How can you help your child come out of this state?
Good parenting no doubt helps foster self confidence in the child. Children whose parents have themselves suffered depression have high probabilities of early depressive symptoms.
Watch out for the signs of depression as a responsible parent. Help developing coping strategies in your child. Give a patient ear to your child’s talk and do not shirk them as unimportant. Its these talks that not only strengthen your bond with the child but also give your child a sense of self and a source of venting out.
Reinforce positive feelings in your child. Foster the sense of being wanted and loved.
Take your child to a professional if you are not in a situation to handle him. It is never too late to learn.
Can an occupational therapist or pediatric rehabilitation therapist help your child?
Yes. A rehabilitation professional with adequate knowledge of child psychology can prove of immense benefit to your child. Your therapist will be able to evaluate and help you understand your child better. A psychiatric consultation may also be necessary.
Play therapy is one of the apt methods to not only evaluate but also to rehabilitate children with low self esteem, decreased interest in activities.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Childhood Depression
What are the signs of early depression ?
Any child who feels sad need not be depressed. Childhood depression is different from the developmental emotional variations that children exhibit day to day. Childhood depression is a symptomatic condition that is persistent in nature and turns to be disruptive and interfering in the child’s social, family and school life.
How to recognize that your child is going in to depression?
No two children show perfectly similar signs of being depressed. In some it may go undetected. But in those whom it can be detected show:
• Irritability or anger
• Continuous feelings of sadness, hopelessness
• Withdrawal or loss of interest in activities which were otherwise interesting.
• Loss of concentration and lack of interest in school work and related activities
• Solitary play and decreased social interaction
• Increased sensitivity to rejection and outbursts of crying or irritability
• Inexplicable physical symptoms like stomachache and head ache not responding to treatment
• Feelings of low self esteem, guilt and worthlessness.
• Loss of energy and early fatiguability
• Sudden Changes in sleep and appetite
Any child who feels sad need not be depressed. Childhood depression is different from the developmental emotional variations that children exhibit day to day. Childhood depression is a symptomatic condition that is persistent in nature and turns to be disruptive and interfering in the child’s social, family and school life.
How to recognize that your child is going in to depression?
No two children show perfectly similar signs of being depressed. In some it may go undetected. But in those whom it can be detected show:
• Irritability or anger
• Continuous feelings of sadness, hopelessness
• Withdrawal or loss of interest in activities which were otherwise interesting.
• Loss of concentration and lack of interest in school work and related activities
• Solitary play and decreased social interaction
• Increased sensitivity to rejection and outbursts of crying or irritability
• Inexplicable physical symptoms like stomachache and head ache not responding to treatment
• Feelings of low self esteem, guilt and worthlessness.
• Loss of energy and early fatiguability
• Sudden Changes in sleep and appetite
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Developmental Profile
Every child has his own exclusive way of development. This not only involves physical but also mental, cognitive, perceptual development which shape the child’s personality and his challenge accepting capacity. If the child’s development in various areas is evaluated one can enhance their mental, cognitive and physical skills by training them in appropriate areas.
It is just like if you feel your child likes number play he may be made to develop liking in Mathematics and related subjects.
But how does one know how the child is developing?
A Developmental Profile is the tool that helps enormously in understanding the nature of your child’s development.
Developmental Profile
Find answers to these and many such questions by having your child’s Developmental Profile evaluated.
• Unlock hidden physical and mental potential of the child
• Understand how dominance (left or right) plays a significant role in child development
• Is your child holding his pencil the right way?
• Has your child developed his hand dominance?
• Does he hyperactive or just has extra energy?
• What type of play should he engage in?
• Are his physical and mental skills age appropriate?
• Are there any areas of improvement or concern?
Developmental Profile evaluates:
1. Cognitive Area: Attention and Concentration
Comprehension
Power to imagine, Creativity and
Activity Planning
2. Perceptual Area:
Understand spatial Orientation
Body awareness to self and surrounding
3. Gross Motor:
Posture and Balance
Physical Activity Performance
Muscle Strength and Joint flexibility
4. Fine Motor Coordination:
Ability to write
Perform hand prehensile activities
5. Visuo Motor:
Coordination of eyes
Visual focus
6. Play:
Type of play
Developmental Profile helps in:
Enhancing your child’s physical skills
Enriching his cognitive capacity
Improving his hand functions
Choosing right play activities
Making him more self sufficient and confident
It is just like if you feel your child likes number play he may be made to develop liking in Mathematics and related subjects.
But how does one know how the child is developing?
A Developmental Profile is the tool that helps enormously in understanding the nature of your child’s development.
Developmental Profile
Find answers to these and many such questions by having your child’s Developmental Profile evaluated.
• Unlock hidden physical and mental potential of the child
• Understand how dominance (left or right) plays a significant role in child development
• Is your child holding his pencil the right way?
• Has your child developed his hand dominance?
• Does he hyperactive or just has extra energy?
• What type of play should he engage in?
• Are his physical and mental skills age appropriate?
• Are there any areas of improvement or concern?
Developmental Profile evaluates:
1. Cognitive Area: Attention and Concentration
Comprehension
Power to imagine, Creativity and
Activity Planning
2. Perceptual Area:
Understand spatial Orientation
Body awareness to self and surrounding
3. Gross Motor:
Posture and Balance
Physical Activity Performance
Muscle Strength and Joint flexibility
4. Fine Motor Coordination:
Ability to write
Perform hand prehensile activities
5. Visuo Motor:
Coordination of eyes
Visual focus
6. Play:
Type of play
Developmental Profile helps in:
Enhancing your child’s physical skills
Enriching his cognitive capacity
Improving his hand functions
Choosing right play activities
Making him more self sufficient and confident
SI in visually challenged:
The goals of therapy in visually challenged individual using SI approach would be:
Develop other sensory channels for meaningful reception and interpretation of stimuli
Minimize the deficits caused by visual loss in other sensory channels especially auditory
Ameliorate self stimulatory behaviors especially those providing visual stimulation by use of appropriate vestibulo-proprioceptive strategies
Help the child understand personal space and his relation with external space
Teach the child spatial relations in absence of visual information
Organize the child to function in the dynamic environment
Develop other sensory channels for meaningful reception and interpretation of stimuli
Minimize the deficits caused by visual loss in other sensory channels especially auditory
Ameliorate self stimulatory behaviors especially those providing visual stimulation by use of appropriate vestibulo-proprioceptive strategies
Help the child understand personal space and his relation with external space
Teach the child spatial relations in absence of visual information
Organize the child to function in the dynamic environment
Monday, May 30, 2011
Who can benefit from sensory integrative management and treatment?
SI can benefit any child who wants to successfully engage in his/her occupation.
Can SI be used for typically developing children? What are the benefits if the child has normal processing?
Many of the SI evaluations, checklists, parameter and cluster relations are done on typically developing children and then on children deficient.
In typically developing children whose sensory processing is not affected ideally but may be underused or non channelized. Children need an environment that provides them with just the right challenge in the activities. SI theory and intervention is based on this principle. So a typical child who undergoes systematic SI based play or therapy will definitely have a better organized sensory processing.
Where else can SI be used?
SI can be used in treatment of children with any type of sensory processing difficulties like the ones mentioned on the checklist. It can be used for confirmed diagnoses of Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity disorders, Autism, Learning Disorders and many other Childhood Developmental Disorders.
SI principles can be used to treat children with mental handicap, visual handicap.
How does SI help in mental and visual handicap?
As visual and mental challenges pose difficulties in sensory processing abilities of the child SI therapy can prove beneficial in these conditions.
SI in Mentally Challenged Children:
Although Mentally challenged children have chronological age appropriate physical development they show mental development of variable age not relevant to their present age. That makes them behaviorally disorganized, play patterns are primitive, other areas of sensory processing are under or hyper acting.
Use of SI based theory helps making the mentally challenged child more organized and have better self control. It develops the hand functions through its tactile approach. It enhances their praxis and motor planning during activity performance.
SI can benefit any child who wants to successfully engage in his/her occupation.
Can SI be used for typically developing children? What are the benefits if the child has normal processing?
Many of the SI evaluations, checklists, parameter and cluster relations are done on typically developing children and then on children deficient.
In typically developing children whose sensory processing is not affected ideally but may be underused or non channelized. Children need an environment that provides them with just the right challenge in the activities. SI theory and intervention is based on this principle. So a typical child who undergoes systematic SI based play or therapy will definitely have a better organized sensory processing.
Where else can SI be used?
SI can be used in treatment of children with any type of sensory processing difficulties like the ones mentioned on the checklist. It can be used for confirmed diagnoses of Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity disorders, Autism, Learning Disorders and many other Childhood Developmental Disorders.
SI principles can be used to treat children with mental handicap, visual handicap.
How does SI help in mental and visual handicap?
As visual and mental challenges pose difficulties in sensory processing abilities of the child SI therapy can prove beneficial in these conditions.
SI in Mentally Challenged Children:
Although Mentally challenged children have chronological age appropriate physical development they show mental development of variable age not relevant to their present age. That makes them behaviorally disorganized, play patterns are primitive, other areas of sensory processing are under or hyper acting.
Use of SI based theory helps making the mentally challenged child more organized and have better self control. It develops the hand functions through its tactile approach. It enhances their praxis and motor planning during activity performance.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
What are the signs of affected sensory processing system?
The systems may be hypo or hyper active in processing.
Typically each system will exhibit some prominent behaviors that characterize the working of that system.
Some behaviors that may act as alerts for sensory processing difficulties can be:
Tactile system
Hypoactivity may be presented as :
o Child may crave touch, needs to touch everything and everyone
o is not aware of being touched/bumped unless done with extreme force or intensity
o is not bothered by injuries, like cuts and bruises
o may not be aware that hands or face are dirty or feel his/her nose running
o has difficulty with fine motor tasks such as buttoning, zipping, and fastening clothes
o may be a messy dresser
o has difficulty using scissors, crayons, pencil
Hyperactivity may present as :
o Child becomes fearful, anxious or aggressive with light or unexpected touch
o may overreact to minor cuts, scrapes, and or bug bites
o avoids touching certain textures of material (blankets, rugs, stuffed animals)
o will be distressed by dirty hands and want to wipe or wash them frequently
o distressed about having hair, toenails, or fingernails cut, face, teeth or hair wash
o is a picky eater
Vestibular System
Hyper activity may present as:
o Child avoids/dislikes playground equipment; i.e., swings, ladders, slides, or merry-go-rounds
o prefers sedentary tasks, moves slowly and cautiously
o fearful of activities which require good balance
Underactive system may present as:
o Child in constant motion, can't seem to sit still
o craves fast, spinning, and/or intense movement experiences
o always running, jumping, hopping etc. instead of walking
o clumsy and has a limp, "floppy" body
o frequently slumps, lies down, and/or leans head on hand or arm while working at his/her desk
Proprioceptive system
Underactive system may present as:
o Child seeks out jumping, bumping, and crashing activities
o stomps feet when walking
o frequently falls on floor intentionally
o chews on pencils
Overactive system may present as:
o Child has difficulty regulating pressure when writing/drawing; may be too light to see
o frequent breaking of writing utensil breaks as writing is very hard
o written work is messy and he/she often rips the paper when erasing
o always seems to be breaking objects and toys
Auditory
Overreactive system may present as:
o Child is very easily distracted by sounds not normally noticed by others
o distracted by loud or unexpected sounds
o bothered/distracted by background environmental sounds; i.e., horn of vehicle
Underregistered system may present as:
o Child often does not respond to verbal cues or to name being called
o appears to "make noise for noise's sake"
o loves excessively loud music or TV
The systems may be hypo or hyper active in processing.
Typically each system will exhibit some prominent behaviors that characterize the working of that system.
Some behaviors that may act as alerts for sensory processing difficulties can be:
Tactile system
Hypoactivity may be presented as :
o Child may crave touch, needs to touch everything and everyone
o is not aware of being touched/bumped unless done with extreme force or intensity
o is not bothered by injuries, like cuts and bruises
o may not be aware that hands or face are dirty or feel his/her nose running
o has difficulty with fine motor tasks such as buttoning, zipping, and fastening clothes
o may be a messy dresser
o has difficulty using scissors, crayons, pencil
Hyperactivity may present as :
o Child becomes fearful, anxious or aggressive with light or unexpected touch
o may overreact to minor cuts, scrapes, and or bug bites
o avoids touching certain textures of material (blankets, rugs, stuffed animals)
o will be distressed by dirty hands and want to wipe or wash them frequently
o distressed about having hair, toenails, or fingernails cut, face, teeth or hair wash
o is a picky eater
Vestibular System
Hyper activity may present as:
o Child avoids/dislikes playground equipment; i.e., swings, ladders, slides, or merry-go-rounds
o prefers sedentary tasks, moves slowly and cautiously
o fearful of activities which require good balance
Underactive system may present as:
o Child in constant motion, can't seem to sit still
o craves fast, spinning, and/or intense movement experiences
o always running, jumping, hopping etc. instead of walking
o clumsy and has a limp, "floppy" body
o frequently slumps, lies down, and/or leans head on hand or arm while working at his/her desk
Proprioceptive system
Underactive system may present as:
o Child seeks out jumping, bumping, and crashing activities
o stomps feet when walking
o frequently falls on floor intentionally
o chews on pencils
Overactive system may present as:
o Child has difficulty regulating pressure when writing/drawing; may be too light to see
o frequent breaking of writing utensil breaks as writing is very hard
o written work is messy and he/she often rips the paper when erasing
o always seems to be breaking objects and toys
Auditory
Overreactive system may present as:
o Child is very easily distracted by sounds not normally noticed by others
o distracted by loud or unexpected sounds
o bothered/distracted by background environmental sounds; i.e., horn of vehicle
Underregistered system may present as:
o Child often does not respond to verbal cues or to name being called
o appears to "make noise for noise's sake"
o loves excessively loud music or TV
Friday, December 10, 2010
When does Sensory Processing start?
Sensory Processing starts right in the mother’s womb but can be appreciated after birth up to life. Who does not like to be in a rich sensory environment? The richness of the environment changes as per individual. Like for an infant being cuddled and his mother’s touch is sensory rich environment whereas for an adult it might be a cozy bed or for a child it may be playing in a park.
Whatever we are subjected to in the environment we make a memory through the experience which is stored and recalled for immediate action or for future use.
Is sensory processing same for everyone?
Yes sensory processing is same for everyone but its preference, interpretation and use is different for different individuals. For example 2 children might be playing in a park. One likes to swing while the other likes to manipulate slides. Both are subjected to stimuli in the environment and both are processing information through it. The receptor grossly is same but the sensory information received is different. So although the process is same the information gathered is different.
How does sensory processing happen?
Various sensory receptors from different systems carry the information through nerve channels to the different and specific centers in the brain
System and Receptor Location
Tactile --- Skin
Vestibular --- Ears
Proprioceptive --- Muscles and joints
Visual --- Eyes
Auditory --- Ears
Gustatory --- Tongue
When sensory processing is affected?
The affected Sensory Processing can be compared to a traffic jam. If we see in traffic jam there is nothing but confusion and blockage which leads to chaos. Imagine if in this chaos the cars start going in wrong lanes………..
Similarly when the information received from the environment is perceived by the special senses and is on its way to be carried over to the processing centers in the brain an affected system will cause a jam like this and information goes into wrong channels to the centers where it is useless.
The result is not only affected appreciation of stimuli but also inappropriate or incongruent reciprocation to those stimuli.
For example say a child with affected sensory processing (for sensation of touch) goes for a haircut. For us with good processing system it may be a ritual or fun. But for this child who faces a traffic jam when exposed to touch stimuli the barbers touch, water spray, scissors are overwhelming and this child may respond negatively and aversively by being anxious, throw tantrums and not let hair cutting be done.
Sensory Processing starts right in the mother’s womb but can be appreciated after birth up to life. Who does not like to be in a rich sensory environment? The richness of the environment changes as per individual. Like for an infant being cuddled and his mother’s touch is sensory rich environment whereas for an adult it might be a cozy bed or for a child it may be playing in a park.
Whatever we are subjected to in the environment we make a memory through the experience which is stored and recalled for immediate action or for future use.
Is sensory processing same for everyone?
Yes sensory processing is same for everyone but its preference, interpretation and use is different for different individuals. For example 2 children might be playing in a park. One likes to swing while the other likes to manipulate slides. Both are subjected to stimuli in the environment and both are processing information through it. The receptor grossly is same but the sensory information received is different. So although the process is same the information gathered is different.
How does sensory processing happen?
Various sensory receptors from different systems carry the information through nerve channels to the different and specific centers in the brain
System and Receptor Location
Tactile --- Skin
Vestibular --- Ears
Proprioceptive --- Muscles and joints
Visual --- Eyes
Auditory --- Ears
Gustatory --- Tongue
When sensory processing is affected?
The affected Sensory Processing can be compared to a traffic jam. If we see in traffic jam there is nothing but confusion and blockage which leads to chaos. Imagine if in this chaos the cars start going in wrong lanes………..
Similarly when the information received from the environment is perceived by the special senses and is on its way to be carried over to the processing centers in the brain an affected system will cause a jam like this and information goes into wrong channels to the centers where it is useless.
The result is not only affected appreciation of stimuli but also inappropriate or incongruent reciprocation to those stimuli.
For example say a child with affected sensory processing (for sensation of touch) goes for a haircut. For us with good processing system it may be a ritual or fun. But for this child who faces a traffic jam when exposed to touch stimuli the barbers touch, water spray, scissors are overwhelming and this child may respond negatively and aversively by being anxious, throw tantrums and not let hair cutting be done.
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