Early Sensory Processing for Babies

This post is dedicated to all unborn and brand new babies, who are entering to this world with predisposition to sensory processing disorder.

One of my blogger friend is also helping her daughter with sensory processing. She posted about her daughter's therapist, who is working on publishing a book about sensory processing. This occupational therapist has the same concern that I have: Autism and sensory processing are dramatically increasing. Due to our kids with Trisomy 21 have a higher risk for Autism and sensory processing, I advise any parent out there to look into the option for Occupational Therapy with sensory processing emphasis to help your child, since they are babies, to get organized and truly reach his or her full potential. This Occupational Therapist is trying to raise awareness on how parents can start right since the beginning to avoid major sensory processing issues.

Video by advancemybaby.com

Mommy's Lab

Working full time takes a lot of time of my day that I cannot work with Tommy. On top of this, I have to go to periodically visits to the Chiropractor to check Tommy's neck, private paid therapies, sport classes and outdoor activities. So I have to be organized at home to be able to work with Tommy in the short time I have in the evenings.

People always say to me, "I don't know how you do it." Unfortunately, I am not a superwoman with super powers to transform everything.  But I have created something I call 'Mommy's Lab' where all my inspiration, passion and love for helping Tommy comes alive. But it has been just recently that I could put 'Mommy's Lab' up and running. It is established in our leaving room with sub areas designated in the garage, the kids' rooms and the master bedroom. Before, It was disorganized with many things everywhere; but now, it's organized and functional with everything I need handy.

Mommy's Lab essentials:

• Craft materials
• Art supplies
• Therapeutic tools
• Books for kids about many topics (Bilingual, English and Spanish)
• Child Development Books
• Technology devices
• Old blankets
• Fun toys for developing fine/gross motor
• Toys for pretend play
• Musical Instruments
• Balls all sizes and shapes
• Pre-made activities
• Spanish activity books
• Videos, CDs, a lot of music
• A timer to keep the activities short (The stove timer)
• The best climbers ever (Our coughs)
• Tommy's best cheerleader and worse nightmare —Francis
• Our families support and
• A lot of LOVE.

I see toys so valuable as tools. We have a  good variety of toys because If one toy doesn't work, I can get another one, quick, to keeps Tommy's interest. If one activity doesn't work, I can switch to other activity or add a novelty to the activity. Anything in Mommy's lab can be transformed and being used for a fun and educational time.

Best Jumping Platform (Our coffee table)

Best Climber toy ever (Our couches)

I learned to get a better use of our furniture with 

Tommy's former therapists. I miss them a lot!

I have learned to read Tommy's body language when he needs sensory input. As his advocate, I have decided to educate people around him, so we all can help him to overcome his sensory issues. So I have done a sensory evaluation according to my observations. The book The Child with Special Needs has a guide on how parents can do their own individualized sensory evaluation. This evaluation helps to find toys and activities according to the child sensory needs. This evaluation is designed to follow the child's lead on what they want to do during play time.  I have written down my evaluation that I will share with our relatives. In Mommy's lab, there are a lot of studies and experiments about Tommy's development!

Batting a ball attached to the ceiling was one of the

activities I could identify, throughout my evaluation with the

guidance of the book the Child with Special Needs.

This activity has been a complete success with Tommy!

The blanket activity is another Tommy's favorite activity. 

He giggles every time we playfully smash him. 

This activity also applies for kids with sensory disfunction and it is away

caregiver shows affection to the child. 

I found a wonderful idea on how keep, in one place, all activities and games Tommy enjoys; as well as, the activities and games I have identify according to his sensory needs. Therefore, everybody involved in Tommy's care can have access to them and have a fun day with him. This will make easier keeping him busy, redirecting the stimuli behaviors and mommy's lab will be up and running while I am not there.

This is the activity & Game Jar I have create as

part of Tommy's recovering plan for Sensory Processing Disorder.

I took this idea from the summer activity jars in thecraftingchicks.com.

 I will use our during all year seasons. 

I feel the need to enjoy what I do for my son to keep going. So beign creative is part of who I am. I have incorporated a touch of my personality to my work with my son, knowing I am doing the best I can, and beyond, to help Tommy achieve his true potential. It hasn't been easy accepting and recognizing skills Tommy has lost —I can tell some of them are there, but he will use them again when he is ready. Meanwhile, I have to find ways to work with him that are fun while creating memories, and here is when everything in 'Mommy's lab' comes alive as magic. And some how, I become a child again!

_______
Special Thank you
My husband's family helped us to organize the house, which saved me a lot of time in organizing mommy's lab. I am grateful with my husband's family to support us in many ways. This is very important to me because I don't have my family close to me. I am grateful because they accepted me since the first day I met them.

31 for 21: Features associated to Trisomy 21

Why I am going to have a child that won't look like me. When I read this in a online forum when I was expecting Tommy, it hurt me so much because I already loved my baby. I knew for sure he won't look like a monster, regardless the facial features he could get.

The physical characteristics of a person with Down syndrome are not exclusive to them. Those characteristics are also present in the 'typical' population, but not with the same frequency and amount as in a person with Trisomy 21.  Facial features may include, but are not limited to:

• Flattened nose. Tommy's flattened nose bridge is not exclusive from Trisomy 21. His flattened nose bridge is a heritage from my mom's genes. 
• Tongue trust. Tommy's tongue trust is not exclusive from Trisomy 21. My sister has tongue trust, but it didn't affected her as is affecting Tommy.
• Small ears. Tommy's small ear are not exclusive from Trisomy 21. I do have small ears, too.
• Slanting eyes. Tommy's slanting eyes are not exclusive from Trisomy 21. I also have slanting eyes. I have even heard comments that Tommy's eyes are just like mine.
• Epicanthal fold (The inner corner of the eyes may have a rounded fold of skin). Tommy doesn't have Epicanthal fold, but my typical son does.  
• The hands may have short fingers. Tommy's short fingers are not exclusive from Trisomy 21. Tommy's daddy also have short fingers. My sister in law have commented several times how Tommy's hands look just like my husband's.
• Single palmar crease. Tommy's singles palmar crease is not exclusive from Trisomy 21. Ironically, my husband and I have a single crease. Mine is in my right hand and my husband's is in his left hand. Tommy's single crease is in his right hand like mine.
• Bigger gap between the big toe and second toe. Tommy's bigger gap between his toes is not exclusive from Trisomy 21. My sister does have a bigger gap between the big toe and second toe in both feet.

Ironically, my son who has trisomy 21 does look like my husband and I. But we are still figuring out whom our typical child looks like. He does look Hispanic, but it is hard to tell specifically whom he looks like. So now, I have an answer for the person who wrote in that forum: Not because my son, Francis, doesn't look like us we don't love him. We know all cells of his body have our genes. As far as he grows, we will know how much he will look like mommy and daddy because of his personality, behaviors, preferences, and them some. I don't think it will be different if Tommy wouldn't look like us because of the facial features link to Trisomy 21.

Doing this post, I realized the pictures 

were taken when both were days 

before turning 3, what a coincidence!

(Look at their hands)

31 for 21: Our Mission Statement

To keep our perspective what we want for our son's future, I wrote a mission statement I share with everybody involved in Tommy's development. I have a copy of our Mission Statement in our son's EIP file at school. I will share it you today:

Mission Statement:

Our mission as parents is to acquire high quality special education services for our son, Thomas Aidan Lane, that will prepare him with the academic knowledge, skills and standpoints he needs for a future post-high school education. During the period our son is part of the special education program would like to work in conjunction with IEP team, including all professional involved in our child’s education, so we can see Tommy’s communication skills improve so he can openly express his feelings and needs in English and Spanish by sustaining a conversation in any environment that will allow him to be included into the multicultural background he is part of. The academic knowledge in conjunction with the bilingual skills our son can achieve are essential for him to get a paid employment in a field of his choice; therefore, he can life a productive and independent life, to the maximum extent possible. ~ Mr. and Mrs. Lane

Dealing with the guilt -FREE PLAY

Many parents with their newborns with Trisomy 21 get into crazy schedules for medical appointments and therapies, so some little ones get into a busy schedule right after birth. Parents feel the "guilt" of not doing enough therapies at home or not doing the therapies quite often as it should be because they also work full-time. I has felt this guilt many times, but what has helped me to deal with the guilt is to know that FREE PLAY is as important as structured or guided play for a child brain development.

Dr. John Medina, a Developmental Molecular Biologist, scientist and Director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research, says in his book 'The Brain rule for baby': :"We now know that open-ended play activities are as important to a child's neural growth as protein. Indeed, the box the flash-cards come in is probably more beneficial to a toddler's brain that the flash-cards themselves... Studies show that, compared with controls, kids allowed a specific type of open-ended play time were:

• More Creative

• Better at language

• Better at problem solving

• Less stressed

• Better at memory

• More socially skilled"

Dr. Jill Stamm also mention the importance of FREE PLAY in his book Bright from the star (this book was based on science research). She says:"So I love the moment when I explain that child's FREE PLAY" is critical because it actually causes the brain's energy to be used in a different way –because the pleasure it brings causes repetition, play reinforces healthy wiring. Play suddenly stops being some kind of iddle time -waster in their eyes. It's elevated to the status of something vitally important for their child to do. (As it should be!)...

Here are three kinds of unstructured time —what I call "sloppy time: —that a child should have every day:

Undirected Play: ... don't need to "direct the action" all the time. Create a child-safe space where your little one can freely explore. Fill it with interesting objects, from basic toys to books to household objects, that he can manipulate at his own pace. Certainly some direct play (Chapter 4) is importnat. But so is free play.

Hanging out: We would sometimes lie down and play made-up games... And share lots of giggles when we thought we had stumped the other. Giggling is good for any brain.

Watching the wold go by: Sitting in a stroller or grocery cart are perfect examples of opportunities for a child's mind to wander... This frees the child to look at colors, shapes going by, watch people, or pay attention to nothing in particular. His brain can spend its time consolidating prior stimuli because it doesn't need to concentrate especially hard on what's in front of him."

"A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says free and unstructured play is healthy and - in fact - essential for helping children reach important social, emotional, and cognitive developmental milestones as well as helping them manage stress and become resilient. The report, " The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds. ," is written in defense of play and in response to forces threatening free play and unscheduled time..."

Doing therapies thru play (structure play) is important for our kids with Trisomy 21, but giving them FREE TIME for playing should be important, too. They discover the world around them by exploring on their own. I also see it as a way to inculcate 'independency' at a very young age because during free play they make choices about what toy to play with or what area they haven't explored enough. Our son has free play time and during this time he is physically active, which it is very important because it helps him to get his muscles stronger while he discovers the world around him.

Encouraging the desire to explore should be in a safe environment, so design a play room is the ideal, but if this not possible save-proof the house and transform it in a big play house, it is what I have done for my son. I changed my decorative items for toys, household items, books, balls, pretend play toys, and so on. I periodically rotate the toys around the house to encourage exploration and novelty. I sets his toys in different areas so he is free to explore and find them in his own schedule without direction from us. This keeps him busy until lunch. After lunch, he takes his nap and when I get from work we often work on structured play based on his therapies for a short period of time. Fee play should be with supervision. For example: My son turned the stove knobs and he was able to turned the stove on. He also discovered how to open the oven. He climbed on the oven door and was getting ready to see what was on the stove and the stove was on. We closely supervise him, therefore these two moments didn't become in serious situations.

I enjoy watching him when he learns to do things from our structured play, but I enjoy more when he discovers how to do things on his own. For example: Last week, he was playing with a Tupperware container for about two hours and he suddenly discovered how to seal the lid. Now, when we play with play-dough, he helps to close the containers.

Welcome to Tommy's World

Tommy vs. Daddy

Rough housing play is an excellent way of FREE play

while parents bound with their kids.

"Giggling is good for any brain."

A Basketball ring can be a necklace

in Tommy's world

Anything can be a hat in Tommy's world.

OLD VHC Box of the movie Titanic

In Tommy's world, Huggie swimmer pants can be wore on

your pants and not underneath.

I want my son enjoy everything as a child regardless his

developmental challenges. I am glad that my husband and I have

fund the balance between FREE PLAY and structured play.