted that unless I bought the really expensive therapeutic putty I couldn't really purchase different dough consistencies. Therapy putties typically come in varying degrees of soft, from extra soft to firm. NOT cheap. So we "kitchen hacked" a number of popular recipes to see what we could come up with.

Here is what we found!




Cornstarch Dough (cooked)
was very soft and light. We liked it, but it tended to make our hands feel a little dried out. The recipe we used can be found  here.




Flour Dough (uncooked method) was a little firmer in consistency.  It doesn't exactly feel like commercial dough but it's fairly close. It did leave a really weird film on our hands but even my sensory boy kept on trucking. You can find the recipe we used here.




Probably my favourite dough was Jello based. Yes, this added to the cost but not only was it a pretty colour it smelled like grapes and my hands felt GREAT afterwards. You can find the recipe we used here. Note- I used coconut oil in the recipe and I think that is what I will be adding to play dough from now on.  Consistency was very similar to regular store bought dough.




To increase the resistance of any of the doughs (or to help sensory avoiding kiddo's) you can place the dough inside a heavy-duty-plastic-zipper-top-freezer-bag (I'm pretty sure that is breaking every single grammar rule on the planet but I don't want to name drop) and have them squish the heck out of it.

There really are a ton of benefits to play dough- not just Occupational Therapy! This is why it is a staple of early childhood classroom tools. Ignore anyone that suggests play dough is for preschool- I had the time of my life hanging out with the monsters and rolling dough, and I can't wait until we do it again!

The artist in me is screaming THINK OF THE CREATIVITY!

This  post is part of  #TherapyThursday, which I hope gives you a glimpse inside our lives.  Care to join me in raising awareness of Special Needs?  Post a blog, picture or tweet about it using the hashtag #TherapyThursday.  Feel free to post a link below in the comment section!  Remember that there are many different types of therapy- Occupational, Physical, Feeding, Speech Language and Behavioural to name a few.  I hope it will serve as yet another way to spread awareness of special needs!

Snow Day and Heavy Work

I don't know what the weather is doing where you are, but it feels like we've had nothing but bitter cold (minus 37C with wind chill!), freezing rain and more snow than we know what to do with since Christmas.  It feels like the kids have been on an extended holiday for weeks now because of all of the bus cancellations.  The mercury is so low that they haven't been having their regular outdoor breaks at school either.

Even the kids are wondering when it will stop

All of this is throwing a bit of a monkey wrench into our daily life.

The kids are bored but also full of energy. Which spells trouble. Are your kids driving you nuts yet? Are they a bit out of sorts?

Either we all need a vacation (not likely to happen) or we need to help them sort themselves out!

Looking for the "bright side"? I sure as heck am!

One of the best parts of being a special needs parent is learning some cool tricks to make things run a little smoother. I wish I had realized the mechanics behind this a long time before now- because I find it works wonders for all three of my kids and it is so simple to do.

Heavy work activities (i.e., proprioceptive input) are used for children with sensory processing difficulties to help increase attention, decrease defensiveness, and modulate arousal.

Oh yes, the snow IS WAIST DEEP!

Proprioceptive input is the performance of tasks that involves heavy resistance and input to the muscles and joints, and is essential in helping our bodies (both typical and atypical!) assimilate and process both movement (vestibular) and touch (tactile) information. This resistive input obtained through heavy work activities is generally organizing and can improve attention, arousal level, body awareness and muscle tone, as well as decreasing defensiveness.

And it's incredibly simple and easy to build into your day- especially in the winter months.

Are your kids a little out of sync? Dress them up in their heavy winter clothes- for some kids, the heavier the clothes the better this works. Take them out in the deep snow have them fight their way over the snow drifts! Stretch! Climb! Work it!

Oh yes- while they are out there, hand them a shovel.  Heavy work is about pushing, pulling, and lifting. I'm sure you could use a hand clearing the snow from the side walk and driveway! Grab a sled and fill it up with snow. Drag it around the yard a few times.

The Trailbazers hard at work

She tried really hard, but required a tow!

Connect and engage with your kids.  They are totally worth it! Snow days can be rough on everyone but I think that we owe it to ourselves to find positive ways to use the time we are given.

Do you have any tips or tricks for coping with kids on snow days?  Please share! I am dying to know!

Leave me a comment below- don't worry, I promise I won't bite! :)

No tears here! She's a very good sport!

My Oral Motor Needs a Tune Up!

Have you ever really thought about what it takes to speak?  Or how many different skills are required to eat?    Before I had kids, I never really thought about it.  It's all just supposed to happen, right? Well, generally speaking, it does.  Most children tend to follow similar stages of development in similar timelines, but every once and while you encounter....

An Owie.  Cue cricket noises.

It helps if you open your mouth Honey.  Just sayin'

I'll be the first one to say that his developmental timeline is officially upside down, backwards and turned around.  It is disordered, delayed and disorganized.  And because of this, we never know what skill he needs to work on so that the next milestone will work out for him.

It has been challenging, and has taken a very long time to get to where we are now with oral motor.  There is still a very long road ahead too.  Since we are on our own for therapy now we build lots of things into our day that help him with oral motor strength, awareness, coordination, movement, and endurance of the jaw, tongue, lips and cheeks.  We say funny words over and over.  We use vibrating toothbrushes for sensory awareness, as well as helping desensitize his gag reflex.  We practice sticking our tongues out in every different direction, which we all find terribly amusing!  We are now attempting to move things around in the mouth using the tongue.  I'll be honest with you all here.  I find this activity nerve racking- because Owen chokes A LOT.  And late last year we lost a very close relative.  To choking.  I know, things happen beyond our control- and I'm trying my level best to remain calm and continue with all things feeding related.

The Sucker Dance

I felt most comfortable using a lollipop or toothbrush for this activity, since I was asking him to move it from cheek to cheek without using his hands, I knew that I could grab it if I needed to.  Oral motor excercises are always done while sitting at the table.  To help with awareness I asked him to touch his cheek as he moved it from side to side.  Sometimes I let him use a mirror, just so that he can see where it is and where it needs to go.  I found it kind of interesting that he drooled excessively during this activity.

Bubble Gum Gumption

Like most kids, he really relishes the idea of Bubble Gum.  Those appealing little colourful packages of sugar and artificial flavour...  Not my favourite thing in the world for the kids to be chomping on, but since he really only keeps it in there for a few minutes before he says he's done, I caved.  Again, we do this at the table, so that he stays in one place, and is less likely to get side tracked and choke on it.  It goes in, he moves it side to side in his mouth once chewed.  I'm still trying to get him to put it under his tongue.  He desperately wants to blow bubbles with it, but so far, his tongue and lips are not only not strong enough to do it, but they just won't cooperate.  We end both activities with a thorough tooth brushing - as soon as we're finished!

Do you have any ideas for Oral Motor Activities that you do with your own little ones?  I'm always looking for more ideas!  If you've stopped by to take a peek inside our lives, please feel free to leave a little hello down in the comments!

From the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists

"Occupational therapy is the art and science of enabling engagement in everyday living, through occupation; of enabling people to perform the occupations that foster health and well-being; and of enabling a just and inclusive society so that all people may participate to their potential in the daily occupations of life (Townsend& Polatajko, 2007, p. 372)."

Tough Guys DO Dance

.......And then, she asked: "Is he Crossing Midline?"

"Um, what's that?" I asked, and felt the red rising up my neck and into my cheeks.

"Does he reach across his body to pick up toys or to touch an item of interest?"

"Well, come to think of it.... No.  He's more likely to move himself closer to the toy than he is to reach across...."

And so began the journey.

What is so important about crossing midline anyway?  Well, in short- crossing the midline is an indicator of bilaterial coordination, meaning the “ability to use both sides of the body at the same time."  It is a prerequisite (of sorts) for climbing stairs, riding a bicycle, catching a ball.  Not to mention the development of cognitive skills like reading, writing and learning.  Laterilazation is important in the process, as is establishing side dominance.  And one of the biggest challenges for Owen has been bilateral integration- where both sides of the body working  simultaneously and independently in body-related, as well as mind-related actions.  You've all seen the kid on the playground that can't jump with his feet together (step one), couldn't do a jumping jack if his life depended on it (step two), let alone put toothpaste on a toothbrush (step three)?  That's Owen.  Love him for all of these quirks and more, because he makes me think outside the box!  For a more indepth look at crossing midline, there is a great article available here:  Establishing Dominance and Crossing Midline

So.  What do we do to help?  Lots of everyday things like playing games at the table that force the kids to reach across their bodies to pick things up.  And of course, we dance. Twenty minutes each night, as a matter of fact.  And sometimes, when you least expect something, it happens....

Crossing midline AND alternating sides, Gangnam Style!

The best Occupational Therapy is doing the things you like to do, regardless of how good you are at it, and doing it as often as you can.  So my challenge to you readers, is to turn up the music, and DANCE with your children.  Even if they are typically developing kids, and you are a typically developing parent, I guarantee that you will both benefit from the experience.  After all, as Maya Angelou said ~~

"Everything in the universe has a rhythym.  Everything dances."

I knew he was up to something, but it didn't know what....

I plan on writing a post on Thursday for the next little while to give you a glimpse inside our lives.  Thursday will henceforth be known as Therapy Thursday, and I hope that you will join me.  Post a blog, or tweet about it using the hashtag #TherapyThursday.  Feel free to post a link below in the comment section!  Remember that there are many different types of therapy- Occupational, Physical, Feeding, Speech Language and Behavioural to name a few.  I hope it will serve as yet another way to spread awareness of special needs!  If you have stopped by to visit today, please don't be afraid to say hi, or leave a comment below.

From the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists

"Occupational therapy is the art and science of enabling engagement in everyday living, through occupation; of enabling people to perform the occupations that foster health and well-being; and of enabling a just and inclusive society so that all people may participate to their potential in the daily occupations of life (Townsend& Polatajko, 2007, p. 372)."