Sensory Life

Hi everyone!  Happy New Year!  I'm sorry I've kinda ghosted over the last few months.  I hit a rough patch in my life and with those comes writers block.  We've been through a lot of things I want to share,  but couldn't sit down and put pen to paper so to speak.  Part of the reason I understand my child so well,  is because I experience a lot of things that she does in regards to sensory overload and anxiety.  I lost my emotional support animal in July and quite frankly been living on auto pilot to avoid dealing with myself. 

So let's talk sensory disorder.  Since Harli Belle is still non verbal when it comes useful information we are still left guessing why she's presenting symptoms.  But what do symptoms look like?  They look like selective solid foods at 3, they look like an imagination hard at work with jumping,  flapping and running room to room screaming.  Looks like a gymnast deep in thought trying to master the balance beam on tippy toes. It's constant high pitched noises while spinning in circles. It's sticking a finger in my face from the time she opens her eyes,  until I cave in and give her the damn band aid (100 in a week). 

While the symptoms listed above may sound like typical toddler behavior,  it's not when done in excess to the extreme.  We don't spin in circles 1-3 times just to fall down... We spin until we can't stand,  and while stumbling to stand still try to spin.  Tip toe walking works against all the therapy I spent straightening her legs, after doctors ignored me and wanted to wait until her bones were hard before they considered physical therapy or corrective surgery. And the high pitched noises..... Don't need an explanation!

We call these moments "stimming",  because she is literally over stimulated by something as simple as the wrong fabric I chose to put her in that day,  or noises around that she doesn't like,  but can't verbalize. 

For Easter we did an all sensory basket with major success,  specially with outside of the house activities. However, now we are back to dead of winter in Ohio.  Too cold to play in the snow when we get it,  so the sensory toys don't do much being stuck in the house.  Harli Belle craves outdoors,  she doesn't care what the weather is doing because she can't regulate her own body temperature yet. So, Father Christmas, what do we ask you for in way of presents this year?  She has a million toys she doesn't play with but can't let go?  We can't just keep buying fidget toys, but therapy toys are expensive.

Keeping in mind the success we experienced with the sensory toys we got her for her birthday, we decided to break the bank and get her what she needs.  My dad was in the same position as myself and had no clue what to get her.  He finally breaks and requests my assistance in buying Xmas for her.... And now finally the point I was getting to with this article.  She has been home with me for 2 full weeks.  I have implemented a therapy schedule with her new goodies,  and I can't remember 2 days in a row that she was ever this calm.  We've had exactly one day where she cried a few times..... And to be honest I was in the same boat,  I was people'd out,  wanted my own food on my own couch in peace and quiet. So home we went to decompress. 

Now what are these big ticket items that make all our lives a little easier? 

Weighted Blankets - wow all the sizes, colors, material and weights they come in!  We started with the lap blanket for budget reasons.  It was still big enough for her to sleep under,  but made car travel or movie time much easier and calmer.  The only roadblock we experienced was the day of down time we always had with laundry day.  There's no quick way to dry a weighted blanket as they have to lay flat to dry,  so we upgraded to a twin size blanket slightly heavier for the next couple of years.



  

How to choose:

Weighted Compression Vest - bring on the calm!  Within 10 seconds of being in her vest,  little miss Harli Belle is a whole new child.  It stops the pacing,  or spinning in circles that she's compelled to do until she physically can't anymore. Instead of laying all over the therapy waiting room floor,  or jumping from furniture to furniture she's able to sit and play a game/color. This also means mommy can complete housework quicker!   It is only effective for about half an hour before she starts to stimm and then we have to take it off.

Silishape Sensory Circles - with Harli Belle starting school in November we had new set of challenges we had to face.  Sitting still is not something Harli is capable of longer than 2 minutes.  Her biggest struggle was sitting on the carpet circles for story time.  We purchased a set of these gel textured pads for practice sitting still and help with toe walking.  With how light and versatile these are we were able to bring them to Georgia with us for Thanksgiving.  Who says therapy can't be fun?

River Stone's and Balance Balls - ok with Harli Belles ball obsession the balance balls were a no brainer. The success we had with silishape circles helped us decide the money they were asking for was worth it.... And boy were we right!  My little wanna be gymnast is blowing our mind with the balance and steadiness these are providing.  Our house may look like a colorful jungle of hot lava for floors,  but I don't hear my little slamming into walls anymore either. 

 

Bouncing Unicorn - during early intervention therapy we worked on building a routine for Harli Belle that would allow her to get pent up energy out first thing in the morning.  Stimming tends to be worse in the morning and we talked about heavy lifting/safe jumping when we noticed it coming on. She did well with heavy lifting until she ran out of things to lift and push.  The play shopping cart wasn't strong enough to hold all the weight she needed.  However, The bouncing ball and unicorn have been a great way to redirect stimming activities.  We have made this the first activity in the morning to help prevent stimming before it starts. 

Crash Pad and Life Size Bear - while we purchased the 5x5 ft crash pad,  the 6ft bear was given to us.  Harli Belle has ALWAYS jumped off furniture.  From the minute she learned how to walk she's been running and jumping.  For obvious reasons jumping off her bed when she was tired absolutely was not working for me. No matter what I did to control this,  she would do it as soon as I was out of eye sight.  We had no problem dropping the big bucks on this for safety reasons.   She loves it more then anything else and I'm sleeping better at night. She's no longer jumping off couches or diving into her 3ft ball pit. 

All in all she's doing incredibly well at school and therapy.  It's mind blowing to her therapist and myself how much progress she has made in 6 months.  We didn't expect to be here for another year from now.  Her speech development is taking off like a rocket. Because she's able to communicate through words or pictures she has much fewer meltdowns and great pride in herself.  I was terrified of school starting for many reasons, mostly I was just sick at the thought of bullies.  I was 100% against giving up nap time for afternoon class because Harli set her own sleep schedule at 6 weeks old.  I quickly realized all my fears were unfounded and Harli Belle is excelling more at home from her 4 day a week school schedule.  She was ready,  I wasn't!  She continues to make me proud every day with her progress, imagination,  kisses (yes we do that now thanks to my sister)  and who she is over all.  Autism isn't the worst thing a child can be diagnosed with,  it just requires extra dedication and understanding.