Saturday Smiles About Autism

Smiley Saturday time again. If you want to join in then click on the Smiley Saturday link above and head over to Lightenings to enter your Smiley Saturday link.

Heidi got assessed and diagnosed on the autism spectrum last year at La Trobe University. This week the University opened the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre.

Looking at their current projects it is reassuring to see they are not getting side tracked by the whole vaccine issue.

I’m currently ploughing my way through “A review of the research to identify the most effective models of practice in early intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders”.

We are also smiling because the Sensory Diet is working really well for Heidi. We’ve spoken to the Occupational Therapist at our early intervention centre a couple of times and fine tuned the diet a little.

If you think your child or yourself would benefit from a sensory diet, then please seek professional help (Occupational Therapist) as you really do need expert guidance as doing the wrong thing can end up very very badly. With the right guidance a sensory diet can be a huge benefit.

A few things we have been doing that I’m so thrilled about are:

1. The chewy necklace which I mentioned in the museum post.

2. Changing what foods Heidi eats, alternating between crunchy food at meal times and chewy food at snack times. Also making her drinks much thicker (by adding yogurt) and making her drink them through a straw.

3. More yoga / gym ball work. Lying Heidi on the ball on her stomach and rocking her back and forward. Or sitting her on the ball and bouncing up and down. Or lying Heidi on the floor and rolling the ball over her.

4. The joint compressions that we have been doing for a while, now doing in conjunction with other activities.

5. Swinging upside down – Heidi just loves this – like really really loves it. Sadly my back is not up to it and we have to figure out other ways to get Heidi her upside down swing. She does enjoy hanging upside down over the arm of our couch, so that is a good start.

6. Sensory tactile play – sort of a formalisation of things we had been doing like the “poke slime” experiment (Slime progress – Heidi will now hold the slime and poke her hand in to pull out the ball . She still does not like the slime all that much though )

7. Sensory mouth play – blowing whistles, bubbles, harmonica, kisses. One big success has been feather blowing races, I give the girls a feather each and they have to blow them along the floor to the finish line.

8. We are trialling a vibrating pillow (like the one halfway down this page) which so far has made it much easier to to Heidi’s joint compressions (she does not try to escape as often) and helps at meal times to keep Heidi at the table – although I am worried about it getting dirty.

9. Jumping and bouncing and all those fantastic proprioceptive activities. My personal fav. proprioceptive input is for Heidi to get the wet washing out of our front loading machine, carry the basket full of wet clothes to the tumble drier and fill it up. Heidi really seems to enjoy it also, bonus of teaching her a vital life skill.

The sensory diet is all good stuff, heaps of extra work but well worth it to see Heidi much calmer and happier. It gives us more ways to help Heidi through difficult times.

One really fantastic positive is that Heidi does the sensory stuff with us and then starts to do it herself. She knows when she needs more / less sensory input and self-regulates really well, once she has the tools and the knowledge. We need to watch to see if she needs help or re-direction.

The second fantastic positive is that Annie is really on board with the sensory diet stuff. She enjoys doing the activities with her sister. Is a great example to Heidi of how to proceed in some things that Heidi does not understand and even leads some of the activities with Heidi.

I’m as proud as punch of both my girls.

If you think your child or yourself would benefit from a sensory diet, then please seek professional help (Occupational Therapist) as you really do need expert guidance as doing the wrong thing can end up very very badly. With the right guidance a sensory diet can be a huge benefit.