After a lot of support from family, working with his therapist, and partnering with companies like Fun and Function and Ark Therapeutic, I’ve turned our house into a sensory friendly zone.

Everett’s Daily Routine:

• Wake up
• Eat breakfast
• Get dressed/Sensory Activity
• Go to school or on playdate/adventure (taking lots of sensory breaks if we are out)
• Lunch
• End playdate/ pickup from school
• Head home for nap or head to therapy (after school)
• Wake up
• Sensory activity
• Eat dinner
• Family time
• Bed time routine starts
• Books, books, and more books maybe songs then with luck, sleeping

Our routine isn’t as structured as it probably should be for Everett, but I do what I can to accommodate his needs while still keeping him in normal kid routines. We rarely spend days at home, so I bring Everett’s headphones/mp3 player with us, plan activities around breaks, and try to prepare him as much as possible. I also keep emergency fidgets in my bag (mostly chews from Ark Therapeutic and goodies from Fun and Function).

While we are out, I try to use the local environment as our sensory playground. We are fortunate to have many Kulture City kits at various places we frequent around town that we love utilizing. If you’re not familiar with Kulture City I highly suggest checking them out. They focus on providing organizations with tools to become sensory inclusive and they have an amazing app.

I also have Everett do crazy walks while we wait at places or give him challenges, like running ahead and seeing how quickly he can hop back and give me a high five. I take him to places at times when it isn’t crowded and during times that he can truly interact with his environment.

At home it’s a whole nother ballgame. We have a shelf of sensory activities that I cycle through on a daily basis.

We utilize a mix of homemade activities (slime, bubbles, painting etc), purchased items (swings, scooter board, hopper balls, etc), and music.

Our current favorite places for purchasing items are:

• Fun and Function
• Ark Therapeutic
• Sensor-bility
• Hearthsong
• Legacy Learning Academy

We use most of their products every week. I like to incorporate and mix things up. My favorite thing lately, is to set up mini obstacle courses. I do both indoor and outdoor, and although I try to make them slightly different each time, I tend to stick to certain things in each area. For example, our Hearthsong swing is outside, so of course that is always going to be part of the outdoor obstacle course. I also prefer to use our sensory bins outside due to the fact that they can be quite messy and Finn has a tendency to end up with little pieces of rice and beans! Indoors I almost always use our scooter from Fun and Function. We have the perfect length hallway to use it and it’s a lot safer than the road and easier to navigate than in the grass. I also tend to use our Legacy Learning Academy stuff inside, simply because I don’t want to loose pieces to our sets, and some require a table for writing. Other than that, I try to mix up our obstacle courses. I toss in fun stuff like puzzles, our hopper ball, a tunnel, a water mat, ball bouncing, and timed challenges. Unfortunately, I don’t have any obstacle course photos, but I will share a few photos of the various items we do utilize.

For sensory bins, I like to mix up different items, textures, and skill levels. I have made several of my own, but recently, Sensor-bility sent us one of theirs to try out. It was a bug kit that used a green rice base. I really liked it because it came with so much fun stuff. Everett spent almost an hour exploring all the different bugs and playing with all the various pieces that came in it! For the ones I make on my own, I use a dried rice and bean mixture or a dyed macaroni base. I then decide on a theme–for example, maybe our focus this week is on animals, so I select various animals and tailor the obstacle course around that. I hide animals in a mixture, then he has to pick an animal, do that animals walk to the bin, find the animal and make that animals sound until he deposits the animal in a color coded cupcake pan. Everett loves the fun challenges and I get to engage him on multiple levels.

I used to think it would be so hard and challenging to do all these activities, and I will be the first to admit I don’t always have it in me to do obstacle courses or special activities every day. His first therapist once told me “I bet you are doing more therapy at home than you realize” and she asked me a bit about our daily routine. She pointed out the simple things I did for Everett without even realizing it had therapeutic benefits. For example, when we are watching tv, I use a weighted lap pad or vest and a chew for Everett. When we are in the car, I keep a big bag of twizzlers in my console. (we call them chew sticks), and give Everett a fun way to give him oral input. When we are at the playground, him running around and climbing is sensory work too. He wears his Fun and Function dino cape when we go out and his body sock to hide in when he is overwhelmed. I give him back scratches and rubs and big squeezy hugs. I give him warnings about transitions and tell him a lot about what we are doing. All of those things help keep Everett level.

I’m no Autism/SPD saint. Everett still has frequent meltdowns (especially over potty training and sharing with his brother and sleeping and and and), but I do my best and really, that’s all anyone can ask, right?

The post Home Therapy appeared first on Not So SuperMom VS Society.

When Everett first started therapy, he was at a children’s hospital facility. We LOVED it there and our therapist was top notch….however, our insurance kind of sucks and we were paying over $300/session out of pocket until our deductible was met. Our therapist also has a fairly busy schedule and can be tricky to reach.
One day, I was driving through downtown on my way to see my husband. I noticed this cool therapy/yoga studio place a block from my husband’s work and told myself to remember to look it up.
GUESS WHAT?
I promptly forgot the name and even that I was going to look them up. About 4-5 days later, they followed us on Instagram, not even realizing we were local! I promptly contacted their owner and we set up a meeting.
We have been at the new place, Boost Kids, for about a month and I am loving the program she has for him. Every other week we do occupational therapy sessions. On the off weeks, we go in for yoga and feeding therapy. It’s AWESOME!

A Typical Session

When I say “typical” session, that’s kind of misleading. Every session is something different. The end goal, of course is the same, helping Everett to better adapt to his enviroment, but each week it’s a little different.
His therapist sets up obstacle courses, scissors challenges, fine and gross motor skills activities, and so on.





While she is doing his therapy, I’m taking mental notes on how to best apply those techniques at our house.
Thats right, the therapy doesn’t end when we leave her office, we do it all day, every day.

Sensory Diet

A sensory diet has nothing to do with food. It’s a series of physical activities and accommodations specifically tailored for each child to give them the input they need. Once the correct input is given, the child goes back into a “normal” state.
What does getting into a “normal” state mean? For kids who tend to get overstimulated, their sensory diet can help them come down from an overloaded state and feel calm. Or kids who feel or appear sluggish can get into a “normal” state by doing activities that help them feel more alert.
His first therapist gave me a goal for when we first started. She said that we should aim to create a sensory diet that is constantly adjusting to keep Everett even keel. Depending on what activity we do, the effects of it last anywhere from 30 minutes to about 1.5 hrs.
The effects of gentle brushing for example, last about 30 min. The effects of an hour of playing outside (running/climbing/etc), last about 1.5 hrs. This means I’m constantly counting numbers and making schedules for us. This doesn’t mean we are always on the go, we totally chill out and watch tv for a bit, but he will wear his weighted vest or lap pad to get the needed sensory input.
Am I some crazy amazing super mom who manages his therapy with a breeze? Hardly. I just try my hardest to give him what he needs while also maintaining some semblance of sanity.

Progress

When Everett first started therapy, I didn’t know what to expect. I was still pretty unsure about his diagnosis and wasn’t sure how therapy would help.
What I didn’t realize, was just how many signs I was missing. At 3, he still couldn’t jump with 2 feet off the ground. He walked on his toes (for extra input). He could barely figure out how to climb (poor sensory planning). The list goes on and on.

He is slowly progressing, and that’s great! We celebrate victories, like the first time he jumped with 2 feet off the ground, and when he actually catches a ball.
It’s a bit intimidating, realizing that we are literally at the beginning of his journey, and that there is so much more to come. So I take it one day at a time. I celebrate our small milestones and try not to think about the fact it’s going to take YEARS to climb this mountain. Our climb may be long, but at least we are heading in the right direction.
In the words of Lao Tzu, “The journey of a thousand steps begins with one step.”

The post Therapy: What, Why, & How. appeared first on Not So SuperMom VS Society.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

Confucius

I’m learning about advocating and proactively confronting social issues. Teaching Everett how to properly engage and play with others, as well as teaching them how to play with him

I’m experiencing the joys in unexpected milestones. Everett drawing actual objects and people. His vocabulary catching up with his imagination. Him not hitting someone all day. When he walks the whole way across a balance beam without falling. Milestones most parents don’t think about.

I’m trying to learn when to push Everett and when to let things happen on their own time. He’s at such a defiant age that I feel like I prepare for some unknown battle every day. It’s exhausting. I’m trying to learn when to actually pick the battles that are most important. “Fine you won’t get dressed? You can go to the store in your breakfast covered pjs while you rock 1 flip flop and 1 rain boot. Screw it”

One of the hardest things to know is where the disability is and when your children are being purposefully willful. Kids are kids and a child with a disability is probably not above using it as an excuse to get away with things. I’m learning to recognize where the line is, and it’s frequently fuzzy.

I think the way you manage that is by really trying to understand what your child’s specific challenges are. Yes, he or she has been diagnosed with autism. But what does that mean for your child?

For my kiddo, it means if I take him to a playdate that morning, if he doesn’t reset, that night he’s a total beast. I could assume he’s being purposefully “bad” , or I could say to myself, “Oh, he was at that loud & very busy playdate today and it took every bit of him to be in that crowded, sensory-overloaded environment. To be social, to make nice – that can be so draining for him.”

One of the things I’ve had to learn is to adjust my perspective on how children learn and understand the effect of the situations they are in. I’m a social person so I thrive at a party. But someone with social issues may not.

I’m also relearning about self care. Taking time with friends who AREN’T parents. Starting a photography business. I’m trying to remember that a healthy family needs a sane mother. Similar to the whole airplane spiel about “putting on your oxygen mask before helping others.”

Last, but not least, I’m learning to not underestimate Everett. Parents of special needs kids often think our children can’t go on without us. We’re obsessed with looking at the future and worrying about it. We know they’re going to have to function without us one day, but we worry that they can’t. We see them struggling with potty training well after their peers, we see them sitting away from the other kids at the playground, unsure of how to interact, and so on.

However, we also see their sweet tenderness and desire to learn. We see their joy and fascination at things we often don’t notice. And given the opportunity, we see them doing things we didn’t ever expect they could do without help.

Being a parent of a super special kiddo is hard, but after some reflection, it’s actually kind of beautiful too.

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This last Saturday we went and saw Paw Patrol Live, (PPL). We got lucky and were gifted media tickets from the shows marketing and publicity company.
I had taken Everett to Disney on Ice, prior to his diagnosis, and it wasn’t a horrible experience, but I wasn’t very prepared for how to address and take care of his needs, especially mid-show. This time, I wanted to see how we could improve the experience with our new tips/tricks and help others who might need it.

Pre-Show:

Prior to seeing PPL, I frequently talked to Everett about going to see the show. We talked about the dogs, their jobs, and actually seeing them in person.
Initially, we planned on making it a family day, but Finn can’t sit still longer than 30 seconds these days. Knowing that either my husband or myself would spend 90% of the show in the lobby watching babyzilla toddle around the lobby and make loud screeching noises, we decided to invite Everett’s best friend Judah and Judahs rad mom, Andi. This worked out perfectly, because:

1. Everett LOVES Judah and Andi.
2. Judah had a birthday that week and is big fan of the show (instant present!)
3. Everett is very used to playing with Judah, so Judah’s familiar presence helps to center Everett.
4. Andi goes out of her way to help accommodate and advocate for Everett.

With Judah now going, Everett was super excited and couldn’t wait to go.

Day of Show:

The morning of the show, I was running around like a crazy woman. I had to drop off and sort items for a consignment sale, nurse Finn, and get Everett ready all by 9am. Being so rushed, I didn’t think to try calming tactics or do anything other than grab his headphones, mp3 player, and my camera. When Andi arrived, we just quickly jumped in and made a beeline for the show.
On the way over, I gave both boys an Paw Patrol activity set as a prize. The souvenir toys at shows like this can be kind of pricy, so the prize pack was a super easy and cheap way to make them happy.
After getting there, Andi parked with the kiddos while I rushed over to the box office to grab tickets. I was able to score us a spot in the long line, making our wait much shorter. This proved to be a good choice, when after being in line for 2 minutes, Everett was already to starting to get overwhelmed and hitting.
Enter HEADPHONES! I put them on him and he calmed down like magic. We were given pompoms on the way in and found our seats without any issues.
We had about 10 minutes to spare, so we took a couple cute photos and chilled.

During Show:

Everett did fairly well at first. It wasn’t too dark/bright and their sounds weren’t too much. They incorporated the audience in, had the kids shake pompoms, and had a lot of fun visuals. I could tell he was starting to experience overload about 10 min prior to intermission. He refused headphones at this point, so I pulled him onto my lap and gave him gentle squeezes.
During intermission, we went to a coloring station. Everett was still acting overloaded, so I found an amazingly helpful worker who let us into a very quiet room. While she watched me do yoga poses, spins, and crazy dances with Everett, she talked to me about her niece who is on the spectrum. She seriously was the sweetest person I’ve met that recently! I asked her about the character meet and greet after and she was even able to connect us with the person in charge to upgrade our passes to become Very Important Pups!
We missed the first couple minutes of the 2nd half of the show, but getting the VIP connection was totally worth it. Everett was still a bit overloaded, but we were able to power through. The show did have streamer & confetti canons, but I was able to warn him ahead of time, so it wasn’t an issue.

After Show:

We were able to join the VIP group after the show and let me tell you, this experience was SUPER COOL for the kids. They got a bag, snacks, activities, and were able to meet Ryder, Skye, & Chase.
It was a lot less crowded and noisy so Everett did really well. Everett was stimming out excitedly when it was his turn to meet the pups. Watching the joy on his face made everything worth it!

Here is a summary of the pros/cons of the show and what I wish I had done differently.
Pros:

• Cartoons Pre-show: this helped keep Everett’s attention so he didn’t get overwhelmed.
• Coloring Activity: this was a great way to distract and focus the kiddos energy
• PomPom: the pompom was amazing for several reasons. One, it helped channel the kids energy, two it’s a fun keepsake, three Everett really enjoyed brushing his fingers through it, whiched helped him self regulate.
• Staff: everyone was very helpful and accommodating.

• Intermisson: this was a great way to have the kiddos get some wiggles out to help them make it through.

Cons/I wish I had:

• Thought to put Everett in compression clothing. I think it would’ve helped minimize the overload.
• Brought extra fidget toys. After a while, Everett started using his pompom to mess with Judah, so another fidget would’ve been helpful.
• Packed some snacks. Everett is very particular about what he eats and the lines were a bit too crowded for Everett to stand in.

Next time, I know I’ll need to do some extra prep beforehand, but I’m still pretty happy with how well he did! I’m looking forward to taking him to a sensory friendly show next time and seeing how he responds to that!

The post Living Life On The Spectrum: Navigating Live Shows appeared first on Not So SuperMom VS Society.

Today she is offering 40% of her proceeds towards ARC (the Autism Resource Center).

Se7entees is a shop that’s near and dear to my heart. Their entire brand promotes inclusivity and love. The owner, Shell Asselin has littles of her own that are special needs, and she truly understands the battles we encounter and the barriers we try to break down. She takes that passion and understanding gained from her personal experience and showers it into her business-and it shows!

Today they are offering 30٪ off of all purchases with code ACCEPTANCE.

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Sensory Processing Disorder is a condition in which the brain has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes in through the senses.
What does this mean?
Some kids seem to have trouble handling the information their senses take in—things like sound, touch, taste, sight, and smell. Besides these common senses, there are also two other less well known ones that can be affected—proprioception, or a sense of body awareness, and vestibular sense, which involves movement, balance, and coordination. Everett’s biggest issues are with proprioception, vestibular, sound, and touch. He has a few mild issues with taste, sight, and smell, but not enough that it would classify him as having SPD. We sought a diagnosis after he had issues interacting with his peers, and the above mentioned issues were severe enough to warrant a diagnosis.
Essentially, kids with sensory processing issues experience too much or too little stimulation through these senses.
They may also have difficulty integrating sensory information—for example, when Everett hears a child crying, his first response is to hit them to “turn them off” rather than comfort them. He literally can’t process their feelings while they are making so much noise.

The post Resources & Steps To Getting Your Child An SPD Diagnosis appeared first on Not So SuperMom VS Society.