Sensory stuff

February 24, 2011

Sensory stuff

Yes another post about William, but there's lots of exciting news which i can't wait to share! i guess you'll just have to skip this post if you're not interested, cos guess what? It's my blog!

So this morning the physio came to do her usual weekly session with William, and as promised she brought the occupational therapist and the visual impairment specialist with her. Now that William has been officially diagnosed with both cortical visual impairment and sensory intergration/processing disorder he is entitled to input from both those ladies and the loan of certain pieces of equipment too. Also i was keen to get the opinions of all 3 ladies on what items to purchase for his rapidly-being-built sensory room!

The OT gave me lots of advice on sensory activities to do with William and how to gradually overcome his sensitivities to allow him to tolerate a wider range of textures, touch on all his body parts and hopefully to use his hands to feel, hold and explore things. Also she gave us a special brush and taught me how to do body brushing with him to calm his nervous system and hopefully make him less resistant to certain experiences, and she made loads of great recommendations for sensory room stuff: basically there should be boxes of auditory toys and tactile toys to encourage sensory exploration (already got lots of those), 'fiddly' toys which need maniulating in different ways to encourage his fine motor development, a ball pool to give his body feedback on where he is in space (already got one of those), resonance toys/equipment which vibrate and play music through them, and some kind of swinging/rocking toys if possible (already got a caterpillar rocker). So this is what i've chosen from 2 different companies for those needs:



an activity board requiring different hand and finger movements



an activity cube with different things to turn, move and manipulate



a baby swing which can be used on the front and on the back





a resonance racing car which plays music through it and also converts the music to vibrations


The visual impairment specialist gave us a light box to use with William, which is basically just a screen that lights up very bright onto which we can put pictures, photos, objects, basically anything we want William to look at and because of the light he should be able to see them better and focus on them and take in the information from them. She tried it out with him and he was really responsive and interested in it, which is great news because i'm so aware of how much he's missing out on in not being able to 'see' things or to feel them - it must be really holding his development back. We've got this light box on loan to use for 3 months, but i reckon if it helps William we'll get one of our own after that time. She also had recommendations for his sensory room: boxes of light up toys and brightly coloured toys (which we've already got) and UV toys with a UV light in there, any equipment which uses lights and colours such as a bubble tube, fibre optics, a mirror ball, etc, a projector which can be used on the wall to make different colours and patterns, mirrors on the wall to encourage him to look at himself and other objects in them, and she recommended there should be some pieces of equipment which he can control and operate himself. So this is what i want to get, though some of it is expensive:



UV sensitive toys and equipment




a disco ball operated by a large press switch




a mirror ball with coloured lights shining on it as it turns



a bubble tube surrounded by mirrors, with a base to sit on and controlled by coloured switches



large coloured fibre optics which are also UV sensitive




a fibre-optic corner island (beanbag) with thinner white lights and mirrors behind




a wall projector with different colour splodge patterns



padded shape wall mirrors

The physio today was really impressed with William's improved head and neck control - he worked really hard in his session and held his head up for several seconds, several times, which is the best he's ever done! She said she can tell that i'm doing the programme with him when she's not there and it's really paying off so i was pleased that i'm doing something to help him. The physio reckons his head and neck strength will continue to improve gradually now, so that by the time he's about 1 year old he should have good enough control over it not to need to be supported by an adult or piece of equipment anymore. And then we can work on his sitting skills! For the sensory room the physio recommended: soft play equipment which encourages climbing, stepping, crawling and sliding, any toys that require reaching out, posting into holes, shaking, banging, pressing etc. and some kind of supports to help him sit when accessing these toys. Here's what i've chosen based on that advice:

a musical rolling toy with balls in activated by a large press switch



a musical table to encourage him to sit and use different hand/arm movements



a ball posting toy which most special needs kiddies love

supportive seats to help with his sitting

a soft play set suitable for toddlers with steps, a slope and a tunnel

i've also chosen to include a box of 'speech therapy' toys (which i've already put together - stuff like small mirrors, an echo mike to encourage vocalisations, a sound-activated vibrating crab, mouthing and teething toys), his baby beanbag, an aromatherapy diffuser which also has different relaxing music, the physio roll which we've been using for his therapy, and i'm wanting to get the whole floor covered with padded mats (i got a quote of approx £1000 for the size of the room) and a 'sound to light panel' which produces different light patterns in response to vocalisations:



i figure that he likes lights so why not use them to encourage him to make vocalisations?

 i know this seems like a lot of stuff, but it's a biggggggg room (basically it's the size of 3 bedrooms put together) and i figure that if William needs this stuff and it's going to help him then why not? Also some of the things are for the future because he can't access them now, but we plan on having this room for a long time so i don't see that as a problem and we may as well buy everything in one go. i made a simple plan of where i think the equipment should go and it looks ok to me but i'll get the builders to check it out using proper measurements and everything! Then they'll also know where to put the electric points for some of the equipment that needs it. i phoned up both sensory companies and they said that all the stuff i'm after is already in stock and can be delivered sometime next week, so that's good news too. Now to just check with Sir and see if i've gone way over our budget (He told me to make a list without knowing the budget first, then we'll scale it back if necessary). Fingers crossed.