Messy success
11 Mar 2011 5 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: farsighted, glasses, messy time, oral defensiveness, parenting, sensory integration disorder, sensory processing disorder, SPD, speech therapy
As part of Greta’s homework for the week we’re supposed to encourage her to get her hands messy. It is one of her quirks related to SPD that she doesn’t like to get “gunk” on her hands. On Wednesday night we had ice cream. Since we hadn’t done any messy work yet that day I asked her if she could stick her finger in her ice cream. 
She did, barely, but with a happy little grin. So I kept asking if she would stick more fingers in and she kept doing it until she did all five fingers. Granted it was just the very tips of her fingers and only for half a second, but still, it was all five.
Last night I put the girls in the bathtub after supper, got out a can of shaving cream and sprayed a bunch of it on the wall. Greta gingerly poked at it with one finger. Then she smiled, so I encouraged her to get more. Soon she had both hands completely covered and was spreading it around on her face and belly! So exciting!
As for the eating part of this whole thing, that’s still the same really. Still putting a little of everything on her plate and she’s only eating a couple of bites of the “safe” things. That’s going to be a much slower road. Her oral defensiveness is one of her bigger issues. Learn more here. That whole site is full of information about SPD. I realize that I just jumed in to talking about Greta’s therapy without giving the background information about her quirks. Sorry about that. Maybe this weekend I’ll try and post some back story. Maybe.
Anyway! Moving on, since this is a blog about both girls. Darcy is doing pretty well. She got glasses for farsightedness about a month ago. We took her in for an exam because she was crossing her eyes way too often. She does well with the glasses, she really only takes them off and gets fussy about them when she’s tired. They do seem to be helping. Her right eye still crosses sometimes, but not nearly so often as it was before the glasses. We’ll keep watch and see if it continues. If so she may need a stronger perscription. Poor little thing.
Even though the messy time “homework” may be for Greta, Darcy is enjoying it as well. She had lots of fun with the shaving cream last night. Although she did discover that it tastes nasty! Ha!
Ok, time to get to work! Thanks for reading.
Mar 11, 2011 @ 16:44:15
Yesterday for our “tea party” I told Greta we had a special treat and gave her a cup of children’s Yoplait yogurt. She ate a little and said she liked it. That afternoon for a snack I got it back out and said, “Let’s finish the yogurt.” She naturally said ” I don’t like yogurt!” I told her she must like it because that’s what she had for her special tea party treat. She frowned a little, thought about it and said…”Huh! I like yogurt!” At first she just touched it to her tongue to be sure about it, but then she finished it off!
Mar 11, 2011 @ 17:20:21
Nifty.
It probably also helps that she’s learned she likes frozen yogurt, so that connection is there, too. I tried to get her to try some rice pudding a couple of times. She said she wanted some, then looked at it, poked it with one finger and said, “No thanks.”
Mar 11, 2011 @ 20:25:07
Yay for successes!!! I’m glad the messy stuff is turning out to be so much fun for the girls and not so torturous for the adults.
I can’t wait to come play and get messy with you guys.
Mar 11, 2011 @ 23:42:01
I can’t wait, too! But I hear you’re busy every weekend in April.
Mar 12, 2011 @ 02:58:29
Jessica couldn’t stand anything on her hands either. I have a sweatshirt with her hand prints that she made when she was just under 3 years old. She screamed bloody murder the entire time we made it. I didn’t know at that time about her sensory issues. Of course now it makes perfect sense – pun intended!