Thursday, November 10, 2011

Sensory Difficulties

Amber is really out of sync the past couple of days. This morning, going into school, she fell and cut her hand. She is fine but we need to work on her "sensory diet", (meaning a regular schedule of sensory activities throughout the day). Amber has SID, Sensory Integration Disorder. For those of you who don't know her story, here is the short version. Amber was placed in my home as an emergency placement foster baby. She was 13 months old, very under weight, no teeth, she couldn't even sit up herself and she was sick. She was exposed to meth before birth but the worst of it for her was her meth exposure  as a baby. Amber made no vocalizations at all for almost 2 months. No crying, no sound whatsoever and the Dr. felt she was either brain damaged or severely autistic. We taught her to sign and she learned very quickly and before we knew it she walking and talking. I carried her in a "pouch", did physical therapy and occupational therapy everyday, (she had therapists that came to our home and she went to Children's hospital twice a week) and play therapy once a week for over a year. She has no outward, obvious signs of the first year of her life now that she is 8 years old. Meth damages the nervous system so Amber's senses are all out of sync in her brain. Sometimes this is more evident than others and right now she is rather a mess! I know some of you have kiddos with SID and other Autism Spectrum disorders. Any suggestions on sensory input activities would be wonderful!

We found a place to send our abundance of Halloween candy! It is going to some Marines in Afghanistan. The kids worked on some pictures and letters to send along with it last night and no one is complaining about it so that's a plus!

My cookbook is coming along nicely. My menu planning is making life so much easier and the kids like being able to see what's coming up for dinner. I like not doing the "what am I going to cook for dinner" brain exercises every night! I have been making more things from total scratch and continuing to cut back on preservative/additives and sugar and add in more fresh fruits/veggies and grains.

Now I am off to Walter Anderson's Nursery in Poway to get some soil for Tyler's class planting cart. I asked the Scripps-Mesa Garden if they would take it on as a project. They declined to help other than to tell me that a good thing to plant in there would be California Poppies. That's ok though because you know I will love getting my hands in the dirt!

2 comments:

  1. That's really sweet to send your candy to the soldiers. I'm sure that will be a nice treat!

    Hope you enjoy the bread!

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  2. I am Betty Lyns friend. I have 5 boys all with Sensory Disorder. 4 one way and 1 the other. I will tell you more about our sensory room and other stuff later. I am very tired right now and have some brain damage which affects my memory recall especially when tired. They also have other disabilities and all homeschooled always.

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