Many children with varying special needs such as, Down syndrome, Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, or Asperger’s syndrome, have difficulties interacting with others in a social setting (Greenspan 1998, 5). All of these disorders can either impair a child’s ability to process or convey information, as well as limiting their motor ability. One kind of therapy thought to help and lessen these limitations is Sensory Integration Therapy. Sensory Integration Therapy (SIT) is a form of therapy where the neurological processes in the brain are stimulated through the use of visual and tactile environmental factors; toys that have certain textures and flashing lights are what are commonly used in this type of practice. This in turn contributes …show more content…
In order to achieve this feat, Lekotek, a physical and cognitive therapy center for children with special needs, seeks to quantify the level of social interaction of each child with disabilities at the start and at the end of their individualized playtime with SIT toys. In order to quantify this an evaluation of each kid’s openness and extroverted behaviors that they showcase will be graded on a scale from one to five and then given again at the end of the hour-long play session. Openness and extroverted behavior can be identified through the child doing simple tasks such as making eye contact, saying hello or goodbye, acknowledging the concept of sharing, and also listening. Of course, each child will have a different disability and limitations hindering them, so even if they aren’t physically able to do one of these actions, they will still be able to convey the behavior in their own unique way that can still be evaluated and quantified. This data will help further the research that supports sensory integration
Development of social skills is very important for children that are diagnosed with autism because of ...
The criticism that sensory integration therapy faces is that there is not enough information resulting in a success rate. If there are no tangible results, why would parent’s waste time and money on this type of therapy is a question that the occupational therapy community faces. Sensory processing disorder has no real diagnosis as well, since there is such a broad spectrum. The symptoms of sensory processing disorder are also vague. This perplexing clinical concern is apparent to Zimmer, “It remains unclear whether children who present with findings described as sensory processing difficulties have an actual “disorder” of the sensory pathways of the brain or whether these deficits represent differences associated with other developmental and
Jayden, a two and a half year old boy loves story time, being social, and has mental and sensory functions typical for his age. However, Jayden was diagnosed with impairments in his neuromusculoskeletal and movement functions. This condition causes poor muscle control, which prevents Jayden from being mobile. As a result, Jayden sits in a baby stroller when out in the community. Adding to Jayden’s problems is dysarthria, which restricts him from producing clear speech, preventing him from communicating with peers and adults. The combination of Jayden’s neuromuscular skeletal impairments and dysarthria, restricts his engagement in self-care, communicating with classmates, directing his own play, creating interpersonal relationships, mobility
of the sessions familiar to put their client at ease. As discussed previously, impairment in social functioning causes difficulty in communication which is necessary in typical counseling interventions. According to Woods, Mahdavi, and Ryan (2013), Lego therapy, a type of play therapy, is highly effective in improving social skills between pairs or small groups of children aged 6-11. Legos are an appealing toy to children with ASD as they are a methodical and predictable toy that are easy to control. Therapists are also faced with the difficulty of ASD children regulating emotions and behavior, which is often a typical reason parents seek therapy for their child in the first place (Samson, Hardan, Lee, Phillips, & Gross, 2015). It is encouraging
During each observation, the kind of social context in which the child was interacting was recorded. This included A: alone, S: With same sex peer, O: With other sex peer and M: With same and other sex peers. In addition to recording the kind of social context, the type of social behavior (e.g. Aggressive-Behavior, Rough and Tumble Play, Prosocial Cooperative Play and Gender Stereotyped Play) was recorded. Aggressive behavior was defined by either verbal (name calling, teasing, tattling excluding others) or physical (hitting, pushing throwing something, grabbing away toys). Rough and Tumble Play consisted of forceful physical action done in a playful, happy way (e.g., chasing or tackling during a game). Prosocial Cooperative Play consisted of sharing toys/materials with a peer, cooperating, working on a common activity. Lastly, gender stereotyped play consisted of boys playing with trucks, balls, sports and girls playing with dolls, house, kitchen. These social behaviors were logged in a sheet used by the observers. This coding system was developed in order to measure the play patterns among preschool
Children with ASD often need additional support in the areas of communication, social skills, repetitive or sensory –seeking behavior, challenging or maladaptive behaviors, and adaptive skills For these reasons different teaching methods are required because ASD children interact with their environment in a different way than typically developing children. Children who are not on the spectrum learn through modeling, interaction with peers, and play. However, for children with ASD all of these forms of learning are difficult for them and aren’t prewired instead they have to be taught to make this connections. Thus, is the goal of DTT to help children learn skills and adapt to their environment in a more normal way (I don’t like that wording). ( Hunter
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental disorder that affects a person’s social interaction and communication. This disorder is mainly characterized by having difficulty with social interaction, communication, and having restricted behaviors. Difficulty with social interaction means someone will struggle to communicate their feelings/emotions, understand how others feel or think, develop peer relationships, and understand nonverbal behaviors (eye gaze, facial expressions, etc). Difficulty with communication will vary among the individual. Some individuals will develop expressive language, while others will not. The speech of those that do develop expressive language will often be repetitive, rote, and lack meaning. They may struggle with turn taking in conversation and topic maintenance. Those individuals who do not develop expressive language typically do not use other modalities to communicate, like pointing or gestures. The last characteristic of the autistic spectrum disorder is having repetitive behaviors or activities. Typically children on the spectrum will play with their toys in an unusual manner, or may prefer only one toy, movie, or activity. Changes in daily schedule are hard for children on the spectrum to adapt to; usually these children like the same daily schedule. Bass, Duchowny, and Llabre (2009) state, “It is possible that animal-assisted activities provide a multisensory environment that will prove beneficial to children with profound social and communication deficits.”
Occupational therapy is a career focused on helping people who have or are at risk for developing an illness, injury, disease, disorder, condition, impairment, disability, activity limitation, or participation restriction. An OT’s scope of practice may involve addressing “the physical, cognitive, psychosocial, sensory, and other aspects of performance to support engagement in everyday life activities that affect health, well-being, and quality of life” (Definition of Occupational Therapy Practice for the AOTA Model Practice Act, 2017). I don’t feel like occupational therapy is the right career for me because I feel like I lack certain characteristics that someone in this profession should have.
When a child is diagnosed with autism, one thing that is noted is the lack of eye contact. Music therapy works to help this in numerous ways. When the therapist starts at the child’s level, according to the British Colombian Music therapy association, they can base what needs to be done and how to do it off of where the child is and after many sessions, where they are now (M-7). According to a report in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, “Eye contact – this refers to an event where child looks at therapist while playing, manipulating” (E-7).
From birth, our everyday experiences and interactions with the people around us help to grow and shape the brain. The child-caregiver relationship is a key element in healthy cognitive development, and has a lasting impact on the child’s life. Through this positive relationship the child learns and cultivates their understanding of people and the world around them. These experiences will help determine the level of motor skills, visual skills, and learning abilities that a child will possess in their future. A responsive caregiver provides the serve-and-return interactions a child needs to develop healthy brain circuitry. A healthy example of serve-and-return is when an infant babbles and gestures to an object, the caregiver responds accordingly by smiling and naming the object. This interaction lays the foundation for creating a link between the object and the word. As children age they learn about cause and effect, spatial relationships, problem solving, number sense, and classification. They learn these skills through the use of symbolic play and imitation.
The inclusion of special needs children with typically developing peers has become a key service option in preschool special education classrooms (Odom, 2000). Benefits abound, yet inclusion does not present without challenges. Young children with disabilities find it complicated to interact with objects and peers due to obstacles that their disabilities present. A child unable to speak too often goes unheard. Students with limited movement are frequently unable to participate in activities with peers. How can young children with disabilities achieve some degree of independence so that they may interact in their environments without reliance on others?
Sensory Processing Disorder is a condition that exists when sensory signals don’t get controlled into proper responses. It prevents part of the brain from receiving information to understand everything correctly. Sensory processing is the way our nervous system receives messages from the senses and turns them into appropriate motor and behavioral responses. An individual with sensory processing disorder finds it complicated to process and operates from receiving information. Sensory Process Disorder develops when the child is in the womb and stays with the person throughout their life. Sensory Processing Disorder creates difficulty in interaction with others, daily routines, socially, behaviorally, emotionally and could have effects on
The objective of this study was to develop and test a program of Sensory Integration Therapy for use in assessment and treatment of children with sensory processing disorder. For this study Fazlioglu and Baran used thirty children with sensory processing disorder; twenty-four girls and six boys. These children were all between the ages of seven and eleven-years-old. This study used random assignment and split the group of children into two even groups of fifteen children each group. One group was treated with Sensory Integration Therapy while the other group was not. The goal of this experiment was to see if Sensory Integration Therapy is actually an effective treatment for children with sensory processing
Lerner, J W., Lowenthal, B, & Egan, R W. (2003). Preschool children with special needs (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon Publishing.
The characteristics that most occupational therapist needs to work on with children on in early intervention and preschool settings are very different depending on the child’s disability. Some of the main aspects occupational therapists try to help young children with are motor control, sensory modulation, adaptive coping, sensorimotor development, social-environment development, and daily living skills. The child’s disability and what the child is have troubles with in education and everyday life determines what the occupational therapist needs to work with the child o...