Category: Special Needs

How a Simple Teal Pumpkin on Your Porch Can Make a Difference for a Child on Halloween

Halloween celebrations always include dressing up in a costume and candy! I have so many little friends who excitedly anticipate Halloween night and trick-or-treating, including my little friends who have severe food allergies, are on special diets for medical reasons or are unable to eat food by mouth and are supported by tube feedings. The parents of these children work tirelessly to provide and support typical childhood experiences as much as possible. As children get older, they learn about childhood cultural traditions that siblings, cousins and friends do and they want to join in the excitement also.

A fun-filled Halloween night of trick-or-treating can turn into pure disappointment when candy buckets are dumped and sorted upon returning home… Only to realize that from the large loot gathered, you can only safely eat or keep a few of the treats or none at all! Everything else must be thrown away or worse, given to your siblings to eat!

You can help with some very simple things to make some of these children have an enjoyable Halloween and minimize the disappointment. Join the Teal Pumpkin Project!

Set a teal pumpkin on your porch! A teal pumpkin is a sign to families of children with food allergies and feeding difficulties that your house will be handing out non-food treats… stickers, pencils, small toys, glow sticks, temporary tattoos, etc. Many of you are already doing this, but let those families know with your teal pumpkin so they can add another house to their route of safe houses they plan to visit with their children.

My friend, Ryder, loves to dress up in theme with his parents every Halloween. Last year, he dressed up as Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon. His mom and dad dressed up as Vikings. He loves walking the neighborhood and joining in the Halloween fun. Ryder has an extensive list of food allergies and sensitivities that prohibit him from eating all but a very short list of foods. So, it comes to the point that he cannot safely eat ANY Halloween candy.

His mom, Kim, loves the Teal Pumpkin Project and puts a teal pumpkin on their porch every year. She makes sure she has non-food treats to hand out to trick-or-treaters. When they went trick-or-treating last year in Morgan, Utah, they didn’t see any teal pumpkins in the neighborhoods they were in. Kim wishes more people handed out non-food treats. Ryder loves stickers, little toys and bubbles. Fortunately, Ryder has a sweet grandma that prepares a special non-food treat package for him every Halloween.

Confession: Several years ago I decided to plan ahead for Halloween and buy bulk bags of candy (mostly chocolate since that’s my favorite), but I ate almost all of the candy before Halloween came! Now I buy my non-food treats early and and candy last-minute to avoid my chocolate addictive behaviors! Win-win for any candy addicts like me!

My daughter loves painting a teal pumpkin and insists on adding her own artistic flair. She is excited to paint another this year to set out on the porch to signal anyone who prefers non-food treats. My sons make sure we still hand out candy for anyone else (or eat it themselves before any trick-or-treaters arrive).

A few tips to keep in mind:

Set your teal pumpkin out before Halloween night so families can plan to make it to your house.
Keep food and non-food items in separate containers to avoid allergens touching the non-food items.
Avoid non-food items with latex or wheat. Some clays contain wheat.
If you don’t have time to paint a teal pumpkin, click on this link to download and print out a free sign at foodallergy.org.
You can also add your house address to the Crowd Sourced Fever Map on food allergy.org to let others in your area know you will be participating in the Teal Pumpkin Project.

For more information on the Teal Pumpkin Project, visit foodallergy.org.

Teal and orange compliment each other well, so use both colors for front-porch pumpkin decorating! You can make such a difference for a child who struggles with feeding difficulties with this simple change in your Halloween decorations and treats handed out on Halloween night!

Sensory Processing 101 Book Review

The odds are that you know someone with Sensory Processing Disorder, also known as Sensory Integration Dysfunction. You may not yet understand, but some of their strange, annoying and aggravating behaviors may have a basis in Sensory Processing Disorder or SPD. I´ve been treating children with Sensory Processing Disorder for 15 years and I recognize that when parents have finally sought out a diagnosis or answers to questions about their child, it’s been after years of confusion and frustration. When they are at this point, they are exhausted and need some desperate help.

The reason I love Sensory Processing 101 is because it is full of quick and helpful explanations, ideas and resources to get you started, even before you finish the book. The appealing and playful visual layout of the book makes it easy to skim through, find what you need most, then come back and read more thoroughly later. There are many great books about Sensory Processing Disorder or Sensory Integration Dysfunction that are thorough with detailed explanation of the neurology and theories of sensory integration. I highly recommend many of these books to parents and other professionals. But many parents don´t usually have the time or energy to read through detailed neurology before they understand how to help their children. Sensory Processing 101 is a great resource for overwhelmed parents who need some ideas quickly.

The authors of the book are 2 occupational therapists, a physical therapist and an early childhood educator who has a child with Sensory Processing Disorder whom she home schools. Almost every chapter is focused on a different sensory system with a therapist perspective, a parent perspective and teacher perspective.

I highly recommend this book for teachers wanting to understand students with sensory processing difficulties in their classroom. The research incidence indicates every teacher has a student with these challenges in their classroom. I understand that teachers are busy and are in need of constant learning to be better teachers, so their time is limited. Sensory Processing 101 is such an easy resource for teachers to use to understand some of their students, as well as gain helpful ideas to start trying immediately.

The book has great suggestions of sensory activities that are easy to implement with all children in a family or in a classroom setting. They have even created supply lists to easily start these activities in your own home or school. All children will enjoy and be excited about participating. No fancy or expensive equipment is needed for these activities!

The end of the book is full of accessible resources for Sensory Processing Disorder, including books, websites and online support groups. It also includes screening checklists for SPD if you are concerned about a certain child.

You can order Sensory Processing 101 in paperback from Amazon. Or at sensoryprocessing101.com, you can buy it in print or digital formats.

Start with Sensory Processing 101 for a quick jump start to understanding, screening and helping children with sensory processing difficulties! If you ever need help in your home with sensory processing concerns, I’d love to help you in Weber, Davis, Morgan counties in Utah!

*I am part of the Amazon Associates Program. If you choose to buy this book from Amazon, I’d love for you to purchase it through the link on my website to help support the work I do with Yums Theraplay! Thank you!

My Life is a Gift. My Life has a Plan.

I have a vivid picture in my mind of the biggest toothy smile I’ve ever seen on the face of 10-year-old girl with thick black hair. The thought of her grin brings tears to my eyes every time I hear her favorite song that she’d sing every time I’d see her for her occupational therapy visits with me. I’ll call her Sara for this article.

Sara and her siblings had been removed from their home with accusations of sexual abuse and other child abuse from her parents. She had been referred to me to address her sensory processing difficulties and helping her to learn to calm herself appropriately. She had been placed in a wonderful, nurturing home with a foster mom who happened to have a background with disabilities and was determined to help Sara and her siblings find the help they needed.

Sara loved intense swinging on a flat platform swing. She swung as high and as hard as she could, occasionally hitting the wall of the therapy room that no other child had hit with the swing before from swinging so high. Sara had one volume of voice that I’d describe “as loud as you can”. Her foster mom and I had finally problem solved that she could quiet her volume while chewing on Slim Jim beef sticks and swinging.

Sara had been going to church with her foster family and attended the children’s class. She had memorized one of the songs she’d learned and would sing it for me while she swung as high as she could on the swing in her loudest voice.

As I watched her, I often thought of the awful, terrifying experiences of abuse she’d experienced in her short life. Then I’d watch her up in the air singing at the top of her lungs, “My life is a gift. My life has a plan. My life has a purpose in heaven it began…”

In those moments, I felt at peace that this young girl was being nurtured and loved out of her past horrors. She had already begun to show the effects of that nurturing, developmentally and emotionally. But those words sung with such fierceness, were the perfect soundtrack to accompany her on her new path. Her life WAS a gift. Her life COULD have a plan. Her life DID have a divine purpose that was not lost through the crimes committed against her.

I’ve been fortunate to be the pianist in the children’s class at my own church for the past 2 years, where the children sing this exact song. Tears run down my face every time I listen to them sing this song and memories of Sara rush back to me, swinging up high, singing as loud as she can, “My life is a gift. My life has a plan. My life has a purpose in heaven it began…”

How important are these words for a young girl whose purpose for almost 10 years seemed to be nothing but an object to be acted upon to satisfy the desires of self-serving adults who could not see or understand a child’s worth? And how blessed was Sara that within a few months of love, nurture and the right treatment could start to feel the healing effects and the new path of hope she was on? I hope and pray that Sara engraves those words into her mind and heart as she travels through life with love and nurturing and she begins to truly understand her true value and worth.

CAPES! (Children’s Adaptive Physical Education Society) at Weber State University

If I’d happened to have a bad day, I still wouldn’t have been able to stop smiling the night I attended the CAPES! Luau Celebration this spring at Weber State University. Children, families and Weber State student volunteers were spending their last night together before the summer break. Families and friends cheered on children, some wearing purple capes, resembling young superheroes, as they knocked down bowling pins, attempted the limbo, threw beanbags at targets and colored pictures.

I talked with families and volunteers about the program and only heard fabulous things about the CAPES! program for children ages 5-12 with developmental disabilities. As a pediatric occupational therapist in Ogden, Utah I’ve seen so many families of children with developmental disabilities struggle to find activities in the community for their children to fit into. But the night of the CAPES! celebration, these little superheroes, with their friends by their side, were fearless with nothing standing in their way of care-free childhood play.

One mom told me that her daughter often stays home while her siblings play with friends or participate in extracurricular activities. But CAPES! is all about her, and she and her parents love the fun, safe place that this program has created without any fear of feeling left out at anytime.

CAPES! is supported by Weber State University students who are enrolled in or have taken either Adaptive Physical Education or Introduction to Special Education classes with the facilitators of the program, Dr. James Zagrodnik and Dr. Natalie Williams. Each child is assigned to a student volunteer throughout the semester. They’ve created a program that builds important experiences and skills for children with developmental disabilities and students who are studying to work with this population in the future.

Drs. Williams and Zagrodnik shared students’ written experiences with me and the stories seemed to follow a similar trend. At the beginning of the semester, students were nervous, unsure of their abilities and chance of enjoying the experience, many having had very little experience with children with disabilities. Quickly, after the first or second time, students were attached to their new, younger friends and celebrating small successes with them. By the end, most students were sad their time was coming to an end, having learned valuable lessons and thoroughly enjoyed their time working with the children.

I watched the children find their student volunteers with excitement to try a new activity, which was followed by beaming faces as the student volunteers gave their full attention and enthusiastic praise. The relationships between the students and children become beneficial to both sides, with a sense of satisfaction and growth for each.

The program has spots for about 35 children each semester. If the program is a good fit, children can continue to participate for 5-6 semesters (spring and fall semesters) or until they age out of the program. They meet for an hour and 15 minutes on Tuesday nights for 10 weeks each semester, where half the time is spent in the pool and half the time doing land-based activities. Each student volunteer plans fun activities for their child to work on any skill they feel is beneficial for the child. The cost is only $25 per child for each semester to help cover costs for the use of the Weber State University facilities.

If you are interested in having your child with a developmental disability apply to CAPES!, you can do so at weber.edu/capes/registration. You may be placed on the CAPES! waiting list if the program is full, but I believe it’s worth the wait! Take advantage of this one-of-a-kind program in our Ogden, Utah area!

Great Santa Clara, Utah Park for Children with SPD

I love finding great parks that promote active play and sensory integration for all children! My plan is to continue to find and share great playgrounds from a pediatric occupational therapist’s perspective to help families in their communities. Great play spaces with a variety of sensory input are so important for children with sensory processing difficulties!

Our family visited Archie H. Gubler Park in Santa Clara, Utah (west of St. George) last winter for a soccer tournament and I saw this great playground! (This park actually was my inspiration to share great play spaces and playgrounds on this blog!) Gubler Park is located next to the Santa Clara fire department at 2735 Rachel Drive. (The link above has directions.) GPS directions were a little sketchy when we went winter 2015, probably because of the new housing developments in the area.

SWINGING!

2 traditional sling seat swing seats with room to swing high
1 infant full bucket swing seat
1 high back seat and firm harness, ideal for an older child that may need more trunk support (To whoever designed this playground: Thank you for thinking of children with different abilities!)

CLIMBING!

a vertical rope structure to climb across between 2 different play structures
climbing structures designed to look like the red mountains in the southern Utah area

SPINNING!

3 angled vertical structures that use your body weight to get you spinning
1 raised small platform with a rail encircling the top, angled to use your body weight to spin and was big enough for 2 small children to climb in together
1 large spinning “umbrella” where several children can sit on the poles or hang from their hands or upside down from their knees (Upside down spinning is the most intense vestibular input you can get!)
1-2 small single seats supported by a single pole that spin (these were quite difficult for children to spin themselves and I wasn’t too impressed with these)

OTHER SENSORY!

small hiding spaces in the play structure
2 small slides and 1 tall slide
splash pad across from the playground, open April-September
walking and biking trails around the entire park
open grass areas to run and play
softball fields
basketball courts
shaded areas over the playground and picnic tables
gorgeous southern Utah red rock scenery surrounding the area

Enjoy your sensory input! Our family loves exploring this area in Utah! Please share if you have more great playgrounds or play spaces!

If you are concerned with sensory processing for your child, I provide in-home OT services in Weber, Morgan, Davis counties in Utah.