Weekend Warrior – Sensory Solutions

My amazing blogger friend over at adoption of jane has returned to her weekend warrior post and so I am once again inspired to contribute something from our life with Ainsley. My daughter Ainsley has sensory processing disorder and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. None of this is her fault and yet many people in our world treat her as if she is able to control a physical brain injury that incurred prior to her birth. That is enough to make me crazy, and lately it is sadly wearing on her, as she gets older and starts to see differences between herself and other typically developing children. It is here in this frustrating realization which she is not able to fix, or change, that anger spills over into behaviour and volatility. I can hardly blame her some days. I think to myself if I woke up one day and forgot how to write the number five and I was five years old and I knew that I knew that basic information yesterday, I might scream bloody murder too. Fortunately physiotherapy, occupational therapy, creativity and medications help. We have learned multiple methods of managing Ainsley and living with all the chaos of parenting a child with special needs. Some days are good. Some are golden. But lately there is a lot of in between. Some of the things we have learned for our sensory seeker are based in occupational therapy and come from the concept that, given enough of a sensory diet, a child with SPD will be better able to manage their day. So on grocery day, like today, my sixer can be seen carting the heaviest bags imaginable (it is grounding and organizing). On muddy days she splashes in the puddles and makes mud pies. On days where Mom gets lucky she fills a sink with warm water sticks her arms in and “does the dishes.” Never mind the water that splashes the floor, when something works you go with it.

This is one of the good days….