Posted byNeeti at 11:54 PM 2 comments
Labels: disability, early intervention, neeti, parenting tips, sakshum, sensory integration, yoga
Eye contact...
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Children with specturm diagnosis have difficulty in eye contact and theory suggests that human eye contact increases the anxiety among them. but, eye contact is a part of development as it assist in communication and socialization. Many a time it is difficult to get the eye contact from the child with ASD even if you physically prompt.
The main idea to promote eye contact is creating a need for child. this indirectly enhance the communication, verbal or non-verbal. The simple line is always remembered "create needs and provide opportunities to child".
for eg: tickle the child for 3 times with counting numbers and then stop. Since the child likes the act he would look at you or ask for more. This example was giving opportunity by tickling him and then creating a need by stopping the activity. once, he looks at you, appreciate and reinforce by giving him a kiss or smile.
Use verbal command often "look at my face". However. it is found that "look at my face" is reinforcing than look into my eyes. The step is data collection. Maintain a record for how often the child looks at you on demand. If sometime the child does not follow use the physical prompt to encourage him to look at you.
The timing for eye contact and persistence is important. If he is engaged in other activities it is difficult for him to acknowledge the command. Prompt him physically or wait for his involvement.
Posted byNeeti at 8:31 PM 0 comments
Labels: autism, child disability, early intervention, eye contact, parenting tips, play, speech therapy
Early Stimulation II
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Early visual stimulation
Young babies are attracted by bright, irregular shaped or patterned objects. Irregular shaped objects enhance the contour, depth perception and discrimination function of vision. It is good to use patterned objects and surrounding to enhance visual functions like bed sheets and dresses. Use of large, bright, red objects in the line of the vision is suggestive. Move child hands for hand regard and midline orientation. Expose the child to various areas of house and let the child interact with family members during meal time and play time.
Mirror shadow attracts the child. Expose the child to mirror and assist him to watch himself and tap on the floor. Mirror should be placed 7-8 inches over head or in front of the child to avoid accident and this placement enhance the visual function. This activity is important for body image development. Body image is important for efficient use of the body parts in space.
Large sheets of colour paper or gift wrappers attract the child not only for visual awareness but also for movement. Place the plastic sheet under the child. The child gets excited to move when he hears the crepitus sound of sheet while moving.
Posted byNeeti at 8:10 PM 0 comments
Labels: child development, developmental disability, early intervention, speech therapy, vision therapy
Picnic chale ham
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
When I was a kid, there was one thing that i hated to the limit - to stay at home. I always wanted to go out to a new place different from my regular school and home. I wanted to go to places where I could do those wonder things which i had heard in stories. I wanted to be with my friends so that they can see me when i do those exciting things, so that i can take pride in talking about our wonder moments with them - incessantly, and so that I can add one more story to my book of adventures.
As a child you get to hear a lot of stories. These stories take a child to a world unknown. They rock him, they move him. These stories regale him, enthrall him, mesmerize him , hypnotize him and above all inspire him. Anything new is a story for a kid and thus he remembers it and savours it.
It is these stories that make kids remember a lot of things which otherwise would have forgotten. So one fine day, few weeks back, Sakshum thought of adding a few more stories to those adventure books possessed by every kid.
Plots for our stories were Planetarium and Park.
First we took our young heroes to Birla Planetarium - just to add some more stars to their stories. But as expected the kids had no clue about that place. While we were cooling our heels, the kids were busy conjecturing what’s inside.Some of them were expecting to see some Telugu flick in the building which appeared a movie theatre to them. Kaleza was the most popular guess.
And then came the moment when all the guesses came to the halt, when the gates opened and the cool breeze of the theatre brought excitement and commotion along with it.
The kids were now under the the huge curved screen and so were adventure, buzz , anticipation and hope. Right from the very moment in which we barged in under the overhead curved screen of planetarium till the very last conclusive second, every kid was in the state of awe.They were star-strucked by every single thing present there.
The show came to an end in an hour or so and then came the time to take the kids to our second plot- Sanjeevaiah park near Hussain Sagar. I don’t know that how much the kids learnt but anybody who was present there would have certainly got the vibes of inquisitiveness amongst the kids. It was an exclusive experience watching the kids prying and probing.
With the revving engines we embarked upon the second phase of our journey and the buses left for the park. The journey was full of gusto and energy. I don’t remember any school bus trip which was not fun and this was no different. There is some magic that the revving engines, honking horns and blowing winds bring along with them. Enchanted and captivated we reached Sanjeevaiah park.
We all had our lunch and then the kids were set free. The storm was unleashed and it took the entire place in it’s grip. The whole place came to life and started breathing afresh. Everyone, kids and volunteers alike was charged. It felt that we have come to a carnival.
Soon came the time to go but the energy levels were still at the peak. There was no stopping to the fun. In a matter of seconds the passengers of the two buses turned to two rival teams and the roads of Hyderabad turned into a racetrack. And then started the relentless support and chanting by the two teams. The support shown was overwhelming to say the least. The kids put their everything behind their drivers and made them the protagonists of that little cameo.
That was a day which never dropped in its energy level, which showed us that why every adult yearns for his childhood. I am sure that this episode must had given a lot of stories to our youthful daredevils which they will relish in years to come and which they will keep forever in their wonder books.
Posted byGoofy at 8:17 PM 0 comments
Labels: Birla Planetarium, early intervention, hyderabad, kids, Picnic, sakshum, Sanjeevaiah Park
Early Stimulation I
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Early stimulation is essential for every child but it is necessary for the children who are diagnosed with or “at risk”. It forms the platform for the development of refined and mature skills. Early stimulation is a holistic approach including multi sensory approach.
Early stimulation has various areas and it includes
- Motor which includes gross and fine motor
- Auditory stimulation
- Visual stimulation
- Tactile stimulation
- Oro motor stimulation
- Cognitive stimulation
- Speech and language stimulation
- Socialization and emotional development
- Self help
Posted byNeeti at 10:48 PM 0 comments
Labels: autism, awareness, child disability, early intervention, parenting tips
Mouth play II
Friday, October 22, 2010
Activities for improving oral functions
Because of hypertonia and hypotonia of oral muscle, most of the children with disability have feeding problems. It includes inability to chew, poor control tongue for moving bolus, poor jaw coordination and instability. Many of children have poor oral sensitivity varying from hypo to hyper sensitivity which also affects the feeding and speech. Children with hypersensitivity are hesitant to try new taste and tend to swallow the food than chewing. They are “picky eater”. The hyposensitive child takes longer time to eat and keeps the food inside mouth for longer time. They are less aware if the food stick around the mouth and most of time they have hanging tongue or drooling. Because of poor oral tone they develop open mouth posture.
Mouth play can improve all these above problem and even can prevent the problem to arise if started as earliest.
- Deep pressure around the jaw improves the jaw stability and awareness. It helps in improving the tone of facial muscles and helps in oral function like chewing, swallowing and sipping.
- Firm pressure on the root of the tongue with the help of spoon increases the muscle tone of tongue and increases the voluntary control over gagging. Controlling gagging reflex helps in preventing the vomiting.
- Blowing plays an important role in developing oral functioning. Assist the child to learn blowing and sipping. Both the activities play an important role in breath control and tone regulation.
- Exposure to different type of food helps to desensitize the oral hypersensitivity.
- Pleasant touch around the mouth reduces the hypersensitivity. Touch should be firm but given in a playful way so the child accepts it well. Activities like bathing and grooming can distract the child and child readily accepts the touch. For younger children mouthing toys can be helpful which assists in chewing and improves the oral tone. For elder children chewing rubber stick, tubes or chewing gums are advisable.
The above activities do need an Early interventionist, Occupational therapist or Speech therapist guidance.
Posted byNeeti at 8:50 PM 2 comments
Labels: cerebral palsy, child disability, developmental disability, Down's syndrome, early intervention, feeding, oral issues, parenting tips, play, speech therapy
Mouth play I
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The child learns through their mouth first. The mouth sensation develops even before their birth. Around 5 months in utero or womb the child brings the hands to mouth and sucks the hands. This is the first exposure of mouthing. After birth the child first exposure to mouthing is mother feeding. During feed the child does not even get touch sensation inside mouth but also around the mouth. This is favoured by rooting reflex which is a primitive reflex. According to Freud's psycho-sexual theory of development, the oral stage is a primary focus of libidal energy or libido. At the age of 3 months the child start bringing his hands in midline and starts mouthing. This way the child preoccupies with the pleasure of mouthing. Oral stage prepares the child for better oral functioning. It prepares the child for sucking, chewing and swallowing and later for speech.
Mouthing the toys and other objects helps the child to learn jaw control, chewing, tongue movement and speech. During this process the child learns to use different part and angles of the mouth. This prepares the child for transition of food from liquids to solids.
This is a normal process and most of the children undergo to this process by their own but it is not automatic process for children with special needs. They need assistance to learn it through guidance with early interventionist or occupational therapist.
Posted byNeeti at 10:43 PM 3 comments
Labels: autism, cerebral palsy, child disability, Down's syndrome, early intervention, occupational therapy, oral issues, parenting tips, play, primitive reflexes, sensory integration, speech therapy