Wiggle Me This Wiggle Me That!

When my oldest son started Speech I got a first hand look at how hard it was for him to sit and focus for other people. At home we are used to him being go go go and only being able to sit at a table for a short period of time. It wasn't until he was asked to sit in front of a speech therapist that so much of what I have read about Sensory Processing Disorder (and ADD, ADHD ect ect..) came flooding back to me. Not sitting still was taken to an extreme...tipping, leaning, bouncing, sometimes literally falling out of his chair. His speech teacher noticed right away he was going to need some help above and beyond speech (he is on a wait list for OT now after her consulting a colleague and him getting a full evaluation a few months ago) in the mean time she is playing a duel role as Speech/Occupational teacher and doing a great job. Because she needs to do some OT with him in order to maximize what he is getting out of speech.

She introduced us to a "Wiggle Seat" after a few visits. She said he could use it or not it was up to him. Some kids sit on it on the chair, some put it under their feet on the floor. She said they just seam to know what they need to do with it and how there body needs to use it. The basics behind it is that they can get the sensory movement or "wiggles" out of it but in a more manageable way. Don't get me wrong, he didn't sit on it and magically not move again. He still wiggles, but in a much more controlled way than say falling out of a chair or tipping the chair back. He stays on task a little longer and is just a little more focused and if we can get a few more minutes of focus and work from him each time he is at the table with his speech teacher its priceless.

We decided to invest in one at home recently thinking we would try it out for at the dinner table. Meals are very hard for Wyatt to sit longer than 5 minutes at any given time. Its helped a little haven't noticed as much of a difference like we did at speech but its a start. We are also going to get a wedge for his seats which before the disk was the first one he used at speech and so with both he can pick which one he wants and when and Nash can use the other one to (He hasn't shown any signs like Wyatt has for this kind of sensory need so its strictly him wanting to be like his brother haha) these are just a few of our newest tools we have to offer the boys for Sensory input. As the boys get older we are noticing changes in their needs. We have much fewer tantrums and meltdowns, I think the increased communications between all of us, especially with Nash have helped a lot. We take rest very seriously in our house. Nothing comes between them and a good nights sleep. We are also very aware of their sensory diet especially before and after school and while some weeks we go with almost nothing extra needed but being aware... to others when we are doing lots of heavy work load activities to get through our day and nights.
Once we get our wedge I will update with photos of the boys putting them to good use. In the future these may be used for Wyatt at school. We will have to see. There Sensory needs change as fast as they grow sometimes so as I mentioned before its just another tool we have to pull out when needed.