A Habit is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. As we all know right habits increase the overall quality of life.
"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going."
- Jim Rohn
On the other hand, early interventions or the sensory diet designed by the Occupational Therapist help in:
Restructuring a child’s nervous system gradually which enables child to make sense out of surrounding environment and tolerate the environmental stimuli or situation which he finds challenging or distracting.
In limiting sensory seeking and sensory avoiding behaviors and handle transitions with less stress.
So, when you incorporate some of the OT activities as habit in child’s routine it will benefit more with the time as child will have to take less efforts to perform these tasks
1. Taking child for free play in morning sunlight in open spaces.
Benefits of natural sunlight are well known and accepted fact from the earlier generations. Along with the numerous benefits it plays vital role in regulating melatonin cycle of body. Generally, melatonin levels raise in response to the darkness which helps our body to sleep and drop in response to the light which helps our bodies to wake up. Researchers have found that children with autism have disturbed melatonin cycles, as a result of which this kind of children have terrible time in sleeping or have restless sleep. So regularly exposing children to the sunlight (right after the sunrise) for at least half an hour helps in regulating sleep cycle by correcting melatonin levels. When child is well slept in night, he will be able to concentrate better and less hyperactive in schooling daytime.
2. Fix Time Table and places for activities.
We all are aware about the love for repetitive routine by autistic children. One of the major problems with children on autism is they fail to understand the social cue. So, when we fix their timetable and particular places for the activities, it becomes easier for them to recognize the places as cue for their respective activities. For example, a dining table for mealtime. If a child has habit of running around during meal time or you have to make him sit on your lap to feed him, then whenever you will be serving plates on dining table it will become a cue for child and he will understand that it’s time to sit on dining chair and have his meal. Same goes with bed, study table, washroom etc.
3. Animal Walk before going to school.
Animal walk help in developing body awareness, coordination, motor planning, and building strength in the trunk and upper body. Apart from gross motor and balance skills it also helps fine motor skills, emotional self-regulation, sensory processing, functional visual skills, oral motor and motor speech skills. Almost all the skills needed to function well in school! Animal walk right before going to school will help child to feel his body more aligned with space, that way less hyperactive in school. I have found a wonderful resource from Chicago ot therapy which is absolutely free to download. It explains with pictures about variety of animal walks.
Kindly follow the link : https://chicagooccupationaltherapy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/OT_Exercises_AnimalWalks.pdf
4. Mirror exercise.
Autism is typically marked by difficulty interacting with others or the environment. Mirror exercises encourage the child to mimic what another person is doing, which can increase coordination, body awareness, eye contact, and social skills.
5. Make note of every odd behavior.
Noting down every odd behavior will help you to track sensory overloads and triggers behind it. This way you will have clear ideas about your child’s odd behaviors and reasons behind it so that you will be prepared to handle those sensory overloads.
6. Deep pressure with blanket and soft music before a sleep.
Have you ever noticed the calm and peaceful feeling when you woke up under the heavy blanket in winters?? Well if you did it was nothing but the effect of Deep pressure stimulation to your nervous system.
Deep Pressure Stimulation is firm but gentle squeezing, hugs, or holding that relaxes the nervous system.
These are some benefits:
General sense of calm that can last up to a few hours after therapy
Decreased overall anxiety when practiced regularly
Increased happiness
Improved social interactions
Increased communicative approach
Better sleep
Improved focus
Lowered hypersensitivity to touch
Improved ability to tolerate the school environment
Decrease in self injury
A soft music acts like a catalyst in regulating sleep cycle when added with deep pressure stimulation. A sound of a flowing water combined with piano or wind chimes provide relaxing stimuli to brain and calms the child and help him fall asleep quickly.
Most important thing to remember here is every habit take time form and show its results. Slow but consistent efforts is the key here for achieving visible results. These habits are not replacement of your regular therapy sessions but can act as beneficial supplements to smoothen your journey of autism.
Do we need to follow all… no you have to keep experimenting and find out what works for you!
Comments