New Year's Resolutions

Stumbled upon this on twitter from Ellen Stumbo.com and thought it was appropriate for New Years Eve!  

Bubble Mountains

Thomas’s OT introduced us to 'Bubble Mountains' recently and they have not only been a wonderful tool for helping with self regulation, but are also a huge hit with both of my boys. 

To do this exercise, start by filling a bucket, bowl or other container with water and then adding a few squirts of gentle dish soap.  Make sure the dish soap gets added after the water so that no bubbles are made before you start.  Provide your child with a straw and tell them to take a deep breath in.  When they are ready to exhale, they put their straw in the water and blow through the straw for as long as they can, creating bubbles.  Then they take their mouth off of the straw for another deep breath in and repeat!  After a few deep inhales and exhales, your child should have a large bubble formation. 

Basically the idea is that they are taking deep breaths, but in a fun way!  Just try to remind them not to breathe in with the straw in their mouths.  My boys will once in awhile get so wrapped up in making their bubble mountain that they forget this and end up with a mouthful of soapy water!  Deep breath in without straw, deep breath out with straw :) 

My son is easily overwhelmed by sensory stimulation, so the proprioceptive input received from blowing the bubbles through a straw is very calming, in addition to the deep breathing.  It is a great activity for after school when he is coming down from the sensory overload of the day.

Have you ever tried this?  What other exercises do you use for self-regulation?   Post below or on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1677892492524783/

Find and Color Holiday Printable

Looking for something to keep your child busy as you wrap things up for the holidays that also can improve their speech, language, vocabulary, comprehension and math skills?  I stumbled upon this great “I Spy” printable on Pinterest yesterday.  This sheet has a lot going on in terms of visual sensory input, but if your child is okay with that, then this is a must try.  

I set both my 3 and 6 year old up with it.  Can you guess from the pictures which one belongs to my wild three year old as opposed to my very neat 6 year old?- LOL!  Thomas loved this and enjoyed visually scanning through the pictures to find what he was looking for.  He had trouble with some of the words, but we sounded them out together and he also was counting a lot as he looked for specific numbers of items.  I helped my three year old for a few minutes, but once I got busy with a few things, he began doing it “his way.”  This was fine by me though, because it kept him busy for a good 15 minutes, which is a huge success in my book!

Here is the link for the printable pdf from picklebums.com: http://picklebums.com/images/printables/picklebums_christmasfindandcolour.pdf

The best gift I could ever receive!

Every year in November, the children at Thomas's school start practicing for the holiday concert and every year it brings on a trememdous amount of anxiety for him.  When he was three and at the height of his selective mutism, he refused to go on stage to practice and his fear of doing this concert created such bad separation anxiety at preschool, that we decided he would not be a part of the concert.  Normally I am against puilling him out of things, as I feel he needs to learn how to work through his challenges, but at three we felt this was something he could try next year when we had a year of treatment under our belt.  I was sad for him to be missing out on the experience, but it really was the best decision for him at the time.

When he was four, his new preschool was not involved in the holiday concert.  Whew!  We dodged a bullet that year.  Then came kindergarten and the anxiety crept back up.  He was now two years older and better able to manage his anxiety.  He loved singing the songs at home, but told us that it was too scary to sing on stage.  We made it clear that we were proud of him for being brave enough to try and go up on stage and if he didn't sing that was totally fine.  He was able to go on stage in front of a large crowd, which was a huge step.  He did not sing, or smile or move, but he did ring a jingle bell by his side slightly for one song.  We made sure he knew how proud we were of him for trying his best.  You could tell he was proud too and his confidence grew just from the experience of being brave enough to get up there.  

This year in first grade, he was coming home singing the songs and telling us how excited he was about the concert.  I was pleasantly surprised: although there have been many times that he was excited about something right up until the minute it was about to happen and then would shut down, so I didn't get my hopes up at all.  The night of the concert, I had my video camera ready to tape a frozen child who wanted more than anything to sing and move, but his anxiety just wouldn't let him.  When his class came on, I felt the familiar nervous feeling come over me, as it always does when my son is put in a situation that makes him uncomfortable.  I always feel so sad for him, but also so proud of his bravery for trying.  Well, tonight something completely unexpected happened.  Thomas SANG and did the MOVEMENTS in front of about 100 parents, grandparents and kids.  I could barely breathe.  I thought I would faint.  I could see it happening but could not believe it!  I didn't even get to video tape it as I was in shock and bursting with pride for him.  For years, I dreamt of this moment and it was here! I don't think anything can ever top the feeling I felt that night.  When I saw him afterwards, I was a teary mess and couldn't stop telling him how proud I was.  I received THE best Christmas gift I could ever ask for and it came 3 weeks early.  I don't need anything else!  Never give up!!!  

Oh and someone was nice enough to send me a video of it.  I cannot figure out how to get video on here, but I will post it when I do :)  Truly amazing!