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More on SPD - ideas for organizing home, etc.?

517 views 1 reply 1 participant last post by  crazycat 
#1 ·
I have been reading "Sensational Kids" and other materials on SPD. My older two children (ages 8 and 4 1/2) both have SPD and autism. My oldest appears to be primarily an "under-responder" with sensory seeking tendencies (jumping off everything, cranking the speakers) but also is very defensive with oral-motor activities, will only eat purees, and hates getting his fingers dirty or sticky, hates playdoh, etc. My 4 1/2-year-old is extremely oversensitive to noises, some to touch and tastes, and as I posted a while back has gravitational insecurity. Overall he appears to be pretty much a polar opposite of his brother as far as the SPD goes but does have some sensory seeking tendencies with occasional crashing into people and wanting to jump off of furniture.

Since we homeschool and the boys are here together most of the time, I'm looking for ideas on how we could better organize our home and activities to meet both their needs. It looks like they both will benefit from heavy work. I'm going to try headphones for my 8-year-old so that we can minimize the noise issue for my younger son, who panics every time the older one cranks up the volume on any speakers. They both have fine motor difficulties and my 4-year-old loves playdoh and similar activities but my older son hates anything to do with sticky or squishy textures so he's a challenge in that area. He has meltdowns and lashes out even if we put the paints or such into ziplock bags and try to encourage him to play with it that way.

We do have our 4-year-old attending weekly OT sessions now, and we have a private OT who comes twice a month to work with our oldest son so I will be asking them for ideas as well, but I'm wondering if anyone here might have thoughts or ideas. (Our private OT was working mostly on transitioning our oldest son off his feeding tube so we haven't branched too far out from that until recently, and now she's close to retirement so not sure how much longer she'll be coming.) At any rate, it seems like we have better luck for practical ideas much of the time from other parents who deal with similar circumstances! I did make a "crash pad" and also have a therapy ball, but not much else for equipment yet.

Any ideas as far as organizing the home (we already do a picture schedule for each day and each child), simple home equipment (to purchase or make), activities that both kids could do together or ways to meet the needs of the "under-responder" without traumatizing his "over-responder" brother?? It's difficult to separate them into different rooms or have one outside alone at this point. The 4-year-old is actually the most advanced developmentally so close supervision is still required for all of them (including of course our youngest at 22 months!)

Thank you!
 
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