Do you want to know how to help a child with sensory processing disorder?
Well, I'm Nicholeen Peck, and I have helped many children with sensory processing disorder.
I'm a parenting expert and I teach people all over the world how to learn self-government.
in this video, I'll be helping you learn how to help your child with sensory processing disorder.
Now, I'm not a doctor but as a previous foster parent, in fact, treatment parent for many
teens between the ages of 12 and 18, multiple of which had sensory processing disorder. I can tell
you what I've done to successfully help children with sensory processing disorder to thrive.
In this video, we'll be talking about multiple different things to keep in mind as you are trying to help
with sensory processing. There are two types of sensory processing disorder. There's sensory overload.
That's when a person can't handle certain noises, or too many noises, or maybe it's certain
smells, or certain sights, or lighting. There's things that just get their senses overloaded to
the point that they start to experience anxiety and they even start to shut down in other ways.
And then, there's sensory seeking. So, some people with sensory processing disorders
feel like they don't get enough sensory pleasure and so they're constantly seeking something to
touch, something to hear, or feel, or taste. Both of these types of sensory processing disorder
can be addressed with the different strategies that I'm going to be talking about.
Many people choose to do occupational therapy for their children with sensory processing disorder.
There's a lot of wisdom in this because a good occupational therapist will help
guide you to things you can do at home to help increase your child's sensory tolerances or to
help them decrease some of their sensory demands. But not everybody finds everything they need from
occupational therapy. In fact, some of the youth that were in my home found some of their greatest
gains in overcoming some of their struggles and anxiety with sensory processing disorder with
some of the other things that I'm going to share with you now. People who have sensory processing
disorder usually thrive by having what's called a sensory diet. A sensory diet is a type of exercise
or hard work that a person engages in. This process of exercising, working hard, sweating.
Making all of the body functions the brain and all of the senses work together. Helps the person
establish a sensory balance and stop focusing on some of the little feelings that cause anxiety
or get in the way of normal productivity. So, have your child do jumping jacks, and maybe
run around the yard, trampoline, go on bike rides, walks, running, do some gardening work together.
I know for some children that don't want to touch certain textures that can maybe seem a little
bit difficult. But you can talk them and walk them through it. The more that you expose your child to
actually the better. What I found with my foster children that had sensory processing disorder
was that the worst thing that I could do for them was protect them from the senses
that were causing them so much anxiety and stress. I needed to continually offer them opportunities
to work through those anxieties. So that they wouldn't feel like those anxieties had to hold
them back forever. Now, of course, you want to be understanding of what is happening within their
body that maybe you aren't dealing with. But that doesn't mean that we should baby or coddle them.
We need to give them the skills that they need to handle this sensory processing disorder. So that
it is something that they can leave behind them as they grow older. Instead of having to cater to
and have it limit them their entire lives. What I found with the sensory diet was that it was much
more effective to have daily activity, daily work and exercise. If it happened every once in a while,
the child did not get as many gains or benefits as if they had regular opportunities to work hard
and exercise hard. So, just become one of those families that does stuff even if you don't like to yourself.
Before I get to my next point. If you know somebody who could use this video who might have
a child who's struggling with this and not knowing how to handle it, please share this video with them
or share it with your groups of people who have children just like yours. This type of
a video could also be a good video to share with church leaders, teachers, people who interact with
your child. So that they know how to best help them. Especially, these next points that I'm going to be
bringing up. Many therapists who work with people with sensory processing disorder utilize skills
that are part of cognitive-behavioral therapy. When a person does cognitive behavioral therapy.
What they do is they analyze the lies that might be happening in their head and they decide not to
over process on those lies but instead, replace them with what the truth is. So, maybe a person
heard a sound that they don't like, and they can tell themselves, "That sound is a sound I don't like
but it's not hurting me. I need to tell myself that sound does not hurt me and choose not to think
about the sound any longer if it's not a sound that I can change". So, cognitive behavioral therapy
helps a person focus on the truth. The teaching self-government parenting process that I teach
has the same principles as cognitive behavioral therapy. So, it's all about focusing on the truth.
What's really going on inside and how do I direct myself to do something different. In the teaching
self-government program, I teach four basic skills for children, how to follow instructions,
how to accept no answers and criticism, how to accept consequences, and how to disagree
appropriately. When a person gets a sensation or experience something with their senses that they
don't like or causes them anxiety or stress. What I taught my foster children was this is a no answer.
This is something that you can't change. So, how do you accept a no answer? You look at the person or
the situation or the sound or whatever it is. You keep a calm face voice and body which means,
you are deciding I'm going to be calm. Then, you either say okay that's how it is and I can't change it or
you disagree appropriately about it. So that means, you would go to a person and say, "I know you are
using something that makes that sound right now. But can we please turn the sound off for a little
while because it's starting to bother me", and if the person says no or yes, you say okay, and then
step number four is drop the subject. That means you stop processing it, you choose on purpose I'm
not going to think about this anymore. I am going to now start to think about something else.
Any time a person overcomes a craving or an addiction, they have to choose not to process the thought
that leads toward indulging in that craving or addiction. They have to stop themselves
from thinking it and replace that thought with something else. So help your child choose what
they can replace the thought with. Maybe there's a phrase, maybe the phrase is something as simple as,
"Be calm, Be calm", or "Breathe in breathe out, Breathe in breathe out." That type of thought process can
change a person's life. It seems simple but if they can recognize the no answers that life presents
them in the forms of smells, sights, sounds, and they can tell themselves, "I can accept this no answer
and I can replace the thought and stop thinking about what is causing me anxiety". Then they will
have power to conquer themselves no matter what the situation is. Now, let's talk about the sensory
processing disorder kids that are seeking sensory things. Well, sometimes, it's not appropriate to just
go and touch somebody or taste something like lick something that you shouldn't be licking. Those then
are also no answers. So that one skill of accepting a no answer can help that child too. Any boundary
line that a person should not cross which usually are many for children who are seeking sensory
stimulation are all no answers. So they look at the situation, they keep a calm face voice and body,
they say okay I'm not going to engage in that, or they disagree appropriately about it, and
then they drop the subject. That skill can change a person's life who has sensory processing disorder.
In fact, there were multiple youth who came through my home who found great success in being able to
accept no answers. There are many other skills too that a person can learn to govern themselves
and you can find more about those skills at teachingselfgovernment.com. But another thing
that we need to do for our children with sensory processing disorder is we need to discuss their
feelings with them. Discussing feelings that are associated with certain senses are important
so that they feel understood. But you don't have to discuss the feelings every single time that
that sensation or that feeling arises. A good thing to do is to have regular chats about the feelings.
Maybe once a day or once a week depending on how severe the sensory processing is.
And when you have that discussion you can talk about specific instances and what the person
felt and how they chose to overpower that feeling with good productive thought instead or what they
can do better next time if they didn't have a good experience the first time. Being understanding is
important but let the child know that they don't need to discuss those feelings every single time.
This will teach them that they don't need to be dependent upon following those feelings
every time they occur. We want our children to be happy, we want our children to be free. They need to
know that they possess the power inside to conquer this. Sure, for them it's harder, they're dealing
with things that even we don't fully understand. But they can improve, they can find freedom.
Every one of us if we continue to work at it. If we're diligent in any of our troubling behaviors.
We can choose to find self-mastery and self-government that comes with deliberately planning.
Your child with sensory processing disorder has a bright future. You can help
them choose to overcome some of these problems that they're dealing with. In fact, over time,
some of my foster children told me that some of the cravings decreased to the point that they
didn't even feel them when they used to most of the time. Your children can overcome some of
this it takes diligence, it takes patience, and it takes calmness and good deliberate planning.
If you've enjoyed this video, I'm pretty sure the next video is going to be something that you'll
use too. It's called, how to identify understand and release your emotions. Click that video now.