Sensory Gym

[Guest guest]

>Does anyone have any experience with OT through early intervention?

Do you know if private insurances cover for OT?

Hi Nada,

My son gets OT through EI and we are also planning to start him in a

private program that provides play groups that incorportate OT this

fall. Our Occupational therapist actually told us about it. It's

called Theraplay and there are three locations in the suburban

Philadelphia area. They work with private insurance. Unfortunately,

I don't think that they have locations in other states but the fact

that they exist indicates that there are likely similar programs

elsewhere. The other programs that we investigated around here

either did not work with insurance at all or just gave limited help.

To answer your second question, I think it depends on the program

and what your insurance is willing to cover. I hope that you are

able to find something. OT is working wonders with our 21 month-

old. His sensory issues are seriously diminishing.

Nadine

[Guest guest]

Nadine,

Thanks for the info. As you mentionned Theraplay is only in PA. I will ask our

OT if she knows of any similar option in NY/NJ. Does your son get home based OT?

Do you find it enough? My son's OT works on some fine motor, gross motor and

limited sensory ( brushing, joint compression, playing with rice and sand). We

don't do therapeutic listening given that she isn't certified in that. I just

feel that home based OT isn't comprehensive enough to overcome all my son's

sensory issues.

Best,

Nada

[ ] Re: Sensory Gym

>Does anyone have any experience with OT through early intervention?

Do you know if private insurances cover for OT?

Hi Nada,

My son gets OT through EI and we are also planning to start him in a

private program that provides play groups that incorportate OT this

fall. Our Occupational therapist actually told us about it. It's

called Theraplay and there are three locations in the suburban

Philadelphia area. They work with private insurance. Unfortunately,

I don't think that they have locations in other states but the fact

that they exist indicates that there are likely similar programs

elsewhere. The other programs that we investigated around here

either did not work with insurance at all or just gave limited help.

To answer your second question, I think it depends on the program

and what your insurance is willing to cover. I hope that you are

able to find something. OT is working wonders with our 21 month-

old. His sensory issues are seriously diminishing.

Nadine

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[Guest guest]

Hi Nada,

Yes, right now the only OT that we do is home based. Our OT also

does gross and fine motor but always tries to incorporate sensory

too. Still, I have found that just doing an hour and a half a week

is not nearly enough for our son so I do my best to improvise.

For example, I take him out for walks as often as possible, put a

weighted ball in the stroller and let him push. We have a route

that leads to a playground so we can take a break to swing. While

he's pushing I sing to him and work on different consonant and vowel

combinations. We joined the local YMCA and so I also take him to

the pool a few times a week and bounce him around, moving his hands

and feet in the water, again while singing. It was through doing

this that I discovered that showering is very organizing for him.

On days when I absolutely can't get out (I'm 9 months pregnant)I at

least try to pop him in the shower at home. I also bounce him on a

therapy ball and put him in a swing that we installed here. We also

take him to My Gym on weekends. At first it was overwhelming for him

so we took lots of " juice breaks. " As time has gone on though he has

gotten accustomed to it. My Gym allows you to rent their facilities

for a small fee, so I sometimes get some other moms together and

rent an hour. I request that they turn the music off which is a big

help. I brush him about three times a day and massage him with a

lavender cream at night. He's too little for theraputic listening

but I try to play classical music for him for at least half an hour

a day. That has a very calming and organizing effect on him. (He

loves music.)I use an electric toothbrush to stimulate his mouth

before he eats and before speech therapy. My husband " roughhouses "

with him, making a " sandwitch " with cushions and playing airplane.

That pretty much makes up his daily sensory diet. Like I said, he

also gets regular OT for an hour and a half a week and we are going

to take him to Theraplay in the fall. It will be a bit more

challenging to keep up this routine when baby #2 gets here in 2

weeks but we have gotten used to it and it really does help him. I

also give him NN omega 3-6-9 Juniors and high gamma vitamin E but

the amounts I give are small, at least in comparison to others. He

still has good days and bad days. All in all though, I think that

this approach is working well and that we will continue to see

steady, positive, permanent changes.

I hope that this helps. Please feel free to e-mail me anytime.

Best to you too,

Nadine

[Guest guest]

Nadine,

Thank you again. This is very helpful. You do things in a very organized way! My

son has several sensory issues, aand every time I think we got rid of one

another emerges. I try to desensitize him to the various sensory issues (or as I

call them " phobias " ) he has through a gradual exposure. He used to freak out

when we would get near an escalator at the mall, but he is more comfortable with

it now. We still have issues with brushing teeth, changing diapers, swings,

heights, certain noise like hair dryers or vacuum cleaners, but I hope we will

overcome them. Did you think Vit E helped decreasing your son's sensory issues?

When I gave mine 2 NN omega 3-6-9 I thought his sensory issued got worse. I am

still experimenting with Vit E and don't have enough experience with it. What

brand of Vit E do you give your son?

Nada

[ ] Re: Sensory Gym

Hi Nada,

Yes, right now the only OT that we do is home based. Our OT also

does gross and fine motor but always tries to incorporate sensory

too. Still, I have found that just doing an hour and a half a week

is not nearly enough for our son so I do my best to improvise.

For example, I take him out for walks as often as possible, put a

weighted ball in the stroller and let him push. We have a route

that leads to a playground so we can take a break to swing. While

he's pushing I sing to him and work on different consonant and vowel

combinations. We joined the local YMCA and so I also take him to

the pool a few times a week and bounce him around, moving his hands

and feet in the water, again while singing. It was through doing

this that I discovered that showering is very organizing for him.

On days when I absolutely can't get out (I'm 9 months pregnant)I at

least try to pop him in the shower at home. I also bounce him on a

therapy ball and put him in a swing that we installed here. We also

take him to My Gym on weekends. At first it was overwhelming for him

so we took lots of " juice breaks. " As time has gone on though he has

gotten accustomed to it. My Gym allows you to rent their facilities

for a small fee, so I sometimes get some other moms together and

rent an hour. I request that they turn the music off which is a big

help. I brush him about three times a day and massage him with a

lavender cream at night. He's too little for theraputic listening

but I try to play classical music for him for at least half an hour

a day. That has a very calming and organizing effect on him. (He

loves music.)I use an electric toothbrush to stimulate his mouth

before he eats and before speech therapy. My husband " roughhouses "

with him, making a " sandwitch " with cushions and playing airplane.

That pretty much makes up his daily sensory diet. Like I said, he

also gets regular OT for an hour and a half a week and we are going

to take him to Theraplay in the fall. It will be a bit more

challenging to keep up this routine when baby #2 gets here in 2

weeks but we have gotten used to it and it really does help him. I

also give him NN omega 3-6-9 Juniors and high gamma vitamin E but

the amounts I give are small, at least in comparison to others. He

still has good days and bad days. All in all though, I think that

this approach is working well and that we will continue to see

steady, positive, permanent changes.

I hope that this helps. Please feel free to e-mail me anytime.

Best to you too,

Nadine

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[Guest guest]

Thank you, Nada. I'm glad that it helped. It sounds like you are

doing good work with your son.

As for the vitamin E, the honest answer is that I am not 100% sure,

but I think that it is helping. When we began giving our son the

omegas his sensory issues did become worse and he became hyperactive

and a bit moody. From what I understand though, the hyperactivity

and moodiness are common and stabilize for most children within a

couple of weeks. We were not sure that the increased sensory issues

would also stabilize though.

Ultimately, we decided to also give him vitamin E for three

reasons. First because others here recommended it and had good

results, second because we knew that as an antioxidant it would help

with the absorbtion of the omegas, and third because we found it

significant that the symptoms of vitamin E deficiency look very much

like sensory issues and we did not want to take a chance by not

utilizing a theraputic intervention that could possibly prevent

neurological damage.

At the same time, we have been hesistant to give our son megadoses

of anything without clinical trials demonstrating long-term

effects. We give him the recommended dosage (1 softgel) of Nature's

Bounty high gamma vitamin E. It has 200 IU of d-alpha tocopheral

which is the most active form of the vitamin and fits within the

established upper safety levels for his age group. It also has 200

mg of D-gamma tocopheral. Currently there are no established upper

safety limits for gamma but from what we understand this is not a

high dosage. (There is some support for this in that we read about a

research group that is currently studying " high " dosages of gamma

which they define as above 600 mg.) Originally, we tried the GNC

brand and we also tried the Schiff brand. Finally we settled on this

one though because others here wrote that their children benefited

more from vitamins that also had high gamma.

We think that the vitamin E has reduced his sensory issues. He still

has them, but they do not seem as bad as when we began the omegas.

The reason that we are not 100% sure that it is the vitamin E is

because we did not wait to see if he would have stabilized and

gotten accustomed to the fish oil without it. Perhaps this was not a

good decision on our part, but we do not regret it. For the reasons

I stated above, I think that giving it to him is a positive thing.

Just to be on the safe side though, I also give him a vitamin K

supplement. The danger of giving too much vitamin E is that it

could cause bleeding. The reason that it could cause bleeding is

that it affects the body's level of vitamin K. Research has

demonstrated that vitamin K is very safe even in high doses. The

vitamin K that we use is Life Extension Super K vitamin K complex

with K2.

I hope that this helps. I would be very interested to hear how well

it works for your son if you should choose to give it to him. Please

feel free to write to me anytime.

Take care.

Nadine

[Guest guest]

My son (2 1/2 PDD-NOS) had his CPSE eval (IEP meeting-is that the right

term?) today and they authorized two out of school OT/Sensory Gym

sessions per week in addition to his one OT that is part of his pre-

school curriculum. To date he has only had in-home OT services 2x/week

and I was hoping for input on what sensory gyms provide....what is a

typical set-up...what kind of activities do they utilize, etc... and

have any of you had positive experience with it (or negative...). He

demonstrates low tone on his left side and has difficulty crossing the

midline and he has noticeable difficulty with self-calming and self-

regulating activities. If I miss the " window of opportunity " to get him

down for a nap or prepare for bedtime, he becomes over stimulated and

it takes a good hour if not more of " brushing " , classical music and a

totally dark environment to calm him enough so he is able to fall

asleep. Once down, thank God, he will sleep through the night, but some

nights it's 10 or 11 PM before he is able to sleep. Any advice would be

appreciated.

Thanks...

Tracey

[Guest guest]

Tracey,

You might be interested in joining the sensory integration group. It

is also a group and you can find it at the following website.

sensoryintegrationgroup/

You may find more people in that group with answers to your questions

regarding sensory issues. My three year old daughter also has sensory

issues and during the summer gets OT once a week and during the school

year 3 times a week. My daughter also takes at least an hour to calm

down and go to sleep. A lot of the time she is in her room just

bouncing on her bed for a really long time or trying to climb the

dresser (which is tethered to the wall). The OT suggested we get a

swing and go in a dim lighted area and calmly/slowly swing her for 5

to 10 minutes before bed so we installed a hammock like swing in the

hallway that we can put up and down for that. It does sometimes seem

to help her calm down. Then we always read a book...we used to use

music too but since she started climbing on the dresser we had to take

the CD player out until we can install a shelf on the wall for it or

something. We do not have experience with sensory gyms though or with

brushing. I would guess that a sensory gym would have tunnels, swings,

trampolines, therapy balls, scooter boards, and other similar items

that the OTs that work with my daughter use. Hope this helps.

Pam