Life is Therapy--Give it a Try

New to the Life is Therapy series? Here's a quick blurb to tell you what it's about:

Sometimes we parents can get bogged down in the notion that the teaching of our children must be done by professionals. Parents of children with special needs are particularly vulnerable to this idea since children with special needs often have to learn and develop quite differently than children with typical needs. This series centers around the idea that learning can and does occur most effectively through everyday life experiences at home and out in the community--for children with both typical and special needs.

You may remember this post where I talked about some of Jack's sensitivities to certain sounds and noises. His preschool teacher, as promised, tried a few different things with him to try and isolate what upsets Jack. She discovered that Jack does not mind it if the kids sing "Happy Birthday" alone. She theorized that he just doesn't like the adults singing over the kids. And what about "Yay!"? Well, Jack did not seem to mind when the kids just shouted "Yay!" It only really seemed to bother him when it was directed at him. So....the end result is....we know a little bit more about what truly bothers him and what doesn't.

It is very nice to understand what actually disturbs him a little bit better but we can't stop everyone who want's to say, "Yay, Jack!" and we can't tell all the adults at every birthday party we attend that they can't sing. So what's a parent to do when a child is sensory sensitive? And aren't all people at least a little sensory sensitive about something?

We cannot control the world we live in and there are some things that unfortunately upset Jack terribly for brief bouts of time. The key is that the upsets are brief. He truly enjoys getting together with other children. AND he learns so much from being with other children. AND the more exposure he gets the less upset he seems to get over these things. When you weigh a brief bit of upset against the positive aspects of venturing out in the world, we say "GET OUT THERE!"

Let me add that we allow Jack the time to be upset. I do not understand why these things upset him so how can I tell him not to be upset? We comfort him the best we can if he has an upset. These upsets do not prevent him from wanting to go to parties. In fact, this fall it seems that he was very busy with all the birthday parties.

The inflatables' places were really popular places for birthday parties this past season.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture we were able to get at Matthew's birthday party before the camera died. You can see Jack's self appointed best friend, Kimberly, in the foreground and Jack and I are somewhat visible in the background.

Jack's niece, Elise, also had her birthday party at one of the inflatable places.

Jack loves these places. He is so used to them now that he says, "Shoes off" and removes his shoes as soon as he hits the carpet of the jumping "arena".

Like all the kids, Jack enjoys jumping and bouncing around but he also always manages to find

the cozy coupe.

For some reason, he derives comfort from these little cars. He is getting a bit big for them and I am sure he will enventually move past these little cars. In the meantime, I try to remember that parties are supposed to be fun. Jack's idea of fun may be a little different but it doesn't hurt him or bother anyone else so into the cozy coupe he goes.

We recently discovered yet a new place to party when Jack was invited to Ren's third birthday party.

Ren's party was at My Gym.They have a dream set up for working on all sorts of gross motor skills such as

balancing,

climbing and walking on unstable surfaces,

dancing with your sibling,

jumping,

and crawling.

There are also oppurtunities for

cooperative play

and deciding how much of a daredevil you want to be.

I would love to be able to tell you that the sensitivities are "fixed" and Jack never cries at birthday parties anymore but that's just not true. BUT we can't let that stop us from going. Most of the party finds him

a happy, handsome little guy.

Recent Life is Therapy Posts can be found at:

What's in Your Child's World
Setting Goals
Videos
Learning from Others

For more Life is Therapy Posts, check out the left side bar.

Now it's your turn to participate. This is where we share our ideas and stories with one another. We're all in this together. Let's laugh together, motivate one another, and stimulate each others ideas. If you have a blog, create your own "life is therapy" post and link to the specific post in the Mr. Linky below. If you don't have a blog just leave a comment with your life is therapy story.