Getting Children in Sync with Fun and Functional Activities

Getting Children in Sync with Fun and Functional Activities 

            Some children are “out-of-sync,” responding atypically to touch, movement, sight and sound.   They don't behave as we expect – not because they WON'T, but because they CAN'T.  Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) causes misinterpretation in the central nervous system of sensations coming from their bodies and surroundings. 

            Parents, teachers, and other professionals are invited to learn not only about how SPD affects children’s behavior and learning, but also about sensible strategies that help children with this common, but misunderstood, developmental problem.  Attendees will be shown -- and will participate in -- invigorating and fun sensory-motor activities, which they can easily incorporate into their children’s home and school experiences.  Like “over-the-counter therapy,” these activities help children get in sync by emphasizing social interaction, heavy work, messy and not-so-messy play, body awareness, balance, rhythm and timing, visual-spatial relationships, auditory-language processing, motor planning, crossing the midline, oral-motor skills, and calming down. 

Learning Objectives

Participants who attend this presentation will be able to:

• Explain how movement and touch experiences are essential ingredients in every child's daily sensory diet – “Movement is learning”

• Identify fun and functional sensory-motor activities, specifically designed to engage various sensory systems and thereby improve learning and regulate behavior

• Replicate the activities as demonstrated here when they return to the classroom, home, or clinic to work with all children, with or without SPD

• Adapt and stretch the activities according to the needs of the children in their care