Her son was diagnosed with ADHD/NOS at age five. She was determined not to use medication for personal reasons and tried hard to tame those life-disrupting ADHD behaviors, such as lack of focus, impulse, anger, irrational blowouts, lack of school interest, and social difficulties. She offered him opportunities to develop his body physically and mentally with enrichment classes, sports, nature explorations, herbal concoctions, vitamins, probiotics, therapy, nutrient-dense foods, plenty of sleep, together time, social connections, and alternative therapies. However, all this effort was like playing a game of whack-a-mole—something would work for a while until it didn’t. In the span of two years, her son was also observed for Oppositional Defiance Disorder and Aspergers, which were eventually dropped. She spent a great deal of time trying to crack the code of her son’s ADHD, trying to find that one thing that would keep ADHD from disrupting his life too much so he could grow up and blossom into his full potential. The offer for medication was always on the table, offered by the behavioral therapist as the possible “missing piece”. However, mom wasn’t done figuring it out. She didn’t accept that ADHD was just about brain chemistry. There was more to it, she just didn’t know what it was, but she was sure there was more to it.
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Kids with SPD usually struggle with eating because it’s such a multi-sensory experience. A child with sensory processing issues has difficulties with food textures, flavors, and smells because they can be overwhelming. I think it’s ok to offer veggies processed in different ways other than just cooking in order to keep things varied.
As you know, origami is a beautiful Japanese paper art tradition. It’s also a multi-sensory activity, involving hand-eye coordination, bilateral coordination (using both hands is so important!), patience, sequentiality, focus, detailed instructions, and the magic of turning a two-dimensional object into a three-dimensional one.
So, my ADHD/SPD kid has taken on origami this past month, inspired by an Around the World unit at school. Like many ADHD children, he has laser-sharp focus when he’s interested in something, but the addition of Sensory Processing Disorder, along with delays in fine motor skills and visual perception to the mix, caused him to literally fight with his body to accomplish an origami project. There were tears. There were screams. There was howling. |
Nice to e-meet you!I'm a single mom, graphic designer, crunchy mama, trekkie geek, life warrior. It's embarrassing how excited I get about food. I'm an expert in barefoot Lego fire walk. Note: If you arrived here via a broken link, please note I had to rebuild this site due to my previous hosting company crashing. Not all blog posts were salvaged.
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