Travel Tip 1: Allow extra time for transitions and spell out for your child what those transitions will be like.

Kids with sensory issues struggle to handle transitions. They just get used to one sensory environment or set of expectations and then suddenly, they have to adjust to a new environment and new expectations. They have to go from the warm house to the cold outdoors to a warm car, or from wearing everyday clothes they’ve become comfortable in to putting on a coat and maybe mittens and a hat. Giving them verbal warnings or visual warnings can help ease the transition. Patiently talk your child through the sequence of activities involved in the transition, or provide a picture to do list with photos or line drawings of what the transition involved: “First, we’ll go to the car and take a ride to the bus station. There, we will park the car and wait for the bus, in chairs and then in a line…”

Travel Tip 2: Be prepared with sensory diet activities and accommodations that you know help your child.

If your child is calmed by a snow globe that she can shake up, then hold as she watches the “snow” flakes fall through the water and settle onto the bottom of the snow globe, be sure to carry one with you. If breathing techniques you have taught him help him manage his anxiety, practice them with him before you travel and remind him that he can always use these if he feels that he is getting anxious. Provide oral comforts such as chewing gum or a nontoxic chewing item like a pendant on a string (if that’s appropriate for your child). Think ahead about where you might get away from the noise and visual stimulation for a few minutes to support your child in self-regulating. Is there an airport lounge you can go to? A quiet space outdoors?

Travel Tip 3: Get in some heavy work.

Heavy work, which is so helpful for self-regulation in a child with sensory processing issues, can be hard to squeeze in when you’re traveling because so much sitting is involved when you’re on a plane (“Keep your seatbelts fastened!”), in a car or on a bus, or in a public waiting area. You might have your child take a break to climb up and down some stairs, hold on to the sides of his seat and lift himself up and down (chair pushups), or walk over to a wall and do pushups against a wall. Pulling or carrying luggage that is a reasonable weight for him to manipulate is a great way to get heavy work, too.

Travel Tip 4: Know that the unexpected will happen and be gentle with yourself and your child.

It’s easy to stress out about getting judgmental looks or worse, comments from strangers if your child gets hyperactive, fusses, or acts anxious when you are in public spaces traveling. Traveling is stressful for everyone, and you can’t control the responses of strangers to your child’s behavior. Focus on calming yourself and your child so that you’re both more comfortable. Don’t worry about what others say or do. Be open to the possibility that some other parent who has been there will take the time to educate that person about the struggles of traveling with children who need a little extra help and attention. You’d be surprised how many parents have been there and will step up to help you out! You just focus on what you need to do to support your child.

Want more practical tips and strategies for raising a sensory smart child? Pick up a copy of Raising a Sensory Smart Child: The Definitive Handbook for Helping Your Child with Sensory Processing Issues today.

You can browse and click through to purchase toys and equipment to help kids with sensory issues at the Sensory Smart Shop.

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Apraxia is a condition that is common among children with sensory processing disorder.

Praxis is the planning and executing of a series of movements, so apraxia is a problem with motor planning. Apraxia or dyspraxia of speech means there’s a glitch in turning thoughts into spoken words: Kids with apraxia can’t coordinate the movements of their lips, tongue, and facial muscles, and their breathing, to get out what they’re trying to say. This is also called oral dyspraxia. Global dyspraxia is poor motor planning of other movement sequences, such as tying your shoe, putting on your socks, and so on.

Kids with poor body awareness due to sensory issues often have motor planning problems as well. If you can’t feel the food in your mouth, you stuff too much in. Then how do you coordinate swallowing it? Better to avoid that mushy food that confuses you…

See how it works?

Motor planning is a form of organization. Many kids with SPD have organizational issues, not just organizing body movements with motor planning but also organizing thoughts and ideas, language, time, and possessions. This is true whether or not they just have sensory issues or they also have autism or ADHD! They’re the kids that tidy their room by placing the candy wrapper neatly on the bookshelf and the books under the bed where they fit nicely. They’re the kids who can’t quite grasp time and are always running late because they can’t judge how long a process takes. They may seem clumsy because they’re not coordinating their movements well. The sensory signals in the brain are unreliable and don’t integrate well.

Occupational therapy that uses sensory integration therapy techniques is a common way of addressing apraxia. An OT might have a child with sensory issues and apraxia walk through an obstacle course or hop over a toy three times in a row, using her body to cue the child to keep his feet together as he hops. When a child has apraxia of speech, a cueing therapy such as PROMPT is often used to treat it. Essentially, the speech language pathologist (SLP) treating the child with apraxia will use her hands and fingers to cue that child’s face, lips, mouth, etc., to create a particular sound. You can learn more in the following video: What Is PROMPT Therapy?

Does your child have motor planning issues that affect their speech or everyday activities? Apraxia-kids.org is a great resource.

Want to learn more about how to help your child who has sensory issues and apraxia? Get a copy of the award-winning book Raising a Sensory Smart Child! It’s chock full of practical tips as well as information that can help you understand and advocate for your sensory child.

#apraxia #speechtherapy #occupationaltherapy #organizationalissues #clumsiness #developmentaldyspraxia #dyspraxia #sensoryissuesapraxia #speechdelaysensory

Lindsey Biel’s Upcoming Speaking Schedule

Lindsey Biel, MA, OTR/L will soon be presenting on

• Using Your Sensory Smarts™ in Daily Life. The Polaris Connection webcast – April 7.

• Sensory Smart™ Strategies for Real Life Challenges (Day One) - Szmalec Sensory Integration Center/Warmińsko-Mazurskie Training Center - Torùn, Poland -June 13.

• Sensory Smart™ Strategies for Building Visual Skills (Day Two) - Torùn, Poland -June 14.

Contact lindsey@sensorysmarts.com for more information

You can browse and click through to purchase toys and equipment to help kids with sensory issues at the Sensory Smart Shop.

My name is Nancy Peske, the Sensory Smart Parent. With Lindsey Biel, MA, OTR/L, I co-authored the award-winning book Raising a Sensory Smart Child: The Definitive Handbook for Helping Your Child with Sensory Processing Issues. I hope you enjoy the information and encouragement I share, and thanks for reading the Sensory Smart Parent Newsletter. Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Hi! My name is Nancy Peske, the Sensory Smart Parent. With Lindsey Biel, MA, OTR/L, I co-authored the award-winning book Raising a Sensory Smart Child: The Definitive Handbook for Helping Your Child with Sensory Processing Issues. I am pleased to be restarting this informative newsletter after a long pause. If you’d like to unsubscribe, there’s a link at the bottom of the newsletter. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the information and encouragement I share and that you find this newsletter helpful.

Oral Sensory Seeking Tips for Kids with Autism and/or Sensory Processing Issues

Is your child with sensory issues chewing, licking, and biting inappropriately? These behaviors are common among kids with SPD and/or autism. Maybe you’ve wondered why that is.

The mouth has many sensory receptors: for taste, texture, temperature, wetness and dryness, movement (in the jaw and in the tongue, for instance), and so on. The information from these receptors is sent to the brain, which organizes and processes the information. When sensory processing is dysfunctional, children typically seek or avoid certain sensations around the lips, tongue, and mouth. A child with sensory issues may enjoy sour and chewy Starburst candies or spicy Buffalo wings because he finds these foods stimulating. However, oral sensory seeking that involves the unsanitary and even dangerous habits of licking and biting are socially unacceptable and must be addressed. We absolutely must intervene when oral sensory seeking involves licking and biting other children or biting themselves.

A pediatric occupational therapist (OT) or speech/language pathologist (SLP) with the proper training in oral/motor issues can help kids who have oral/motor sensory issues. However, there is much parents and teachers can do to reduce unacceptable oral sensory seeking and redirect it to more socially acceptable sensory input in the mouth.

Offer foods and candy that offer strong sensory input. Chewy and sour or minty snacks and candies as well as foods may meet your oral sensory seeker’s sensory needs. These foods give strong input to proprioception receptors in the mouth and can be helpful in preventing licking and biting. If the child’s system can handle the sugar and artificial colors or flavors, you can offer gum, licorice, gummy bears, Starburst, Tootsie Rolls, or similar candies. Other chewy foods include dried fruit or sugarless gum. Sour foods that can satisfy oral needs include candies such as SweetTarts, but also lemons, limes, and dill pickles. Never, ever force these items on a child. Do not punish a child using strong sensory input in the mouth, or by taking away oral comforts! These items should be used therapeutically and for comfort. If your child has an IEP or 504 plan, spell out the rules for their use.

Offer liquids to be drunk through a straw. A thick smoothie drunk through a small straw, or juice or milk (cow’s milk, soy milk, almond milk, etc.) in a box with a very thin straw, offers sensory input that can help the child or teen who is oral sensory seeking. The thicker the liquid and the thinner the straw, the more resistance it provides, helping satisfy the oral sensory seeker’s needs.

Keep nutrition and oral health in mind. Giving a juice box or sour gummy candy to a sensory child for oral input has to be considered in the context of overall nutrition and oral health. Constantly bathing the teeth in sugar from candy, juice, or milk will lead to dental caries (cavities) and then you have to deal with unpleasant dental procedures. You also want to avoid giving your child too much sugar and processed foods. There are healthier alternatives, and many health food stores now feature sour healthy hard candies and lollipops that offer a dose of vitamin C, or almond milk in a “juice box” package. Talk to your dentist and nutritionist about your use of oral comforts. Talk to your child’s speech language pathologist (SLP) and occupational therapist (OT) if she has these professionals on the team. The idea is to give your child the sensory input she needs while protecting her health and teeth.

Offer chewable jewelry and other items. Chewable items are a wonderful way to get around the problem of foods, snacks, and candies whose ingredients might not be ideal. There are many chewable necklaces and bracelets and pendants on necklaces available these days, as well as tubes that you place atop pencils or pens so the child can chew that instead of the writing implement. Talk to your child about what sorts of chewies will work for him. If he avoids the chewable pendant or pencil topper, it could be because it offers too much or too little resistance. Check the Sensory Smarts Shop for options, and no matter where you buy chewies, be sure they are nontoxic.

Address other issues that are affecting your child. Licking, chewing, and biting behaviors often get worse when the child is anxious or frustrated by other sensory challenges. Just as you might find it comforting to chew gum when you are nervous, you may not have a strong desire to do so when you’re feeling calm and focused. A good sensory diet can prevent oral sensory seeking behaviors by reducing the child’s sensory discomfort overall. Lessening emotional stress on the child can have a similar effect.

Check whether your child is hungry or has a nutritional deficiency. Sometimes, oral/motor sensory seeking is related to being hungry or having a nutritional deficiency. If the sensory seeking persists, consider getting a nutritional consultation to assess whether the child is getting all his nutritional needs met or if supplementation is required. Giving the child a warm bath with a handful of Epsom salts a few days in a row, which causes the body to absorb some magnesium, seems to reduce oral sensory seeking behaviors in some children and is low-cost, safe, and easy to try. Check with a nutritionist about supplementing with magnesium, zinc, or fish oil, which are very commonly used with sensory seeking children, and consult with your pediatrician as well. Nutritionist Kelly Dorfman’s book, Cure Your Child with Food, is a great resource for figuring out what if any nutritional problems kids with sensory processing disorder are having. (Pediatricians often know little about nutrition so you might want to bring in the sources you used when researching nutrition, or have your pediatrician speak to your nutritionist. Please see the disclaimer at the bottom of this newsletter.)

And as always, use positive language and redirection whenever you can to honor your child’s sensory differences. Their sensory needs are real, and we can do much to meet those needs in a sensory smart way.

Additional Resource

Please note that Lindsey Biel, MA, OTR/L and I wrote an entire chapter on oral sensory seeking in the book Raising a Sensory Smart Child: The Definitive Handbook for Helping Your Child with Sensory Processing Issues. Raising a Sensory Smart Child is available as an audiobook, paperback, and eBook. It is also available in several languages, including Spanish, Turkish, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Croatian and Chinese.

Lindsey Biel’s Upcoming Speaking Schedule

Lindsey Biel, MA, OTR/L will soon be presenting on:

• “Managing Sound Sensitivity with Sensory Smarts™” at the YAI Westchester Conference at Manhattanville College, in Purchase NY, March 30. For more information, contact lindsey@sensorysmarts.com

• Sensory Smart™ Strategies for Real Life Challenges (Day One) - Szmalec Sensory Integration Center/Warmińsko-Mazurskie Training Center - Torùn, Poland -June 13. For more information, contact lindsey@sensorysmarts.com

• Sensory Smart™ Strategies for Building Visual Skills (Day Two) - Torùn, Poland -June 14, For more information, contact lindsey@sensorysmarts.com

You can browse and click through to purchase toys and equipment to help kids with sensory issues at the Sensory Smart Shop.