Lil'S - Sensory Breakthrough!

LONG story short, as I've not written about Lil'S and his speech and sensory issues much--especially lately, Lil'S has finally started hating speech therapy and refusing to go, so I'm now working with his speech therapist to involve fun occupational therapy / sensory activities to his speech therapy.  (There's this fabulous little sensory room adjacent to and even attached to the speech room, and it killed me to think he wasn't allowed to use it!) Here's what I emailed her this evening about our first attempts results!

Mrs. [M]!

[Lil'S] just had his best day of preschool EVER!!!  Yes, it helps that they went to the library and he's my little book lover (transportation toys and books!), but this is the first time I've ever picked him up where he was calm and centered like he often [should have written "more like he sometimes"] is at home.  (Unfortunately you and his preschool teachers don't usually see that side of him, not that I get to see it all that much either, though!)  I asked him to go to his locker and get his sandwich [ops, lunch], and despite the fact there were swarms of kids and parents and I had no hope in the world that he actually would, he made his way unaccompanied through the crowd, to his locker, retrieved his lunch, made it back through the crowd, and handed me his lunch.  I'm sure my jaw dropped!  Usually I have to really work with him to get through each step, and that's when he's willing to cooperate!  (As in not running away, screaming--car in hand--because he doesn't want to go home.)  Ms. [B] said he was attentive through each of the lessons and activities.  Usually he lasts five to ten minutes max, as you're familiar with.  When he was asked to come to an activity, he was disappointed to stop what he was doing, but he still did it and came.  SERIOUSLY AMAZING!!  [Transitions of any kind are often like pulling teeth with this darling child of mine.]

Some sensory activities have an instant effect and can last for a couple hours, but vestibular input can have an instant or delayed effect that can last up to eight hours, even if someone's given only 10-20 minutes of it.  Vestibular input is one of the things [Lil'S]'s the most oversensitive to, so I'm pretty sure only 5-10 minutes is enough for him.  

In summary, something he did this morning set him up for success through the rest of his morning.  I'm going to assume the main help was the intense vestibular paired with intense proprioception (trampoline & crash pad & swing), but it's true that the whole combination of activities may've been what is needed to be added to his home activities to help him be more centered through his typical day.

 - bean box: tactile/visual; 

 - trampoline w/ handrails & crash pad: "alerting" vestibular & proprioceptive to balance it out; 

 - swing (actually, I just found it's a "bolster"): "calming" vestibular; 

 - even the warm air from the van he commented on afterward and the cold breeze that thrilled him as he walked to preschool: calming/alerting tactile

So, anyway, I'm wondering if we could do the same activities Thursday as we did today and see if he does as well at preschool afterward.  If it works, we'll be setting up some things at home to mimic those activities so he can be centered before speech therapy and the rest of daily life.  (We just may end up investing in an OT trampoline, crash pad, and bolster ourselves if our homemade attempts don't seem to work.)  I also think doing those same speech/OT activities again may help him better learn to follow all the rules that accompany the activities.  Here's hoping!

Thank you so much!

:)