News From Closing The Gap 2010: MeMoves

MeMoves
website (www.thinkingmoves.com)
I am always on the lookout for supports for self-regulation that can be used any time, any place, are age-appropriate, and can become a lifelong support with almost no modifications. With so many vendors at the conference, it was difficult to know where to start. Enter colleague Kathryn Whitaker (author of the "Practical Autism Resources" website (http://www.practicalautismresources.com/)who insisted I "check it out", and what a nice find it was! This is a well-thought-out, affordable, versatile set of materials specifically designed to help individuals experience multisensory inputs that may help them calm, relax,and experience a sense of well-being.

On the left is a basic introductory video that give a look at the materials and a bit about the rationale. The website includes some other resources. Essentially, this is a DVD with gentle music and images of people of all ages making the slow and rhythmic, Tai-Chi-like movements with their arms in repeated patterns. There are several different series of patterns within "joy", "calm", or "focus" dimensions. Children can watch, follow along, or simply listen to the music. The package also includes a sound CD and a set of textured cards for finger tracing. Not bad for a $60 investment. There is also a $2.99 iPod/ iPad app which has the sound and the gentle iridescent stroke lines with a moving stimulus to draw the eye to follow. What a great way to check it out and have a portable support! I used the app on an iPod with a youngster who was very anxious and demanding, as a choice/ break activity. This little guy settled immediately, was intently focused on the moving patterns, and appropriately requested more of the activity. Some interesting preliminary research suggests that engaging in a few minutes of truly calming activity can have a long-lasting effect on a child's underlying nervous system. Perhaps it is too soon to know if we might be able to re-shape brain wave patterns, but reducing autonomic nervous system stress responses, and building deep breathing and a sense of peaceful well-being makes this an attractive tool to explore.

Rainbow and Highlighting Tape

A few years ago a colleague, Paula Rossvall, introduced me to highlighter tape. This moveable, transparent yellow tape is available in several sizes and quantities. It is perfect for helping young students learning to visually scan written text, for older students searching for key phrases to answer worksheet questions, to help a student focus on key words in a paragraph, and can help draw visual attention to different areas of a page, workspace, or other materials in the environment. Use it to help mark "top" for a child who has problems aligning items correctly, to mark a left-hand border for organization on the page or to start a paragraph indent. Google "highlighter tape" and see lots of blogs and suggestions for its use with students with learning disabilities, autism, and other issues.

Rainbow tape was a happy discovery from buildingblox.com. These colorful crepe tapes come in a variety of packets and can be used to highlight, outline, create borders and boundaries, turn plain cardboard into game or lotto boards. There is a nice page with suggestions for projects, including using the tape to make letters, outline pictures, and do a variety of arts and crafts projects.

A few resources to order these tapes are on the left-hand side of this blog--but google away to find other similar products and ideas.

Kumon Workbooks

Kumon workbooks offer a delightful, affordable way to systematically introduce the skills of color, cut, paste, and simple projects. These bright, attractive materials are cleverly sequenced to build success, reduce confusion, and help focus on target skills. The coloring book series start with simple scribbling that is meaningul: make spaghetti on the drawing of the bowl, draw some hair on the picture of the boy. Then coloring is introduced using small white shapes within the larger body of an animal, a food, different everyday objects. This allows the child to work on the skill of filling in areas of color completely, long before trying to control how far or how long the strokes are. Similarly for pasting, there are appealing and functional contexts--bright pictures of food to paste onto a picture of a plate, clothes, shoes, and hat to paste onto the picture of a person. For children whose motor skills are only emerging but have higher cognitive skills, the materials become nicely age appropriate and something all children want to do. Though you might be tempted to photocopy the pictures (legal or not!) the books are inexpensive and printed on good, stiff paper. Kumon materials are readily available on Amazon as well as from the manufacturer and other online and retail vendors, most books are $6 or $7 each. Don't mistake these for the cheap, flimsy, generic activity or coloring books--it's like comparing Godiva chocolate truffles to m&m's!

Why might OT's be interested in these materials? Both for their value in providing carefully graded skills, as well as for the "I did IT!" experience that many of our children often do not get due to their learning challenges. Here are some blog entries from parents that speak nicely to this: