FRIDAY

Friday oh Friday, what will you bring me? Having a child is hard and fun all at the same time, image having a child who is not able to put everything his body is telling him in order. Like trying to find out where you are trying to go when you have horns honking at you, your kids talking to you, the radio is playing and you are trying to think. That is what it is like for my son daily. He can't put everything into order. "Dakota please pick up your toys." is a daily reminder but I have to tell him that everything couple minutes at least that is what I was doing. After reading and more reading on Sensory Processing Disorder I have found that I just need to tell him a couple of times but I don't need to be "nagging" him every two seconds when he doesn't do what I want him to do right away. He needs time to process what was just said and than process what he was doing. Which takes him time to do.
Since we have moved from our home state Minnesota to Virigina his schedule has changed we have to find new therapists and it's all too much for him at times. Not to mention that we were living in a hotel for a month because our house did not work out for us and we had to wait on housing. Finally we are in our home and his little world is being put back together.
This morning has been a very good one for us only one melt down and I have figured it was not because he was having a "sensory" issue but because I simple told him no, and he didn't like it. Both my boys are testing their limits with us and now that we are in our house we are standing our ground. We are doing The Wilbarger Protocol for Sensory Defensivene, which means we are brushing his arms, legs and back every two hours for the next two weeks. He has been through this before and it has been a fit to keep it up. This time I just keep telling him and than I told him we were going to do brushing when the buzzer on my phone went off and he listened. He has been melting down less, sucking and or licking his hands,clothes less so it's working. As well as doing the brushing wer are doing a sensory diet so we do 3 meals a day with two or three snacks between the meals. I am not talking about eating a meal but giving your body a sensory meal. Brushing is a main course meal, or can be a snack. The main course will hold him for about 3 to 4 hours and a snack will be about 1 to 2 hours. Main Meals for us that will engage him for about 20 to 30 minutes are hot dog rolls, sliding down our stairs WITH Mom watching to make sure we are safe, rough play a lot of pushin and pulling. Making playdough and playing with it, shaving cream play, cooking, water play (bathtime). Snacks blowing bubbles for about 5 minutes, jumping or dancing to a song, playing duck duck goose, things that will take about 5 minutes to do.
It's been a good day with only one melt down and playing nicely with his brother. We will see what tomorrow holds for us.