Tag Archives: Anxiety

My Top 10 Autism Support Tools

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As you know, I’ve seen incredible progress in my son during the past five years. I am happy to report that he has never undergone any traditional therapies outside of the home; everything we have done together on this amazing journey was created from my research and personal connections made over Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. These connections led to expert interviews and the introduction to some really unique tools that made a huge difference in our lives. Here are my current favorites (in no set order):

Chewelry - Kid Companions is a chewable and wearable fidget that is safe, stylish and effective. It’s the perfect alternative to fidget toys and chewys and worn as “chewelry” is less-than-discreet.

This awesome product keeps my child from destroying costly toys and clothes and actually helps him focus and stay on task!
Calmer By Nature DVDs and CD – With no music or voiceovers – only the raw sounds of nature – the film helps with Stress, Anxiety, Insomnia, Sensory Problems, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Autism, Sensory Processing Disorders, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, ADHD, and Mental Illnesses. In addition to helping Justin get relaxed at bedtime, it also:

  • Calms him before an outing he may be feeling anxious over
  • Redirects him during times of high stimulation
  • Provides him with short, 10-minute “cool down” times when he needs a sensory break
  • Gives him ideas for drawing and video creation projects
  • Starts conversations about the wildlife we see on the film

Yoga Ball - I bought my yoga ball years ago as part of my never-ending fitness research and it has been such a versatile staple in my home! From traditional use in my fitness routines to my daughter using it as a “dinosaur egg”, my son rolling around on it, and its employment as bedtime proprioceptive tool… it was the best $25 I ever spent!

Many times our evening ritual consists of “hot dog”: rolling him up in a blanket and using the yoga ball for deep compression on his back. We use different patterns as “toppings”; like circles are called onions, vertical rolling is called ketchup, etc. This is an instant calming tool that never disappoints.

Sandbells - These are our favorite fitness accessories when we work outside – we do overhead carries, throws, passes, and much more! They are safer than dumbbells and offer a sensory experience to boot!

DSi XL – Many parents would argue that video game systems are not a support tool. Here’s why I encourage my son’s use of his DSi XL: Flipnotes. He creates videos using an application that mimics old-fashioned, frame-by-frame animation. Sometimes they are 800+ pages long. He then adds music and voices to these videos and posts them in his Flipnote community, where his fellow creators rate and share them. It’s really neat to see the patience and detail that goes into the creation of these animations!

Digestive Enzymes/Probiotics – These are not a replacement for a diet free of gluten and casein (and other common culprits for food sensitivities like soy and corn!), however digestive support is essential in children on the Autism spectrum. There is a direct link between digestion and behavior. To be completely transparent, we are not on a 100% GFCF diet but we do our best! These enzymes and probiotics help step in with support where we fall short with diet alone.

EnListen® - With all the alternative, natural and creative strategies I try at home to help improve my sons symptoms and behavior deficits, the one thing I cannot do for him is change the way he processes sound! Sound Training has been such a gift and blessing in our house. While it is not a magic bullet by any means, the gains I have seen on a physical, cognitive, and adaptive level have been unmatched.

Social Media - As parents we often throw our entire being into helping those we love,  especially our children. The one thing we forget is that we need support, too! I have met some incredible people on unique but similar journeys over social media that I never would have encountered otherwise. I personally want to thank every single person that has connected with me on the social web. Your presence in my life – regardless of capacity or length of time – has made my universe a better place.

Signing Families - Louise is one of my favorite ladies on the Internet! One day we will meet in person and I bet it will be like we’ve known each other for years :) She has been teaching American Sign Language for more than 20 years to families with hearing and non-hearing children, college students, staff at public and private school systems and businesses. She also shares one of my other passions and provides materials to Emergency Responders.

Sign language has opened myriad doors for my son in regard to communication. I believe American Sign Language can give a voice to all who struggle with language for many reasons.

EFT - A little more “alternative” than some other techniques, EFT can help parents overcome limiting beliefs, fears, and frustrations, as well as deal with any grief or overwhelm that accompanies have a special needs child. I have also worked with my son directly and helped him break through a huge block he had with self esteem. It may or may not be for you, but you’ve got nothing to lose if you want to check it out!

Many times we also do EFT while listening to Jeff Gold’s Escapes… another great calming and relaxing CD of original music.

What are your favorite tools? Do you use them at home or outside of the house?

What Do You Do When Your World Turns Updside-Down?

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So.

You’re cruising along, making progress, taking the normal ups and downs in stride… suddenly, without warning… BAM! The rug gets pulled out from under you and you find yourself spinning, reeling, and unable to take a breath deep enough to satisfy your lungs. What do you do when crisis strikes your home? How do you stop yourself from falling all the way down to the bottom? Is there a bottom, or is it just fear (False Evidence Appearing Real) that grabs hold?

My world changed a few weeks ago and it shook the very core of my being. And although I am not in the clear by any means, I feel I am now able to at least start gathering the pieces of myself and my family and pulling them into some semblance of normalcy!

Holding on to the sides of the wall is progress from tumbling with increasing velocity… so here are some tools and lessons that helped stop my fall and kept me strong for my children:

Perspective and gratitude.

No matter WHAT’S happening, it can always be worse. That may sound trite, but it is so very true. At the height of our crisis, I continued (and continue) to count my blessings and focus on the things that are going right. It doesn’t eradicate the fear and reality of what’s happening altogether, but it’s a great home base :)

Take a break for self-care.

After being in survival-mode for so many days in a row, I was horrified to find that I hadn’t eaten or slept in quite some time. This only makes the situation worse!! It is not selfish (well, it’s the appropriate selfish) to stop, breathe, take a long bath, or spend some time laughing in the midst of crisis. Even 10 minutes can repair parts of your soul and make a huge difference in your perspective and ability to cope.

Keep routines in place.

Despite the world being upside-down, I did my best to keep as much of my normal routine in place so things did not take a nose dive even faster. There is comfort and ease in routine schedules. Of course, eating and sleeping would have been good parts of my routine to keep in place, but… progress not perfection!

Keep your children in the loop… appropriately.

While I didn’t tell my children the absolute depth and underlying meanings of what was happening, I did make them aware that we were in trouble. This accomplished two things: allowed them to creatively step into their power and pool resources that I may not have considered and kept them out of the “scary unknown”. Going through something of this  magnitude and trying to maintain that all is perfectly fine with your children is extremely detrimental. The unknown, unspoken tension is so much worse than the reality of a situation. But again, this doesn’t mean spilling adult-sized problems onto little shoulders. Filters and balance are key.

Ask for help.

This is a TOUGH one! I have never been good at it, and it is not comfortable at all for me. But I did it, and I am blown away by the outpouring of love and assistance from friends and neighbors. Gratitude!

Receive with grace.

Shutting my mouth and saying, “Thank you” is also not one of my strengths. What I realized is that by not accepting or excusing away assistance offered is denying someone the gift of helping. It’s not all about me :)

Feel your emotions but don’t let them consume you.

I found myself consistently toggling back and forth between getting caught up in the hideous emotions that accompany a situation such as this and not feeling anything at all. Neither of these are the right choice. By feeling my emotions, I am honoring them rather than stuffing them down. But that doesn’t mean I have to stay there and build a condo, as someone once told me! I cannot effectively process and release emotions unless I allow myself to feel them.

Get creative.

It is easy to continue to look for the one situation or event that I think will solve my problem. But that is limited thinking. I can be open to multiple solutions that come in many forms. I will continue to explore them all with an open mind, as well as fine-tune what I’m already doing. It’s not a “here and there” situation, it’s a growth opportunity. Yes, that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!

I hope these tools help you through anything that comes your way!

How do you handle unexpected twists and turns from life? I’d love to hear! Also, stay tuned as I resume the amazing projects I have in store for all of you… I promise they are worth the wait!

Blessings!

Debi

Why is My Child Crashing into Me and Screaming?!?

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In my house this weekend, my son was a human (LOUD!) bumper car. Despite all of my refined calming and redirecting techniques, the past few days brought loud screams interspersed with crashing into walls, family members, doors, mirrors, and repeated jumping and falling onto the floor. Ironically, light touches and loud noises from any other source but his own mouth send him into immediate meltdown. How can that be? How can crashing and tight squeezes feel great but a hand on his shoulder make him recoil as if he were being branded with a hot iron?

It can actually be very common for children with Sensory Processing issues to be both sensory seekers and sensory avoiders. How confusing and frustrating it can be!

What is sensory seeking?

As I’ve written before, Sensory Integration is the ability of the brain to detect, modulate, discriminate, and integrate the three special sensory systems – tactile (touch), vestibular (movement), and proprioceptive (body awareness).  Although these sensory systems are less familiar than the five senses we all learned about as children, they are critical in order for humans to experience, interpret, and respond to their environment appropriately.

Sensory seeking occurs when a child’s nervous system is under-responsive to the information being received by the brain, so they continually seek intense sensory experiences for an extended time period to compensate. Some typical sensory seeking behaviors include:

  • Hyper-activity
  • Impulsivity
  • Decreased response to pain
  • Crashing and banging into things
  • Craves “tight squeezes” or bear hugs others a lot
  • Screaming
  • Poor body awareness – clumsiness, touching objects or others too hard or too often
  • Staying in a soiled diaper or underpants

What is sensory avoiding?

Children with sensory avoidant behavior commonly have nervous systems that are overly responsive to sensation, which can trigger “fight or flight” responses to sensory stimuli.  They may demonstrate some of these behaviors:

  • Withdrawing from touch
  • Motion sickness, fear of heights
  • Anxious in over-stimulating environments (public places such as malls, playgrounds, etc.)
  • Picky eater – avoidance of certain textured foods, sensitive to food smells or temperatures
  • Doesn’t like being messy and avoids mud, dirt, messy foods
  • Struggles with self-care activities; will only wear certain types of material for clothing and or wear clothing in a particular way; complains about hair brushing, tooth brushing, and hair cutting.

If your child is like mine, we can relate to almost everything in both lists! However, I did have some success alleviating some of the crashing and screaming while we were in public, and I wanted to share what worked with you.

Things that helped

There’s nothing more frightening than standing in line at the grocery store and having your child uncontrollably scream crash into displays, climb on counters, and swing off things that are not meant to be swung from! OY! When this state of sensory seeking is reached, reasoning attempts fly out the window.

While we were out I offered some tight squeezes, head and shoulder pressure, and “contests” (bet you can’t crab walk to that bench and back in 2 minutes!). These did not stop the behaviors entirely but offered some relief to his body and allowed me a few more minutes to finish our errand. It is good to carry a weighted backpack in the car as an emergency sensory-seeking tool to help get you through a situation like that as well!

Once we got home, I was able to isolate him to a quiet room and really pay attention to what his body was craving. We used blanket rolling, full body pressure on a giant yoga ball while he was lying face-down, spinning, and our newest trick: wrapping a rolling pin in large bubble wrap and rolling it over his back! I then gave him some time in his tent with a digital timer. Watching the numbers count down always calms him. It was important that he knew it was not time out for misbehaving, rather a break that would help him.

Other tools I love for sensory avoidance behaviors:

  • Noise-blocking headphones
  • Personal games to keep him focused
  • Favorite healthy snacks
  • Nature sounds on my iPhone
  • Wubbzy music :)
  • An escape plan!

What things help your child cope with sensory input?

Product Review: Calmer By Nature DVD

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I first became aware of this amazing DVD through a LinkedIn connection with Barry Wheelock. We immediately connected and started talking about the product’s incredible (and surprising) benefits for Autism and Sensory Processing issues.

I invited Barry to speak during my Sensory Integration Teleseminar and received a copy of the 57-minute Calmer By Nature DVD to use at home. This film is pure and stunning nature footage – there are no people, no voiceovers, and no music.

The concept was created to simply relieve stress and anxiety; however it has turned into a powerful therapy supplement for people with Autism, Sensory issues, Dementia, Alzheimers, insomnia, and more. It is reliable, predictable, and safe, which are key elements for special needs patients. It even encourages communication and creates talking points for people that have difficulties with social skills and conversation. It’s also used by some of the top Occupational Therapists to aid with cognitive and behavioral therapy.

I was hoping for mild results at bedtime with my son, who can at times be-bop around like a whirling dervish until all hours of the night despite our best rituals. If the DVD helped that issue alone, it was worth the price!

What I experienced from the product far surpassed my expectations! Yes, it works at bed time just as I had hoped. It also:

  • Calms him before an outing he may be feeling anxious over
  • Redirects him during times of high stimulation
  • Provides him with short, 10-minute “cool down” times when he needs a sensory break
  • Gives him ideas for drawing and video creation projects
  • Starts conversations about the wildlife we see on the film

Surprisingly, my daughter also became an instant fan. She told me that it enhanced her creativity when drawing or writing new stories and helps her overcome her blocks. It’s definitely a nice change from the blaring TV shows that are sometimes over-prevalent in our home :)

For me, I typically have trouble shutting my mind off when I am amidst a task list that is pages long. The overwhelm can feel… well, overwhelming! The film brings me back into the now and offers a reprieve from my mental gymnastics.

In fact, I love this product so much that I am now able to offer it for purchase in the U.S. You can view a three-minute demo here and experience a bit o’ nature magic for yourself! I highly recommend Calmer By Nature for all ages, whether you’re dealing with Autism in your family or just want some stress relief. You won’t be disappointed.

I can’t wait to see the other projects Barry has in the works, including two more films, an Audio CD version, and an iPhone application.