At the very beginning of this journey, I struggled a lot. It truly felt as if there was no information, no doctor referral or recommendations for where to go or what to do next. My oldest kiddo was diagnosed after my youngest because of this. Perhaps it was his bubbly social personality that fooled the doctor, or perhaps the doctor was hesitant to say “autism” for whatever reason. As I mentioned in previous posts, for my eldest, we were referred to an O.T. for evaluation and to Speech Therapy. The O.T. we went to was terrible…really awful. No information, no encouragement, no counciling or point of reference. NO diagnostic information! We were more lost than ever with a our first label for our son, Sensory Processing Disorder. What the heck???
“Low-muscle tone”
“Runs with a flat foot and is a bit awkward and slow”
“Sensative to certain textures/pressures”
etc…etc…
Nothing we did not already know. So what did this MEAN??? Well, being in shock and bewildered, we left that office and never returned. What do we all do when we need to know more about our kiddos in this day and age? GOOGLE.
So I was up all night, link after link of Sesory Processing Disorder and Occupational Therapies. My husband was not sold on the diagnosis having never heard of it and unable to find anything legitimately stating it as an actual disorder. (Which is because it is generally a symptom, or comorbid or another disorder, very rarely…if ever, a disorder on it’s own).
The more I read the more I realized I had to help my son, I had to get him used to things or find ways to help him cope. I wanted to learn as much as I could to help him be happy again. He had not been happy in a while and it was breaking my heart.
I took it upon myself to start doing some O.T. work with him myself. Nothing fancy, I had no clue what I was doing, obviously, but something was better than sitting by and watching my boy suffer.
I bought books. I read up, studied, GOOGLED some more and went to Amazon to find tools. The first thing I bought, was an Amazon purchase. Of all the things I have invested in over the years, these River Stones have been the most fun, most versatile and have never stopped therapeutically helping out my kiddos.
(I’ve monetized my website ya’ll…it took me ages to figure it out as I’m no tech-genious, but I did it! I get a small payment, but ultimately, I’m hoping my links to what has worked for me, helps others. Promise not to link anything that I have not used or found useful!).
River Stones were our go-to during the rainy winter we had that first year of our journey. We splayed them out throughout the living room, or down the hall, by the sofas…we played a game my sister and I made up as kids called ‘Aligator’ and tried not to fall into the river and get eaten! The object of this ‘game’ was for my kiddo to stay on the stones, which un-beknownst to him, was exercising his core and working on his balance and body awareness, coordination etc. If he fell off the ‘aligator’ (me) would chase him round the house until he either got tickle-attacked or he got safely back onto a River Stone. Endless fun!!
Lava is also quite fun to play with these. We also made the rainbow and walked up into the clouds one day, we crossed ravines, hopped to islands, played catch me (carefully) with his newly walking baby brother, going quickly in circles on the stones.
These were the first tool I bought and here we are still using them today, almost 4 years later! His friends come over and love them as well, they provide a great base for imaginative play for all kids.
autstanding 