Dove Rehabilitation Services, 2499 Hyacinth Court, Westbury, NY (2025)

03/21/2023

Swing Into Spring! Use of swings primarily activates the vestibular system, which in turn tends to generate a three-part outcome to stimulate:
1. Activation of the vestibular nuclei with their contribution to balance and awareness of positioning the body in space.
2. Activation of the ocular motor complex with their contribution to visual pursuits and visual discrimination.
3. Activation of the auditory cortex to promote both receptive and expressive language.

When working with an indoor swing, it is a good idea to incorporate visual targets with the task.

When working outdoors with a swing, try to use weighted sensory gear (ankle weights, a weighted belt or weighted vest for additional proprioceptive input to stimulate body awareness and core strength.

For additional information check out this blog post: https://doverehab.com/2019/01/activating-the-vestibular-triad/

11/08/2022

The body’s nervous system is designed to respond to the sensory input of pressure. Children who are overactive often tend to respond well to “deep pressure”. Deep Pressure is the sensation produced when an individual is hugged, squeezed, stroked, orheld comfortably. This type of sensation produces the sensation that tells the brain to “slow down” and to regulate itself.

The equipment shown here is commonly used by therapists to provide children who have Sensory Processing Disorders to simply “calm down”. Use of these tools can helpthe child to better manage their responses to challenges they find in both social and physical activities. In this way, the sensory tools can be used at home and at school.

09/20/2022

Many children enjoy “playing” with food. They will look at and participate in such play with little prompting. When playful visual images are presented for food craft, attention is easily captured and sustained.

Positioning parts of the food craft at angles of interest is an important feature. For example, the Nutter Butter dog ears have been positioned at the top of the cookie. Meanwhile, the eyes were set apart within the inner curve of the dog ears. Meanwhile, the dog’s snout and nose have been deliberately positioned at the bottom of the cookie. These are visual perceptual features positioned for specific attention.

In a similar manner, the small grapes and blueberry on the Oreo cookie flower require attention to finger grip patterns of both hands for success with this task. The child who is assembling of the spiders’ legs is incorporating spatial language in order to arrange the grapes appropriately. And, by the way, they are having fun while learning these skills!

08/30/2022

The ability to sustain attention is an essential element of success in school at all ages. Key ingredients for sustained attention include:

Nutritional support: many children eat foods that are not healthy for attention and avoid foods that boost attention

Exercise: not just moving around, but workouts that involve antigravity and
resistance to build a strong core

Sensory tools as needed: ideally, the specialized sensory tools should be
recommended by the occupational therapist since each child is different.

For further information about attention with SPD children, take a look at these blog posts:
https://doverehab.com/2020/06/resistive-exercise-heavy-work-and-attention/
https://doverehab.com/2017/09/attentive-behaviors-part-1/

08/18/2022

Key components of fine motor skills incorporate the ability to integrate three very basic components:

1. Attention is a basic component of fine motor skills. The ability to keep sustaining attention to the steps oft he activity is essential.
2. Another basic component of fine motor skills is the ability to sustain control of the eyes as they work together in guiding fingers and hands for ongoing positioning of the target.
3. Finally, the ability to continue in planning and carrying out the needed motor sequences of movement is also a key component that is essential to success with fine motor skills.

For more details refer to:

https://doverehab.com/category/fine-motor-skills/

06/18/2022

This fun fidget is easy for the child with SPD to make and enjoy. You’ll need two round balloons. It’s easier to use two balloons that have different colors. Plan to use one balloon with a dark color and a second balloon with a lighter color.

Have your child cut out a few medium sized circles in the balloon with the darker color. Then use the eraser end of a pencil to push and slide the lighter colored balloon into the balloon that already has the holes.

Pull open the mouth of the lighter colored balloon that is inside the brightly colored balloon and slowly pour water into it. Fill the lightly colored balloon until it is somewhat full and tie it tightly.

Next pull the mouth of the balloon that has the holes up and over the water filled balloon. Also tie it tightly. Squeeze the toy gently.

05/15/2022

A playground can offer a world of opportunities for remedial fun for a child who has Sensory Processing Disorders, rather than have the child simply run around to let off steam.

Two key Ingredients needed to transform a playground into remedial fun are:
-->Adding weight to body parts that helps to increase appreciation of where, when, and timing of moves of the body segments
-->Adding visual targets to the “games” by using bean bags (or non-bounceable toys) and buckets for targets placed strategically in relation to the playground equipment

Ankle weights, wrist weights, weighted belts, and weighted vests can be excellent tools for adding awareness of body parts. Take advantage of playground equipment that offers opportunities for whole body moves. Climbing equipment, slides, and swings are best for these types of activities. (Therapists have reported that the total weight added should be close to 10% of the child’s total body weight).

Many children who have SPD have poor awareness of where their body segments are in space from moment to moment as they move. Awareness of joint positions and moves of body segments as they contact playground equipment can become helpful play with simple prompts such as “let your right foot touch the slide as you glide down”, or “toss that beanbag into the bucket as you slide down”. Playground equipment that offers specific places to put body segments (such as overhead rings, climbing dome, etc.) are a great help for these types of “games”.

04/25/2022

Food crafts are a fun way to capture the attention of the child with Sensory Processing Disorders to coordinate moves of the eyes and hands together. Use of complementary food colors, textures, tastes and treats arouses the intent to play rather than avoid craft activities .

Selecting foods with different shapes requires positioning of the hands and fingers in a variety of poses in order to gather the food parts together. In addition, positioning parts of the food so that they relate to each other typically requires use of both hands working together with intention. The ability to integrate touch, movement, and vision tends to emerge when children play to create food craft projects that look like fun.

03/30/2022

When visual perceptual difficulties co-mingle with Sensory Processing Disorders, the visual issues are often found to be paired with the subtype of sensory disorder the child has. For example, the child who has SPD with coordination difficulties, often has difficulties coordinating muscles of the eyes. These are often shown to teachers and parents as difficulties with activities that require visual tracking. Handwriting or catching a ball are examples of activities that require the ability to move the eyes along with a moving target. In a similar manner, the child with the type of SPD that involves difficulty discriminating specific types of sensory input such as touch, may also have difficulty with visual discrimination skills. Another common finding among children with SPD who have difficulties with balance is that they frequently have difficulty with visual spatial skills as well. These children often have great difficulty knowing and/or expressing where objects are in space. Symptoms of poor visual spatial skills, such as writing letters backward, ongoing difficulty with tying shoelaces, or completing jigsaw puzzles are commonly seen among children who have poor balance. Difficulties with visual associative skills, (the ability to associate names or functions of objects) often accompanies visual associative deficits when children have SPD. Common symptoms of this disorder includes a tendency for the child to use “this” or “thing” to describe items, rather than use the name of the object being referred to. For further information, please click on references below: https://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/visual-processing-disorder.html
or https://padulainstitute.com/vision-problems-in-children/

03/05/2022

When children have difficulties with their fine motor skills, it is helpful to keep in mind three key points.

-->The arms, hands, and fingers develop skills as they are used in tandem with the rest of the body. They do not develop fine motor skills all by themselves. The arms, hands, and fingers develop optimally when their skills emerge from steady, wholistic moves of the upper body, neck, and head. When activities that strengthen the upper body as a whole are used in conjunction with the arms, hands and fingers, these body parts learn to work together as a team. When children experience difficulties in developing fine motor skills, it is a good idea to begin with work that focuses on the upper body as a whole. This means, sitting up straight, rather than slouching, and using activities to strengthen the upper back and neck.
-->Toys that offer resistance to the hands are helpful in developing strength for fine motor skills because they require pushing and/or pulling moves with the hands. These types of toys also require use of both hands moving together in order to play with them. Use of toys that require strength for play teach children how to use their hands in give-and-take motor patterns. This means that while one handholds a part of the toy still, the other hand will be turning a part of the toy to push, pull, or rotate it into place.
-->The eyes are key players for the upper body team. Incorporating activities that have images or instructions to follow along with the activity, stimulates the upper body team to slow down and to pay closer attention. Using small toys that have differences among the pieces can be helpful in activating small movements of the fingers in response to what is seen.

For more information about developing fine motor skills, click on the link below:https://www.doverehab.com/2020/06/fine-motor-skills-are-essential/

02/02/2022

Dopamine is a chemical that is released by nerve cells in the brain that serves to strengthen signals sent to other nerve cells. Dopamine plays a key role for children with Sensory Processing Disorders by firming up attention, coordination and thinking skills.
Types of resistive play that produces Dopamine includes:

Indoor gross motor activities
-->Climbing stairs• Physioball exercises• Exercise routines such as jumping jacks, squat thrusts• Singing and marching along with action song (If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands, stamp your feet, etc.)• Balancing toys, sit and spin, spin disk• Rope pull scooter along a carpet

Resistive toys:
-->Big Bolt• Brio• Big Building Blocks• Zoobs• Clip and Create Builders

Building toys that use tools:
-->Educational construction toys with drill, hammer, pliers such as: Brickyard• Following Directions Building Set

For more ideas about using activities to address attention, motor skills, and organization skills click on the website below: https://www.yourtherapysource.com/blog1/2020/03/23/gross-motor-skills-and-activities/

01/12/2022

Recent studies have demonstrated that children who have a variety of developmental issues, including deficits with attention, coordination, social disabilities, and sensory processing disorders may find help through nutritional support.

Promising research has demonstrated that the B vitamins may also be helpful in addressing low muscle tone. Foods that are rich in B vitamins include whole grains, red meat, and eggs. The B vitamins are known for converting food into energy, thereby helping to maintain healthy brain cells and their metabolism.

L-carnitine helps provide energy to the body and is helpful for children that have low muscle tone (weak muscle strength). L-carnitine is a nutrient that is found mostly in red meat and dairy products.

Foods that provide Magnesium (mainly green leafy vegetables and red meat) have been found to be of value for these children. Magnesium is known to assist the nervous system in combining proteins for muscle and nerve interactions (for example, by regulating muscle actions and aiding brain development).

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