Play Therapy
If they do nothing else, activities that further your child's sensory integration therapy will give a purpose to your play and increase the time you spend together in close physical contact. There are small activities you can do informally with your child, if not as part of a formal sensory diet plan. Later chapters include activities that target specific problems with specific senses. Here are a few other ways to make playtime count.
Floortime
The Floortime Foundation offers a game plan for getting down on the floor with your child and following his lead while gently directing him to variations that will expand his emotional development. While the focus of Floortime is not specifically on sensory integration, the techniques can be used to help your child increase his comfort level and overcome fears.
The Child with Special Needs: Encouraging Intellectual and Emotional Growth gives good advice on using the technique to deal with processing problems and other special needs and challenges — including bedtime struggles and toilet training — that may be issues for your child.
Spending time down at your child's level can pay off in a number of ways. You'll have a great opportunity to really observe him, see where his strengths and weaknesses lie, and note the things he does with ease and the things he has to concentrate hard on. Play allows you to provide sensations and experiences your child needs in a non-threatening context and can help build warmth and trust between you that will pay off as you try to help him extend his comfort boundaries.
You can learn more about Floortime in The Child with Special Needs: Encouraging Intellectual and Emotional Growth by Stanley I. Greenspan, MD, and Serena Wieder, Ph.D., with Robin Simons, and on the Floortime Foundation's website. The foundation also sells DVDs in which Drs. Greenspan and Wieder describe the approach and demonstrate it with young children.
Resist the temptation to take over playtime or make everything a strictly therapeutic experience. Directing you in play and having you follow her every order can be an empowering experience for your child. Even if your child's play is repetitive and limited in imagination, go along with it. Small gestures to change the play may be worth more than putting yourself in charge of it.
Deep Pressure
Children will often seek out what they need without even knowing they're doing it. Think of how many activities that occur naturally as a part of play involve deep pressure to your child's body and joints — burrowing under sofa cushions, building a close and cozy fort with pillows, crawling into boxes or through tunnels, or wrestling. Since deep pressure is comforting to kids with a variety of sensory integration problems, encourage your child to pursue it in play and provide plenty yourself during your playtime together.
William Steig's children's book Pete's a Pizza tells the story of a dad who makes a pizza with his son, tossing the boy up in the air for the dough, and then applying toppings to his giggling body. Read this book with your child, and then try to make a pizza out of him.
In addition to massaging and roughhousing, pretend play can be a good way to work in some deep pressure. A good game to try is making your child into a sandwich. Press your hands firmly along his body to apply the condiments, then wrap him in a blanket or sandwich him between heavy cushions to complete the dish.
Let your child help you come up with more ideas for games that involve squeezing and pressing. You may want to pretend he's a turtle, hiding under a shell of cushions, or a baby bear tightly tucked into a cave for the winter.
