Re: nne P. - Sensory question...

[Guest guest]

Hi nne,

I understand it is a sensory issue with my daughter, however other than the

brushing technique, which I posted in an earlier email was unsuccessful with my

daughter (trained OT's as well as myself performed the brushing), what else, if

anything, can be done to help desensitize the area around her ears and neck?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Karmen

Re: Sensory question...

Hi,

I am an Occupational therapist and an RDI consultant and have just recently

joined. I thought I could explain a few things about the light touch and

hair issues. We have two touch systems in our nervous system that result in

two types of behaviorial responses 1) protective or 2) discriminitive. What

tends to happen with kids with various kinds of neurological issues is light

touch (particularly unexpected) on their skin (hair brushing against the

ears or neck, hair brushing, face washing, people brushing past their bare

arms/legs, loose clothing etc.) is incorrectly interpreted as a threat and

triggers the protective system (instead of the discriminitive system). So

they react with fear, anger ... basically the fight, flight or fright

response. Deep touch (deep pressure, massage, firm rubbing) can over-ride

the pain they feel. This explains why we sometimes rub an injuried area of

the body. So it is better to touch your child firmly than lightly. Some

OT's prescribe brushing techniques or sensory pressure games to help kids

overcome this. This also explains why some kids do really poorly in busy

hallways when they are looking into their lockers and other people are

unexpectedly touching and brushing past them. I worked with one young man

who was hitting people in the hallways and getting into lots of trouble and

this was the reason.

Hope this helps!

nne Papadopoulos OT Reg. (MB) (SK)

Occupational Therapist

RDI® Program Certified Consultant

[Guest guest]

Thank you so much for your insightful response! What you are

describing sounds like progressive desensitization.

nne

nne Papadopoulos OT Reg. (MB) (SK)

Occupational Therapist

RDI® Program Certified Consultant

[Guest guest]

For my daughter I would give deep pressure on her scalp. Your OT should be able

to show you the areas on her head to add pressure. I hope this is making sense

since I am not able to show you........Gini

To: Autism_in_Girls@...: kcboone@...: Tue, 9 Dec

2008 22:29:15 -0500Subject: Re: Re: nne P. - Sensory

question...

Hi nne,I understand it is a sensory issue with my daughter, however other

than the brushing technique, which I posted in an earlier email was unsuccessful

with my daughter (trained OT's as well as myself performed the brushing), what

else, if anything, can be done to help desensitize the area around her ears and

neck? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.Karmen Re: Sensory question...Hi,I am an

Occupational therapist and an RDI consultant and have just recentlyjoined. I

thought I could explain a few things about the light touch andhair issues. We

have two touch systems in our nervous system that result intwo types of

behaviorial responses 1) protective or 2) discriminitive. Whattends to happen

with kids with various kinds of neurological issues is lighttouch (particularly

unexpected) on their skin (hair brushing against theears or neck, hair brushing,

face washing, people brushing past their barearms/legs, loose clothing etc.) is

incorrectly interpreted as a threat andtriggers the protective system (instead

of the discriminitive system). Sothey react with fear, anger ... basically the

fight, flight or frightresponse. Deep touch (deep pressure, massage, firm

rubbing) can over-ridethe pain they feel. This explains why we sometimes rub an

injuried area ofthe body. So it is better to touch your child firmly than

lightly. SomeOT's prescribe brushing techniques or sensory pressure games to

help kidsovercome this. This also explains why some kids do really poorly in

busyhallways when they are looking into their lockers and other people

areunexpectedly touching and brushing past them. I worked with one young manwho

was hitting people in the hallways and getting into lots of trouble andthis was

the reason.Hope this helps!nne Papadopoulos OT Reg. (MB) (SK)Occupational

TherapistRDI® Program Certified Consultant[Non-text portions of this message

have been removed]

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