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Encouraging Better Attention

April 19, 2022
boy outside out of focus for better attention

The single biggest concern of the parents that I deal with is attention. In children, this can take the form of not turning to his name being called, not sitting for a meal, not able to see a brief test to conclusion, and many more.

Here are some tips for encouraging better attention at home:

* Control the sensory environment

  • Decrease the stimulation in the environment- turn off the tv, give the child your complete attention, get down to your child’s level,
  • Prepare his sensory system to attend better. This may include:
    • Heavy work- wheelbarrow walking, crab walk, crawling, walking off a couch on his hands, pushing heavy object,  
    • Neutral warmth- play under a blanket, make a blanket tent, wrap up in a blanket or large towel,
    • Deep touch- make a sandwich of him between two cushions, roughhouse with you laying on top of him, consider experimenting with a weighted blanket or compression vest.

Consider buying a Forbrain. This device sends vocal feedback to the brain, which increases attention among other things.

* Keep your expectations reasonable

  • Tasks should not be overly challenging.
  • Reward success and ignore failure.
  • Praise efforts not outcome.
  • Consider time of day and mood. (is he tired, hungry, grumpy, etc?)

boy listening to tomatis sound training

Nurturing a child with attentional difficulties at home can drain parents and family. It’s wonderful to have some techniques at your disposal to help the child center himself and cope.

Tomatis sound training should be considered for a deeper solution.

Motor Planning

August 28, 2020

Playing with Purpose

cartoon boy on tummy on scooter to improve physical motor planning and postural control

Motor Planning is the ability to move your body in ways necessary to accomplish a task.

      • Delays in accomplishing motor milestones.
      • Issues performing new or novel tasks that should be within the child’s repertoire. Such as, circling arms forward but not able to circle backward. They can jump but can’t jump in a circle.
      • Trouble stringing together a succession of movements or actions, like on an obstacle course. They have each skill such as jump, hop, and squat, but can’t figure out how to do them in rapid succession.
      • Issues making the two body sides work together in a coordinated fashion at the same time (like jumping) or reciprocally (like skipping).

After a brief period of learning, it should come naturally and the child shouldn’t need to think hard about how to accomplish the new motor tasks.

If you have trouble motor planning, the large actions of your body, you’ll also likely have issues with the finer actions of your hands, mouth and/or eyes. In general, we work in a developmental progression, which means we deal with the large body actions first.

Here are some fun possibilities for working on motor planning at home:

      • Use scooter boards and pull your child as fast as they can tolerate in many different positions, such as sitting or lying on their tummy. Attach a rope to a stable object, such as a door, and let them pull themselves hand over hand.
      • Try Jumping-Jacks
      • Ride on a sled while trying to maintain stability and your path
      • Have a dance party and teach each other moves
      • Play on the Monkey Bars at the park
      • Follow the leader as you move your bodies in different positions and patterns

young boy child using monkey bars for motor planning& postural control

The activities we’ve emphasized are whole body motor planning activities. When the brain gets the message of how to do these full body activities, we frequently see a trickle effect to other types of motor planning. Such as, fine motor control for the hands, eyes, and mouth.

Many academic pursuits are based on motor planning accomplishments. Reading, for example, requires that your eyes move together smoothly across the page. Learning the alphabet and number concepts require you to follow a left to right progression.

Working on motor planning can be a whole family activity. Don’t think about the work you’re doing, just think about the fun! (Pic: ice skating, family dance party)

If you need help with specific activities for your child, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Keep up with our most current ideas and information by following our Facebook page.

Sensory processing problems, frequently underlay issues of postural control and motor planning. Consider a Tomatis sound training program. During the pandemic, our home programs are especially popular. We love having the opportunity to take these extended periods of time at home and turn them into productive time for the children.

Creating Sensory Fun

August 12, 2020

With Your Child During Pandemic Times

sensory activities

Let’s start with some ideas for tactile play:

  • Water play- fill up your sink or any tub with water, and get out a variety of Tupperware, measuring cups, and any toys appropriate for bath or water play. For more fun, you can put in a drop or two of food coloring, and your child will be playing with their favorite color, you can even extend this to making various colors by mixing the drops. Pouring water between different sized containers is great fun by itself, and can also turn on the imagination to be creating things such as tea parties. Bubbles can be a nice addition. Keep it light for easy cleanup!
  • Play with sand, or make kinetic sand (without sand)- Kinetic sand is super simple to make or buy, and is easy to cleanup. Making the kinetic sand together is one activity, and playing with it is another. You can put a variety of things in the sand, such as cookie cutters, sand or playdough molds, plastic utensils, toy cars, buttons, figurines, or anything solid. Finding the items, you’ve hidden and placing them in a designated bin can be a secondary game.
  • Make slime- Here’s a great, simple “fluffy” slime recipe. Slime can keep your child’s attention for extended periods of time. If you mix shiny things or glitter into the slime, be mindful of choking hazards. Hint, be sure to keep it in an air tight container to ensure you can use it more than once.
  • Baking- If you’re baking for sensory reasons, you’re going to want to bake things your child can touch. Baking bread is particularly wonderful because of the folding and kneading process. Be sure to set aside enough time. A wide variety of recipes are available online of varying degrees of difficulty and healthiness. Try to pick a recipe that’s not too rapid and will require kneading. Make a point to enjoy the smells as they fill your home. I also love roll and bake cookies or cookies cut with cookie cutters for other tactile baking ideas.

Sensory isn’t only touch, there’s also motion and gravity activities.

  • Hang upside down off the edge of a couch
  • Jump on a bed/trampoline,
  • Roll up in a blanket or sandwiching between two pillows
  • Play in a beanbag chair,
  • Wheel-barrow walking,
  • Commando crawling,

Have fun playing with your child and know that you are choosing impactful activities! Look for our next blog on fun activities to encourage body strength and postural control.

If you need more explanation of why these are helpful to your child, or need more ideas specific to your child, feel free to leave a comment or email us. We’re happy to help.

Parents stress, kids at home, use Forbrain

Your Stress, Their Stress

March 22, 2020

Keeping You & Your Family Happy While Under Quarantine

We are living through an unimaginable time, as news around the Corona Virus develops by the hour. As adults, we are impacted by the lack of routine, social isolation, restriction of outside activities and health concerns.

It’s time to consider how all this is impacting our children. They feel our stress organically. It can’t be denied that when we are not okay they are not okay.

We are obligated to find ways to mitigate and manage our stress.

Here are some of our suggestions:

Create new routines
Meditate & breathe
Keep a journal or read a book
Create anything- art, food, family games, music, etc.
Keep in touch any way you can

By simply acting over things you can control, you will quickly find that you are better, and your children will feel the positive shift.

This is a great time to consider using Forbrain®. This in-home device helps focus your child with results in attention, processing, speech, memory and more.

If you have been considering a Tomatis® Training or refresher, there will never be a better time. We’ve significantly reduced prices for our Tomatis® in-home programs.
Here at Listen For Change, we are committed to community support now more than ever.
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