Listen for Change Blog

Social Pods

September 5, 2020

I Get It, We Have All Had Enough

socially distant family pods, men women and children in masks

We can no longer avoid talking about what this pandemic is doing to our:

- - children
  - families
  - selves

We are being tested to our core.

- - Frustration and impatience dangerously cloud our judgement.
  - We are loosening our masking and distancing habits.
  - Treading a very thin line between social needs and health.
  - Potentially endangering our families and communities.
  - Concern over children’s overall well-being and development.

I get it, we have all had enough.

I wish that were a good reason for relaxing our standards, but it’s clearly not.

This dangerous and highly contagious virus thrives on our frustration.

The vast majority of cases are traceable directly to our inability to maintain and be mindful of recommended precautions. With schools opening we’re seeing the increases that were expected.

kids in school with masks and wings for social distance

As a professional, with years of service to children and families, I’d like to discuss a possible avenue of management.

Create a pod

All families are in the same situation as you.

Discuss with your partner who you’d feel comfortable including.

Contact those people to identify who else is willing to limit their exposure to only two or three other families in the social pod. A pod should be small but big enough, that if a family opts out of an activity the other families won’t feel left-out or abandoned.

Be clear, the responsibility of a pod member is to be total and absolute to your commitment to limit exposure.

In this way, you and your children can have meaningful interaction with others while staying safe.

Children thrive in all areas of development when surrounded by people who care and other children.

The social pod can do anything and everything together: prepare and eat meals while the kids play, watch movies, parents can do things together while kids play in another room… the possibilities are endless.

In keeping a pod, everybody benefits. Life will be more normal, and the confinement will feel less oppressive for everybody.

You need to take care of yourself in order to survive this and make good choices for your family. This may include:

- - Personal time
  - Exercise
  - Phone and virtual social contact
  - Time outdoors
  - Recognize that we are living in unprecedented times and everyone is traumatized.

I hope you find the idea of creating a pod for your family helpful & empowering.

We at Listen For Change Tomatis New York are taking this pandemic very seriously in terms of our responsibility to our clients and local communities. Please talk to us about our specialized programming for this time. For more information about me or what we do here follow us on Facebook.

Motor Planning

August 28, 2020

Playing with Purpose

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

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.

Are Your Child’s Physical Activities Curtailed by The Pandemic?

August 21, 2020

Postural Control & Strengthening Ideas

A continuation in our series, this blog contains postural control related activities for getting your child’s body to wake up and move. Children are spending considerable time in quiet, solitary activities. At this time, screen usage is through the roof and needs to be controlled for a variety of important reasons. The physical activities they thrive on to keep their bodies well and strong also need to be encouraged. We understand the necessity of screens particularly for learning and communication, but when used for entertainment, our kids tend to shun more active pursuits.

Our challenge is: how do we get our kids moving in a joyful way?

For the little ones, encourage crawling to an animated object like a toy that’s moving, making sound or lighting up. The Baby Einstein series of toys is particularly great for this. We know that Tummy Time is critical for neck stability, ocular control, and posture. Try laying down at their level and to encourage eye contact. This is a great time to sing a song, especially nursery rhymes. The goal is to try to increase their tolerance of this challenging position.

creeping, crawling, walking…

From here, we progress to creeping, crawling, walking, running, hopping, & skipping. Keep it interesting by introducing balls, bubbles, bean bags, chasing, music & obstacle courses.

Playgrounds can often be used in a socially distanced manner. Sitting correctly on a swing while pumping your legs is a great activity. Enjoy the variety of sounds that come out of your child; such as Ahh, Eee, and Whee! For less vocal children, motion and space activities accelerate vocalizations and language. I love wheelbarrow walking and slides, especially when you can safely go down head first, for body strengthening.

Postural control usually involves strengthening, balance and motion. High, fast, arrhythmic activities create the most alerting energy. You can alternate them with slow, rhythmic activities to create the most useful balance for your child. A good analogy is slow even swinging is more calming, where caching their legs mid swing and pausing for a smile or laugh before letting go, is more energizing.

I hope you find these postural control and strengthening ideas helpful. If you need individualized suggestions, don’t hesitate to contact me. If you’re having trouble calming or energizing your child, consider Tomatis. For more information about me, please click here.

Creating Sensory Fun

August 12, 2020

With Your Child During Pandemic Times

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.

Surviving the Pandemic with Your Needy Special Needs Child

August 3, 2020

Keeping your children productively occupied during the pandemic has become a chronic issue, and one that is creating anxiety for parents and caregivers. Our special needs children can be challenging under typical circumstances, but when removed from their daily routine their behavior and meeting their needs can become particularly demanding. This can become another full-time job in an environment where there are other demands on your time. In the coming weeks, we will share blogs targeting specific areas of need and activities. Emphasis of the blogs will include:

Sensory processing,
Postural control,
Motor planning,
Emotional development,
Memory

Another good idea is to incorporate the FORBRAIN device. The type of feedback it provides especially stimulates attention, language, and memory. For more info visit our FORBRAIN page here.

We’d love to hear your comments or requests in the comment section below, or share your thoughts with us on Facebook!

A Mother’s Own Words Today (July 2020)

July 21, 2020

A Real-Life Testimony of Tomatis

A 3.5-year-old boy referred for Tomatis by a neuropsychologist, presented with:

high activity level
not attending
very hyper-sensitive to sounds like vacuum cleaners, children crying, etc.
behavioral issues
excessive loud vocalizations
not following directions
limited word use with poor articulation
not playing with other children

Are you seeing any changes?

“Yes! He is quieter and more attentive. I think he became quieter around day 4. He listens to us and repeats a lot of words even when we don’t ask him to. When we talk to him, he’s trying to communicate better. His pronunciation has also improved. I think all the changes within last two weeks in his daily routine, plus new place [our vacation home] with lake and sand every day, was a good base and the right time for us to start these listening sessions. We (all 4 adults) see how he improved!

He was watching the iPad yesterday and was trying to sing a song… It was “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” … I felt like he knew the words. He also pronounced the words correctly, everybody understood.

I read about Tomatis before we started. A lot of people were seeing changes after 2 full therapy parts (14 days + 14 days). We see changes now.”

Seeing improvements so soon is not uncommon. This is one of the reasons why, as a professional, I am so committed to the Tomatis Method.

Our initial goal was to decrease his hyper-sensitivity because it has such a global effect on how we function. Hyper-sensitivity is painful, as the individual is forced to deal with a constant barrage of sounds. The brain is not employing its ability to screen out what’s important from background noise. Hyper-sensitivity drives individuals into a “fight or flight” response. It’s not possible for the brain to learn and function adequately while in a continuous heightened state.

Once we decrease hyper-sensitivity the nervous system is better positioned to process the meaning of input and figure out what is important. Once the brain can get that far, it’s much more capable of formulating an appropriate response.

What happened

This child no longer finds the incoming stimuli painful; he is better able to attend and respond to it. We can see it in his:

improved attention,
desire to use words to communicate
attempts to sing songs
being more cooperative

These improvements have a tremendous benefit to his behavioral management and increased ability to learn. As the mother reports, it’s exciting to see such a leap in the first intensive. It gives us great hope for the next intensive and beyond.

1 234 5

BLOG