Heavy work

Since Carson is a sensory seeker he seeks activities which provide stong sensory input to his body. Stong smells, tastes and alot of physical activity. One great way to provide that input is to provide heavy work, this is anything that requires alot of muscle work to accomplish. What better heavy work than bowling, lifting, carrying and rolling the ball is alot of work! Also alot of fun for none SPD kids!

During the bowling Carson was attentive, organized, well behaved, took turns, fun, happy, interactive and a great listener! It was so much fun to see him so put together!

Once we left the bowling alley and entered the arcade it was a complete 180 degree difference. He was not attentive, very disorganized, running and wandering away, not listening, I couldnt get him to focus on me long enough to get out a word. He was a completely different kid. I dont know if its the lights, sounds, or all the distractions but he just was not the same kid. This is a classic sign of SPD, behavior that is incosistant, his behavior changed within seconds of the change in envioronment. Before the diagnosis I would have been infuriated at the behavior and probably gotten pretty angry with him. Now, I wont say I was fine or that it was not frustrating but I see it differently, I dont think its ok but, now I know its not always a choice for him , its a symptom of his disorder. I kept my calm, because me getting upset is not going to change anything. An SPD child wants so badly to behave and when they are unable to control their behavior and regulate themselves they can become very upset with themselves and this can affect their self esteem. I knew until I removed him from the situation that is overloading him he would not be able to change his behavior. Hopefully OT will help with this and help him be able to regulate himself. Until then I have only 2 options when something like this happens, stay and deal with it the best we can or remove him from the situation, sometimes I stay and sometimes I go. After we left I told him he had to spend some time in his room to calm down and to think about his behavior, after that he was ok. This is definitely something we will talk with the OT about.