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Accommodations for Home
Keep visual and auditory distractions to a minimum to help facilitate the child’s attention to homework. Have a “quiet corner” with a stack of pillows or beanbag chair.
A room with a rug or carpet helps to decrease extraneous noises, to minimize auditory distractions. Vacuum while the child is out. Prepare the child for sudden noises.
Use unscented detergent and shampoo to help a child who is over-sensitive to smells. Do not wear perfume or use car or stick-up fresheners. Use unscented markers.
For the child who has trouble falling asleep, try using flannel sheets, covering the child with a heavy comforter or letting them sleep in a sleeping bag to provide heavy weight and deep calming pressure. Heavy work before bed (jumping, pushing/pulling objects) or deep pressure (rolling up tight in a blanket, getting a strong back rub or massage) can be very relaxing. Using music, relaxation tapes, and/or visualization can be very helpful.
For the child who is over-sensitive to food in the mouth, try giving pop-scicles or frozen-juice cubes to desensitize the mouth. Whistles, chewy foods and vibration (like from an electric toothbrush) also provides helpful input to the mouth.
When cutting the child’s hair and nails, give firm pressure to the head, shoulders, and fingers.
When the child gets out of the bathtub, use a large towel and wrap the child tightly. Rub the child to decrease tactile defensiveness. Consider warming the towel by wrapping it around a hot water bottle to decrease the stress temperature change.
For the child who has poor proprioceptive processing, give heavy work such as carrying the laundry basket, sweeping the floor, or pushing chairs under the table. Carrying water (two liter bottles full) to water the plants is a helpful activity as well as carrying in groceries, digging in dirt, pushing a wheelbarrow, taking out the garbage).
To provide deep pressure, let the child wear a backpack, hat, or fanny pack with heavy items tucked in (like fishing weights or beanbags full of fish gravel). Place heavy items into pants pockets or vest pockets.
For the child who gets carsick, seat the child in the front seat, give chewy foods such as licorice, gum, fruit leather, french bread) or try ginger.
Teach the child to take a break each hour for “finding their edges.” Have them push and pull on their arms, do 5 chair push-ups, rub their arms, squeeze their head, rub their legs for 1-3 minutes.
Postural Control and Motor Performance
Postural stability provides necessary support for the development of fine motor function.
- Because the child has difficulty maintaining sitting positions and fatigues more quickly than other children due to weakness in postural muscle control, give frequent breaks from table-top and seated work.
- Make sure student is sitting with feet on the floor, table height just below the child’s elbows. Using a cardboard box can provide a resting place for the feet.Chewing on gum, sucking on hard candy or chewy candy (like sour gummy worms) may help give the child additional support needed during a writing activity and produce increased accuracy.
- To increase postural muscle strength and endurance, have the child participate in wheelbarrow walking, tug-of-war, pulling heavy objects with a rope, jumping into piles of pillows. Take whole family or group of friends participate in strengthening and motor skill development. Consider a family walk after dinner, supervise group bike rides after school (you go too), have frequent play dates at the swimming pool, or coach a soccer team.
Motor Planning and Organizational Strategies:
Motor planning (praxis) is the ability to organize and sequence novel activities and supports a child’s independence in functional living skills development.
- Give simple step-by-step directions. Support the child’s independent thinking skills by asking, “What is our first step?” or “What’s your plan now?” Develop consistent home routines – a child who is having trouble developing internal control can benefit greatly from external controls in their environments.
- Set out clothing on the bed in order that the child will be putting them on (underwear on the top, socks on the bottom) or set them out in a row on the bed and teach child to dress from left to right. Label drawers, set socks in baskets in the closet by the shoes, and establish routines for daily self-care tasks
- Have your thinking processing and planning process with your child. Don’t hide your mistakes – allow the child to see you model self-forgiveness and self-compassion.
- Teach the child that toys, backpacks, socks, shoes, and other personal items have an “away” place. Use the analogy “jail” and if you find an item has escaped, hurry it back into jail!
- Suggest a quiet time when you see the child escalate, suggesting quiet reading, listening to music and other calming activities. Be prepared to intervene – time out is a nonverbal message and the child may need verbal explanations to benefit from the time.
Fine Motor/Visual Motor Skills
Development of fine motor and visual motor skills are important for successful handwriting, keyboarding, and throwing.
- Have child try activities using both hands together for accuracy such as playing with legos, stringing beads, planting flowers in the ground using a small trowel).
- Use transforming robots, superheroes to promote thumb stability and pinch. Squirt bottles (like old dish liquid bottles) promote strengthening of the hand muscles. Fill with water and let the child “write” on the concrete, side of the house, or other surfaces. Have them aim at a nearby target to fill it up and make a floating ping-pong ball fall out in the “waterfall”.
Copyright 1999 Rondalyn Varney Whitney, The Lighthouse Project
Assimilated from work by Occupational Therapy Associates, the More Program, Development Is Child's Play and the Alert Program
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