CD Board Bag of Tricks

SRL

Active Member
Sonja, we have the long green IKEA rocker. It's my easy child daughter that likes it instead of difficult child. We also have one item they don't list anymore-the orange air cushion (about 5x5) and they all love that.

The ace item for motion at our house is a hammock chair.

My difficult child needs gross body motion, especially swinging, to stay regulated. We have a swivel mounted in the basement and it is the most sought after thing in our household. When friends come they would spend an hour down there if I let them. It spins really fast so I have to set the timer for guests since they aren't used to it. We also found that we needed to buy a larger hook/screw to screw into the ceiling joist as the small one would unwind with all of the spinning.

My husband is handy so he made a platform swing like they use for Occupational Therapist (OT). Cost was probably around $25 as opposed to the $170 plus shipping.

I should add that we added these items to our household once we understood difficult child's sensory needs after a thorough Occupational Therapist (OT) assessment and considerable observation on our part. I wouldn't go adding these types of equipment (ditto with the IKEA stuff) randomly as some kids can actually become wilder having these kinds of input constantly available to them. When my son was unstable he was far more hyperactive than usual and we had to limit swing time as it wasn't doing the calming/organizing it usually does but in fact the opposite.
 
In the car, we had a big blow-up thing, that was placed between my two sons. Otherwise it was impossible for them to keep their hands to themselves.
 

SRL

Active Member
I think some bathtime ideas would be good for this thread.

One thing that has worked well at our house is to have an alternative called a Playbath. A playbath means just that--the kid gets to play without any fear that mom or dad is going to soap them up or wash their hair. Granted it's not as thorough as "The Works" but there are times when the child is in inflexible mode that getting them semi-clean is better than nothing at all. A good long soak can wash away a lot of grime, especially if you encourage a lot of pouring on upper parts. We still resort to this occasionally with both of my younger ones.

The other thing that helped a lot when the kids were little was to have a routine. Set the timer and when it goes off we stop playing and start washing up (but as always be a little flexible). Tell the child verbally exactly what you are going to do in advance of each step (especially important for kids with Sensory Integration Disorder (SID)!). Use the same number of hair rinses each time so the child can count along and knows when the torture will be over. Assure them you will never surprise them.

My difficult child is an anxious child and at one point the height of the water in the tub became an issue. I wished I had thought of it sooner but what helped immensely was to take a permanent marker and draw arrows showing which way to turn the faucets off. I put a number 1 by the hot water and a number 2 by the cold water. (While I was at it I put the word "down" up by the showerhead for my husband.) I know this is only useful for children who are a little older but it has empowered both of my littles ones to take care of something themselves and has gone a long way to aleviate fears.
 
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