Putting Faith in a Little Miracle...

Our latest OT purchase...  Behold, the Miracle Belt!

...Belt, that is.  C headed to school today armed with her new Miracle Belt.  It's a 3-pound weighted belt that she will (hopefully) wear in 30-minutes-on, 30-minutes off cycles during school.  The purpose of the belt is to help calm her system and give her joints some extra input about where her body is in space (which will help with coordination and hopefully help her to be a bit less wiggly and fidgety).  We've been experimenting with weighted items in OT, and decided that the belt was the way to go, since it moves with her rather than being something that she could only use while seated (like a weighted lap pad, for example).


In OT, C's therapist has been trying a weighted belt with her, and almost immediately saw an improvement in her coordination.  She seemed just a bit more in control of her body so that she could concentrate on working those muscles that need to be developed, as well as her motor planning.  On the very first trial, the OT had C jumping on a trampoline (something that she does often at home and at therapy).  Usually, C would be flailing all over the place on the trampoline, and would often fall.  With the belt, however, she was able to jump straight up and down in a very controlled, consistent manner for the very first time.  We took that as a good sign.  After a few more successful belt sessions while working on different activities, we decided to buy one for C to use at school and at home.  

One of my girlie-girls getting ready for the pool in 

Marco Island, FL this past February

C is quite the girlie-girl (M is, too).  Getting her to wear something that didn't look cute, or was patterned with "boy stuff" (as she calls it), would have been impossible.  I was thrilled to find that the Miracle Belt company sells colored covers for the belt, and I snatched up a pink on for C.  She was actually excited when it arrived in the mail yesterday, and enthusiastically showed it to her teachers at drop-off this morning.  She is going to use it first-thing this morning during free play, take it off when they go outside, and then wear it again for circle time (which is a time she struggles with).  She also told her teacher she wanted to wear it at lunch.  I'm not sure if she will follow through, but I was really proud to see her using some of her self-advocacy skills.  


My fingers are crossed that it's actually effective.  The Miracle Belt website claims that, "Within minutes of wearing the Miracle Belt, your child will feel more grounded, focused, and secure!"  That seems like a tall order for a little belt to fill, but I am cautiously optimistic that this will help C better manage her senses and feel more successful during the school day.  I guess we will have to wait until 1 pm - pick-up time! - to find out how things went.  We'll keep everyone updated...

Paper Towels and Other Small Victories...

The bane of my daughter's existence...

One of the things we are working on with C right now is helping her develop self-advocacy skills.  We want her to have the ability to not only know what she needs to help regulate her senses in different situations (like grabbing the stress ball she uses to stay focused during circle time at pre-school), but also to speak up appropriately if something doesn't feel right (rather than having a meltdown or working herself up in anticipation of her needs not being met).  These are good skills for all children to learn, but for kids with SPD, it can be a bit more of a challenge because it's harder for them (and the people around them) to understand what makes them tick, what might set them off, and why they are so sensitive to it in the first place.  Helping C learn what she can do to help herself, and why we are having her do the things we are doing (like special activities and exercises in the morning before she goes to school) is an important part of her therapy - and in little ways, we are beginning to see our efforts pay off.

C has always noticed the sounds around her.  Even when she was a baby, she would stop and stare at the sky, looking for the airplane that no one else could hear quite yet because it was still too far away.  The vacuum used to scare her;  now it just annoys her.  We now know that if we give her a heads-up that we are turning it on, she can prepare herself for it rather than being startled by it.  During C's evaluation, we found out that one of the pieces to her SPD puzzle is that she has auditory hypersensitivity - she's very aware of and can be distracted or irritated by sounds in her environment.  

We are lucky - C's hypersensitivity is much more subtle than it could be.  Some kids have a hard time even leaving their homes because they are literally bombarded and upset by the world and all its non-stop noise.  For the most part, C has a pretty easy time - she just notices the sounds and can be distracted by them  (which can be tricky at school, for obvious reasons).  But places like public restrooms can definitely get under her skin.  She does not like to be startled by the loud automatic toilets and hand dryers.  She has even been known to avoid going to the bathroom until the last minute or have a tantrum and demand that she doesn't need to wash her hands (uh, yeah you do, kiddo).

Well, we had a little "A-ha!" moment while out to dinner with my family this past Friday night.  My sister and I took C to the bathroom just before it was time to head home.  C went into the stall by herself, took care of what she needed to do, and didn't flip out over the flush.  Then, when she came out of the stall, she very calmly turned to my sister and said, "I think I would like to use a paper towel to dry my hands.  I don't like the hand dryer."  No meltdown - no "I'm scared!" before we had even asked her to wash her hands.  She knew what came next, anticipated what was potentially going to upset her, and spoke up politely for herself.

It was a small moment that likely would have gone unnoticed if I wasn't becoming so aware of the way C sees the world.  But for us, it was a big deal.  I gave her a big hug and complimented her several times over the rest of the evening for how well she had handled herself in that situation.  She seemed really proud of herself, too.  I am learning that with SPD, it truly is the little things that can add up to something big...