The proprioception sense helps with coordination and strength. Learn more about developing the body awareness sense.

How to Know An Autism Meltdown Vs. A Tantrum: 9 Tips That Help Calm A Sensory Overloaded Child-Word to Your Mother Blog Understanding the

Sensory diets are an incredible tool for parents to use at home for kids with various sensory issues, Sensory Processing Disorder, ADHD, and Autism. Learn how to use one for kids from toddlers to teens, and even adults. Get a free PDF sensory diet template template and a cache of sensory diet activities.

Share & Help Me GrowPlease welcome my friend, Kyndra, back to the blog. She always shares amazing advice for parents dealing with children who have sensory issues. Thank you, Kyndra, for helping people like me. We went to Target the other day. The holiday decorations were up, and the children were so mesmerized by the […]

This DIY sensory tool is perfect for kids who are constantly jiggling their legs. You know the kiddo, it's like he has ants in his pants?

DIY tutorial to create a lycra body sock.

Marriage and parenting a child with autism is hard. Here are 15 tools for a successful and happy marriage while parening a child with autism.

A menu for students and adults that can help us to find a short practice that can calm the nervous system before we say, do, or act from fight/ flight or shut down! #calm #nervoussystem #sensory #appliededucationalneuroscience #students #educators

Autism Toys - Get the lowest price and largest selection on Sensory Toys and Toy for Autism at Autism-Products.com

Tips that we have used to help our kids, both those with sensory processing disorders as well as our other children.

Many picky eaters are selective about textures because of their sensory processing, but is sensory affecting other areas of their life? Find out if it is...

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If you have a kid with autism, you need to be careful about their likes and preferences. Here we've compiled some fun activities for children with autism.

This post has been a long time in the making as it's something that I struggled with for quite some time. And it's something that I'd like to expand on in the future. Until then,

There's a lot to remember when it comes to parenting a child with high functioning autism. Here are some tips from the pros (parents!)

[Source: Disability Scoop] The nonprofit behind Big Bird, Elmo and Abby Cadabby is launching a new effort to reduce stigma surrounding kids with autism and help those with the developmental disorder learn life skills. Through a new initiative dubbed “See Amazing in All Children,” Sesame Workshop said it will create digital tools to help children […]

Krypto-Bite® Chewable Pencil Topper by ARK Therapeutic Available in three colour coded toughness levels

Most teachers know that it is SO hard to get funding for weighted vests and blankets, fidgets, pressure vests, and other occupational therap...

Looking for calming strategies for kids with ASD? We’ve got 21+ ideas to to teach you how to deal with autism and stop an autistic meltdown in its tracks!

Autistic children often engage in wandering behavior. These 30 tips will help you prevent your autistic child or your kid with disabilities from wandering.

Here's how to get one.

Looking for calm down kit ideas? These items help kids with autism & sensory processing disorder calm down during a meltdown

The feelings wheel is a great tool for learning how to identify and describe your emotions. Learn more about it here.

Take a minute to watch this today.

http://www.amazon.com/lm/R2RZ2PMU8K5APB/ref=cm_lm_pthnk_view?ie=UTF8&lm_bb= I have provided a list of items that I have found to be very helpful in connecting with my children and providing appropriate and engaging learning experiences for them. This list has items that I have discovered, products used in their school and at occupational and speech therapies. Please keep in mind that each child's needs are unique. So what may be appropriate for my girls may not be for your child. My hope is that you will discover a product or two that will help you and your child connect and grow together. Happy Exploring!

Sensory hacks for small spaces - great ideas for doing occupational therapy at home with your kids who have autism and/or sensory processing disorder

Yesterday, I posted about some of the kinesthetic materials we are using in our reading instruction (see that post here). I got these ideas from the Orton-Gillingham training I attended a few weeks ago. Like I said yesterday, the main idea that I latched onto, was the idea that this program addresses learners from an auditory, visual, and kinesthetic approach. Even though most of my kids are visual and kinesthetic learners, I love the idea of including the auditory piece to help my kids strengthen that modality. The training I went to was a 5-day training in how to use a Multi-Sensory approach to teach reading in a phonics based program. They incorporate review, how to teach new concepts, how to teach sight words, as well as some ideas on vocabulary/comprehension development. We literally just started using this last week, so I am still pretty new to it. I used the assessments provided in the program to determine where my higher level students should begin. The assessment showed that this group knew a variety of phonics sounds (including a few vowels and digraphs), so we were able to jump right in and start working on learning new sounds. My lower group, however, is still working on learning letter names/sounds, so I am going to start at the very beginning with them. This program starts with teaching the letters c, o, a, d, and g because they all have similar letter formation, very different sounds, and look pretty different from one another as well. This program works on letter formation as well as phonics, which I like too for my beginners. Also, once they learn these first 5 letters, they can already write some basic words phonetically! I will post more on how this program is working with these guys, once we get through a couple letters. Since my higher students were ready to jump right in, we started by learning some of the basic routines involved in this program. I love that these routines are built in because we all know how much our kids love structured activities In this program, they recommend incorporating a review 3 times a week as well as introducing one new sound or sound family per week. Last week, we started working on learning how the review is structured. The review is called a "3-part drill" and students review the sounds they already know through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities. I made this summary sheet to post so that eventually, I can put a kid in charge of this activity. It starts with the visual part, where the kids see the letters and say the sound. Next up is the auditory/kinesthetic part. This seems complicated when typing it out, but I promise, the kids caught on really quick. For this, the teacher says a sound (i.e. "buh" for b). Then the kids repeat the sound. Then, as they write the letter in their sand or gel, they say "b says buh." If there is more than 1 letter that makes that sound (i.e. both "c" and "k" make the "kuh" sound), then the kids would write/say all of the letters that make that sound (i.e. "c says kuh, k says kuh"). The last part is blending. The kids practice saying each sound separately in order and then blend the word together. This is fun for the kids too, because we talk about whether the word is a real word or a silly word. This was easy to add into our morning because it only takes about 10 minutes. My kids take awhile to trickle in and get settled, so I have this group come in first and start working while the other kids put away their stuff, go to the bathroom, etc. This is the tracking sheet I filled out based on my students' assessments. As you go through the program, you highlight the mastered sounds. This helps you keep your flash card decks up-to-date with only mastered sounds as well as helps remind you which sounds to review during the auditory/kinesthetic activity. Have any of you used this program in your classroom? I am interested to hear your feelings/experiences on using it with kids with autism. I really like that it doesn't take up much time in your day, so I can still do all of my other guided reading activities and just fit this in as a part of my lesson or even incorporate it into aid run stations.