Sensory Processing

Beck's new Handbook for those living with, teaching, or working with children with sensory needs
explains the sensory system puzzle and the who and what of a sensory diet.  The thoughtful tools in this book provide intervention strategies to support and challenge the sensory systems through meaningful and authentic sensory diet tactics based on the environment, interests, and sensory needs of each individual child. The data collection sheets, screening forms, checklists, and schedulers in this book provide a blueprint for weaving sensory diet strategies into sensory-filled days.
As counselors we see children with a diagnosis of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) that have often been getting Occupational Therapy (OT) since preschool.
There is a significant over-lap in symptoms in what is now called “Misophonia” and SPD Sensory Over-Responsivity (SOR). Misophonia describes a neurologically based disorder in which auditory stimuli (and sometimes visual) is misinterpreted within the central nervous system. Individuals with misophonia are set off or “triggered” by very specific patterned sounds, such as chewing, coughing, pencil tapping, sneezing etc.
Sensory processing challenges are also co-morbid conditions for students with ADHD, ASD, and Explosive Disorder. One small-scale study suggested that as many as five to 16 percent of school-age students have these challenges; therefore, as counselors we need to stay up on a school sensory diet and what can help families send their children into school in the morning well regulated. I always inquire about sleep hygiene and offer suggestions to help with sleep and bedtime routine which are covered in this book.
I collaborate closely with my school OT because many of the children referred for tier 2 groups are on her case load. The high percentage of these kids in our school is another reason I requested dynamic flexible seating from our PTA (e.g., therapy balls).
I will be sharing this Handbook with parents in the new Family Resource Pack I created this spring. It also contains Making-Sense-Your-Senses-Processing

Hunter New and Improved

Some of the signs of self-regulation difficulties in children include ongoing struggles with concentration (e.g., being unable to listen in a group lesson), looking sad and bored in daily activities (e.g., playing with others), or becoming easily upset and anxious so they are unable to move on. My second graders in self-regulation groups love "Hunter and His Amazing Remote Control". The story book has been around awhile but it has been redone and now includes a complete self-regulation program with a CD to reproduce all pages, as well as a kit and poster.

Hunter's Amazing Remote Control buttons include:

Channel Changer - Filtering out distractions

Pause - Stopping to think relax and create a plan

Fast Forward - Thinking before acting

Rewind - Shifting focus from past failure to future change

Slow Motion - Slowing down and managing stress

Coach - Problem solving

Zapper - Recognizing and rejecting negative thinking

Way to Go! - Using positive self-talk 

The guide has discussion questions to go along with the book and creative activities to introduce, teach and practice the strategies. The guide has 10 units, it begins with "Our Amazing Differences, then has a unit for each button, and ends with "Self-control." The Remote Control can be adapted (I only introduce 6 in grade 2) and children can add their own based on their individual needs. I highly recommend this set of materials for self-regulation youthlight.com

Use of fidgets and other stress tools

Here is a picture of my new supply of cool fidget tools. I have a whole box of stress balls. We allow students who want to use a fidget tool to use one in class only after they have signed a contract. We use the Responsive Classroom approach so I wrote a description and contract about using the object as a tool not a toy. This has helped regulate the use of these items. We ban anything that makes noise, is messy, or too distracting to peers (like spinners a few years ago).  The Monkey Fidget is my favorite because it is small, quiet, and has a marble inside that the student can simply push back and forth inside the small mesh sleeve. The one draw back is it is small and many of the students who need a fidget also are the same kids that loose things easily. We make the students leave their fidgets in their homeroom. We supply fidgets to our special teachers for use in their instructional spaces. I personally believe most of our students could self-regulate and not need fidget tools if we could provide a second 30 minute recess but since that is not going to occur we continue to try to find tools that help children focus. I would rather have them use a fidget I provide that tie their shoelaces together - that used to happen at my former school that did not have a budget for fidgets.

Resource for Parents of Anxious or Angry Kids

This is a new workbook for parents of children ages 6-12 to use mindfulness and brain science to help reduce anxiety and mood related outbursts. It uses the hornet-brain for the amygdala (fight-or-flight) and hippo-brain for the hippocampus (context and long-term memory). The author is a clinical psychologist who has lots of ideas to help parents develop a home routine that promotes calm and peace of mind. I am including it in one of our Family Resource Packs we loan to families. There are some cute worksheets that could be adapted for a small emotion or self-regulation counseling group. Check out the author's website hornets-and-hippos for a few free worksheet based on the workbook.

Mindful Mantras Series

 

 

This is a terrific series on self-regulation, mindfulness, self-esteem, and problem solving.  I use these books in my self-regulation  and emotion management small groups. Teachers like to borrow them to share with the whole class and we include some of them in out Family Resource Packs we send home for parents to borrow. The books come with a link to go to a web site for a free lesson for each book that also has suggestions for parents. The author, Laurie Wright, is a former teacher and one of my new favorite authors!

Emotion regulation tool

The experience of emotions includes: physical reaction, feelings, thoughts and judgements; and action signals. When working with children on emotion management a good place to begin is helping become aware and recognize how their bodies react to various types of emotions. For example, a nervous stomach or tightness in shoulders may occur when they are unsure or stressed out. Talking about physical reactions and how thoughts, feelings, and behavior are connected gives children a sense of more control. Ideally when they begin to notice these sensations they will become mindful and use some of the regulation strategies we teach in counseling (like deep breathing with counting or tighten and release muscles). To read more about the concept of body reactions as part of emotional learning go to social-and-emotional-learning/emotional-development

Resources for Self-Control, Self-Regulation, and Mindfulness

I think the work of Lauren Brukner, occupational therapist, is extremely useful to elementary counselors and parents of children who struggle to self-regulate. The 3 books pictured above are the ones I use to pull ideas from for my small groups on self-regulation. The 6 exercises shown above are the ones I have pulled from the 3 books to use as the warm-ups in my third grade group. I also posted my overview of my third grade group. Small tier 2 groups are growth-promoting environments that provide children with “scaffolding” and opportunities to practice necessary skills before they must perform them alone. As counselors, we know that different tools work for different kids so I teach different ones in each group because some of these same students would have been in self-regulation groups in Kindergarten and grades 1 and 2.  Actually many of the tools presented in these books would be great for classroom lessons, particularly in grade 3 where the level of toxic stress seems to peak because of letter grades and standardized testing in our state.

She has another book Awesome and In Control that I recommend to parents. We have a copy in the Self-Regulation Family Resource Pack we loan to parents. I agree with Brukner that we want our children to gain "control, direction and ownership of their own states of self-regulation. Children are not born knowing how to self-regulate and for some children it takes special instruction to master these critical life skills.

Books that promote self-understanding and compassion

Listening to My Body by Gabi Garcia is a picture book that introduces children to the practice of paying attention to their bodies. Through a combination of story and simple experiential activities, it guides them through the process of noticing and naming their feelings and the physical sensations that accompany them, while helping them build on their capacity to engage mindfully, self-regulate, and develop a better sense of well-being. We have used this in our grade 1 and 2 self-regulation groups.
Garcia's new book Listening with My Heart introduces the universal themes of kindness, empathy and self-compassion. It includes kid-friendly self-compassion / mindfulness exercises.  So far I have just shared this book with individual students but it would work well in a group or lesson too. Go to the author's web site for free activity guides to use with these books gabigarciabooks.com/

How to Help a Child Having a Meltdown at School

According to understood.org educators and parents need to be able to recognize and respond differently to tantrums vs. meltdowns. You can get an expanded version of the chart above for free at lemonlimeadventures.com

• Tantrums happen when a child is trying to get something he wants or needs.

• Meltdowns occur when a child feels overwhelmed by his feelings or surroundings.

• Knowing the difference between tantrums and meltdowns can help you manage these outbursts.
• I discourage teachers from bringing me students who are having temper tantrums; however, sometimes I will help calm a child who is having a sensory meltdown because meltdowns last longer and can be shortened more easily in a less sensory stimulating environment. I help mostly with students who I know very well and have usually in small groups or see for individual check ins.  It is very helpful if you know a child well because you are familiar with what strategies generally work and if there is already a specific plan in place.  This is one reason I like my office to be a calming environment and now showcase bright colors or too many "decorations". I have my ceiling lights covered with blue filters and have a small lamp on my desk. 
• Frequently when a chid is brought to me upset I will tell them I am going to turn off some of the lights and would like then to sit on a chair backwards facing my blank wall of brown cabinets. That way they can give themselves some pressure using the back of the chair. When a child comes to me who is very "dysregulated" and needs calming I first remind myself to stay calm and speak quietly. I choose my words carefully to encourage the child to resume control and let the child know I am available to help. For example, "You are having a tough time lets figure this out together." I try to get them to label their feeling and tell me how strong it is (scale 1-5 or 1-10 depending on age). I offer suggestions of what has helped other children like slow deep breaths (even suggesting ones we have done in classroom or group), stretching, etcetera. 
• Once the child is regaining control I ask, "what do you need to do to be ready to return to class." It could be as simple as go get a drink of water, splash face with water in bathroom, or play a game for 5 minutes as a distraction. Many children will want to go home after a meltdown but we rarely allow that because they need to see they can get upset and still stay in school. Sometimes they may need to sit by themselves for a brief time when they return to class until they have more composure and control. If necessary I will stay in the room for 5 minutes especially if the room is noisy when I try to help the child reenter.

Fair is Fair

It is hard to teach children about fairness. Children from a young age can perceive differences and are beginning to learn social rules; however, our brain also wants rewards and complicates a reaction to what it might register as injustice teaching-children-to-be-fair This delightful children's book by Varela explains giving each individual what they need not the same (amount) helps children understand fairness is not equal or the same. We have used it in classes to explain why children with special needs are given special flexible seating or fidgets but not al students need and benefit from them (they are a tool not tools). We have also used the book in self-regulation groups to talk about scenarios where initially things seemed "unfair" but after thinking it through or looking at it from another point of view it was fair. I have also recommended it to parents to explain why siblings of different ages have different responsibilities and privileges.

Flexible Seating

Our whole school offers students flexible-seating options to assist with self regulation. It is a good fit with our Responsive Classroom approach. Children have different needs and preferences. When students come for individual counseling I let them sit anywhere they want: 1) on the floor; 2) in a bean bag chair; 3) on an exercise ball; 4) on a wobble stool; and 5) in a chair with an exercise band. To introduce the seating options for my small groups I use interactive modeling to set clear expectations and then we review them with anchor charts. I have 3 sizes of the wobble stool and it I have to remind students they must be able to have their feet flat on the floor to use a wobble stool to be a safe choice.  If students are not using the flexible options appropriately (spinning on stools or kicking the bands loudly) I just say they have made a choice not to use that option for the remainder of the group session. Fortunately I have only had one student throw a fit when asked to move to a chair.  I like having similar choices and expectations in my office as in our classrooms so I can help students figure out what works for them.

Props to teach mindfulness and the brain

Mindfulness is an important but very abstract concept for children to grasp. We also try to teach our students that feelings generate from the back of the brain (amygdala and hippocampus) but that thinking occurs in the front of the brain (prefrontal cortex).  If our brain is totally full of feelings (represented by jar full of sand) then there are is no room for thoughts (represented by bag of rocks). The other jar has rocks and sand- our full mind should be a balance of thoughts and feeling. My students, especially those who are referred for self-regulation and emotion-regulation groups really like props. The like to touch the jars and then they color and label a handout that looks like the chart pictured above.Practicing mindfulness calms the amygdala and allows us to access the prefrontal cortex, so that we can make thoughtful choices for how to respond. Mindfulness helps children regain access to executive functions: the intention to pay attention, emotional regulation, body regulation, empathy, self-calm, and communications skills. This site has a great infographic and cute labels for the various parts of the brain to help children understand the different "jobs" of key parts of the brain mindfulness-and-the-brain-how-to-explain-it-to-children/

Self-Regulation for Young Students

My school is loaded with young students who need help with self-regulation. We work on it in classroom lessons with Second Step which fortunately our district bought for all our schools. A less expensive alternative is the self-regulation materials from youthlight.com/  You can buy just the Curriculum Guide but I highly recommend purchasing the kit. The materials in this kit can be used in classes by teachers and counselors and especially our teachers who work with students identified as needing special education. It is recommended that this be used over 8 weeks and taught on two different days of the week (Tues and Thurs). The only place that can happen at my school is for students with an IEP that includes social skills.
I was thrilled to obtain this kit because even though it says "Preschool" I am using it in my psycho-educational  self-regulation groups with kindergarten and first grade. The kit has 40 lessons, games, and activities. The Curriculum Guide by Brad Chapin (with Lena Kisner and Brooke Stover) follows the same structure as his other manuals for older students. It is based on cognitive-behavioral psychology and addresses three areas: 1) physical; 2) emotional; and 3) cognitive. There is a regulation poster for each of the 3 areas. There are also core lesson image cards to use with lessons. There are core lessons for each of the three areas. For my groups I select 2-3 lessons from each of the areas. My students enjoy singing the "Safe and Calm Song." They are entertained by the book "The Horsefly Sigh" that teaches a fun relaxation breathing technique and thy like to practice it and go home and teach it to a family member. They love the "Calming Skills Block Game" using the cube that is provided in the kit. Students in self-regulation groups need activities that build in movement, throwing, practicing!
There is a CD which has all the forms for printing. There are great resources for counselors like a Sample Parent Letter and Self-Regulation Teacher Rating Scale. These are very helpful if you are using a self-regulation group for your teacher evaluation SMART goal or collecting data to RAMP. If you need other resources on self-regulation click one the labels on the right of my blog to see what else I use to address this critical need for students.

ADHD Self-Regulation and Executive Function

ADHD is the most common disorder in children. The percent of children estimated to have ADHD has changed over time and can vary by how it is measured. The American Psychiatric Association states in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5, 2013) that 5% of children have ADHD. However, other studies in the US have estimated higher rates in community samples.

As school counselors it is important to know a lot about ADHD because students with this disorder are frequently referred for small groups. Learn more about ADHD from the best adhd
Here is an article from ASCA on collaborative classroom and behavioral evidence-based strategies that counselors can recommend to teachers and parents Students-With-ADHD The government suggest counselors assist these children by providing teacher training on effective practices eric.ed

School counselors also offer small groups for students who need self-regulation and behavioral support strategies-for-students Counseling is an effective intervention for ADHD because it addresses behavior modification. Children with ADHD can have a difficult time regulating their emotional and behavioral response to situations. Learning effective coping strategies is one way to gain control over symptoms. Counselors can also help with the development of a plan for organization and prioritization, key areas of difficulty for those with ADHD. Goal setting, reward and consequence, and emotional regulation are other areas that are addressed during counseling groups.

I do not like to run a group of all students with ADHD unless I have at least one role model. I also never name a group anything that makes it obvious a difference the members may have so I call them names like Remote Controllers, Super Selfies, Turtles. The group sessions need to be very active and engaging. In my groups for younger kids I focus on regulating their bodies and feelings. A good resource for activities for groups in grades 3-5 is Caselman"s Teaching Kids Impulse Control.

More Self-regulation Resources

This pack of large cards from  yoga4classroomsactivity-card-deck have great movement and breath work activities that are perfect for small groups and could be used with individuals and class lessons too. They promote self-awareness and if you go to the site you can receive 6 free downloads if you subscribe. I really like the "Peace Crawl" because in addition to using bilateral movement it has a chant that goes with the movement. I think chanting while moving further calms the brain and reinforces helpful behaviors that promote self-regulation. Conductor breath is great because it incorporates gross motor movement of large muscles in tune with the breath. I find that students self-regulate better when they learn to do helpful gross motor movement much faster than just giving them a fidget which is only going to use small muscles.

Yoga for Self-Regulation

We have an increasing number of students referred to group counseling for self-regulation. I find that before they can focus they need to get in touch with their bodies through movement.I start with a movement activity like mindful walking or cross crawl marching. Then I have them work their bodies by doing yoga in these groups. I based this ABC list on the book The ABCs of Yoga for Kids by Teresa Powers. I prefer mostly standing poses so I made this list. After the yoga centering at the beginning I do a few breathing activities. I try to make these fun so we may do pinwheel breathing or use straws to breathe a fetaher around the table. For more resources check out 

zensationalkids.com

Yoga Poses for ASD

If you do small group counseling or have classes for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) here is a resource of 5 yoga poses to improve sensory information processing, communication, self-regulation, and motor control. These skills apply to other areas in life, ultimately helping those with ASD to lead more balanced, healthy, socially integrated, and independent lives yoga-poses-for-autism/

Yoga Books for Kids

These are two of the books I like to share with kids about yoga. I usually use them in small groups. They help children understand that yoga can change how they feel on the inside too. Other good books on yoga are: Yoga for Kids (by Lark), Twist: Yoga Poems (by Wong), and You are a Lion and Other Fun Yoga Poses (by Yoo).

Yoga for Small Groups and Classroom Warm-ups

This year I made the effort to incorporate music into small group sessions and classroom lessons. My goal for next school year is to use more yoga to improve self-regulation, body awareness, and focus. I like this book about incorporating yoga into the classroom that applies five principles: Stillness, Listening, Grounding, Strength, and Community. It also utilizes the Hoberman sphere (which I have in my office) to establish the correct rhythm of breathing and for small groups to gather around and hold onto as they do activities like a compliment game. I also plan to use more chair yoga because the students could practice them on their own when they need to regulate themselves once they know how to do the poses. There are free chair yoga resources available at kidsyogastories.com/ My favorite yoga pose to teach children is Eagle because it involves crossing the mid-line which helps children focus, attend, and learn better in the classroom. Learn about mid-line exercises at crossing-the-midline-activities

Books for Counseling

Stephanie Jensen (author) and Dr. Poppy Moon (illustrator) have teamed up with youthlight.com to make these engaging books that you will want on your bookshelf. Bully-bee encourages a friendly attitude, Beezilla teaches acceptance and belonging, and Mood Ring Rainbow shows the importance of self-awareness and self-management. I use them in small groups with first and second graders but the books are large enough that they could be used in classroom lessons.