I’ll never forget those early days of Occupational Therapy with our strong movement seeking daughter Chloe. I loved going into the sessions with her, trying to remain quiet and just observe (this was tricky at times due to my ADHD… lol). I loved watching and listening to her OT Deb as she helped Chloe explore her sensory systems and explain why she loves certain things, like why heavy weighted blankets make her brain feel safe.
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On a side note to parents, I highly recommend asking your child’s OT if you can observe every session. Observation is the best way to soak in what's going on, and can lead to better outcomes for you child as you’ll end up using the same language as their OT, and you can more easily pass on information to teachers and other adults in your child’s world. However, it’s important that you’re respectful and silent while you’re in there, and that you write down your questions and save them until the end, or even type them straight into a new email on your phone and shoot the therapist and email after the session.
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Anyway, the thing Chloe loved the most was the LYCRA SWING! We learnt that she loved it so much because it strongly engaged both her vestibular (informs the brain about motion, positioning and orientation) and her proprioceptive (informs the brain about the body’s location, action and movement) sensory systems at the same time, which was what her brain was really craving!
As I watched her climb in and out of the swing, stretch out and move around inside it, I learnt that she was developing body awareness, strength, balance, motor planning and spatial skills! Bonus! Oh, and best of all she liked that it was FUN.
Apparently because the movement of the swing was also rhythmic and predictable, Chloe loved it even more, and it had a massive calming effect on her! To my husband and I it seemed like the antidote to her ‘fight or flight’ state, which she had been in MOST of the time, especially on school days.
When we installed one at home, we noticed other ways she would use it… like using it as a cocoon to hide away from everyone and take a break from the visual world. Then there was the spinning – so much spinning to regulate herself! We found that she loved doing her OT 'homework' if it involved the swing, like the one where we hold one end of a rope and she holds the other end whilst lying in the swing with arms stretched out, and she created the swinging motion by pulling on the rope. For years (and I mean, like a good 5 years) she would ask to fall asleep in the swing every night, and she fell asleep SO quickly as I gently rocked her. It was seriously life changing for us!
Jenna ❤️
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Hi Jenna
PLEASE HELP! My 6-year-old Autistic & ADHD daughter has a lot of meltdowns and violent outbursts. She struggles with transitions between activities at home and school, getting in and out of the car, and staying seated long enough to eat food or do something quiet like reading, painting, or settling for bed.
I’ve had a few people mention that a small weighted blanket might be something to get for her. Can you tell me more about it and how it might help?
For my daughter the school environment can be very noisy and overloading at times. As she has auditory hypersensitivity, wet weather lunches and events (like sports days, incursions, and assemblies) can easily put her into auditory overload.
'Auditory Overload' is when the brain becomes so overwhelmed by the amount of sound information it needs to process, that it cannot focus on other things it's supposed to be doing, cannot predict what will happen next because it cannot process the sensory info for the moment), so therefore cannot keep us safe, and if it stays there long enough pops us automatically into a 'fight flight freeze' response which can look like anxiety, shallow breathing, grumpiness, faster heart rate, trouble completing a task already started, trouble remembering the steps of doing a simple task, and needing to leave the room quickly etc.
