A 3.5-year-old boy referred for Tomatis by a neuropsychologist, presented with:

• high activity level

• not attending

• very hyper-sensitive to sounds like vacuum cleaners, children crying, etc.

• behavioral issues

• excessive loud vocalizations

• not following directions

• limited word use with poor articulation

• not playing with other children

A continuation in our series, this blog contains postural control related activities for getting your child’s body to wake up and move. Children are spending considerable time in quiet, solitary activities. At this time, screen usage is through the roof and needs to be controlled for a variety of important reasons. The physical activities they thrive on to keep their bodies well and strong also need to be encouraged.

Playing with Purpose
Motor Planning is the ability to move your body in ways necessary to accomplish a task.

• Delays in accomplishing motor milestones.

• Issues performing new or novel tasks that should be within the child’s repertoire. Such as, circling arms forward but not able to circle backward. They can jump but can’t jump in a circle.

• Trouble stringing together a succession of movements or actions, like on an obstacle course. They have each skill such as jump, hop, and squat, but can’t figure out how to do them in rapid succession.

• Issues making the two body sides work together in a coordinated fashion at the same time (like jumping) or reciprocally (like skipping).
  

I Get It, We Have All Had Enough

We can no longer avoid talking about what this pandemic is doing to our:

• children

• families

• selves

Children’s emotional development thrives in the presence of other children. During these times, contact with other children is reduced. Parents often feel choices must be made between physical safety and their children’s wellbeing. We certainly have tools available to us to foster our children’s progress.

Taking care of yourself is key to taking care of your children. We are being so bombarded by situations and information we don’t typically deal with. Most of us are making significant changes in our lifestyle accordingly. Our routines with the external world have been seriously disrupted. This includes children’s school, our work, and seeing our friends and family to name a few.

Did you know that hearing through bone conduction begins in utero? The Tomatis Method incorporates bone conduction. With latest technology, we can now work with infants. Some infants are born irritable or dysregulated. They may have difficulty eating, eliminating or sleeping. I’ve used the Tomatis method in the NICU with premature, small, and sick babies. Later, babies may exhibit issues with:

• eye contact,

• babbling,

• reaching

• interest in their environment

The emotional toll of our responsibility to keep our children safe while trying to maintain a life, weigh heavily upon us whether they are typically developing or special needs children.

The difficulty to maintain balance between structure, education and fun for the development of our children has resulted in unprecedented levels of sadness & anxiety in our kids and ourselves. We are here to help you center and find a more peaceful place.