Thats did not go the way I planned in my head....

 

 I had my very first social-emotional group last night. I am working with 3 kids ages 2.5-4. This is what it looked like last night after they left < Controlled chaos at best. The kids had fun! Don’t get me wrong. But, you put 3 kids in a room together and you are going to get some form of chaos. I will not mention any names on here due to hipaa. But, I just have to say, even though it was controlled chaos, there were so many improvements even on the first day. I saw the beginning of syllables such as muh for more, as well as signing "more". I saw sharing of a swing. I saw another little girl ask for a fidget to be opened by giving it to another little girl. The same girls went next to another kid to play with the pasta bin. She has not stood next to kids before. They all enjoyed playing with the toys, but there was some melting down the last 15 minutes due to the timing. Have  to remember that for next time. There were toys flying everywhere, and then being put away. There was pasta, happily being thrown up, and then being shown how to keep our "happy hands" down with the pasta. There was so much happiness in that room that even if it was chaos for the first day, I think it went really well. Kids did go away learning a couple of things even on the first day, which I did not expect. I had no expectations for the first day at all. I figured they'd just be getting to know each other. But, they exceeded my expectations, as most kids do. 

This is ADHD

 I have two kids with ADHD so I thought I would do a post on what ADHD looks like in our house. This is ADHD for us: 

• When you need sensory breaks in between your online classes just so you can concentrate a little bit longer
• When you have to go back to in person school because online school is way to distracting, what with being able to switch between apps, or doing any number of other things in your house. 
• When you can do your work upside down, but not sitting in a regular chair. Because sitting makes it too hard to concentrate. 
• When you need to run back and forth across the bedroom a few times to "get your energy out". 
• When you listen to a direction, but don't actually hear it. So, when someone asks you, "did you do X?" you say, "you never told me that." 
• When you can be in AP classes because you are definitely smart enough, but don't have the executive functioning skills to complete them online because, "oh I can go on youtube, oh there's a book I want to read, Oh I can do my math later, Oh look, it's snowing!, Oh I should go outside. Nooooo I cant do this homework, it's too boring. I can't focus on it right now." Yes, all of these things are executive functioning deficits related to lack of focus and lack of self-control. 
• When you hear other people talking, but can't help but interrupt because otherwise you will forget what you were going to say if you don't say it RIGHT NOW! 
• When you run outside in the snow in the middle of your school day without telling anyone because it's just so exciting, but you lack the self-control or awareness of danger to remember to tell an adult what you are doing. 
• When you are constantly on the move, whether it is moving around the house, school or just fidgeting with something. 
• When you are in in person school, you have to sit up near the teacher and have reminders to remain on task. 
• When you can focus on something you love for hours at a time, but something that is "boring" takes all you energy to complete. 
• When you have multiple tasks that you are working on at the same time. Or multiple projects because you like to do many things at once. But that doesn't mean you always get them all done. 

And just for an idea of what it actually LOOKS like 

New Year

 It's a new year, new beginnings. But, here we are, still in the midst of a pandemic. Maybe your kids have gone back to school, or maybe they are still e-learning. Or maybe you are doing some sort of hybrid schooling. Whatever the case may be, it's cold outside and we have been cooped up already for almost a year. For any kids this can lead to anxiousness, restlessness, and well, acting like they are going out of their minds. For kids with other needs, such as sensory processing disorder, or ADHD, you may feel like you are also going out of your mind with them looking like they are all over the place. Covid has led to not only death and illness from the disease, but also many more needs from mental health perspectives, as well as children not alway getting the services they would normally get in school. Such as occupational therapy, speech therapy and physical therapy. Just to name a few. What does Sensory processing disorder look like. Well, here is an infographic to explain it just al little. And this list is by no means exhaustive. 

As you can see, some kids are constantly on the move, constantly needing to jump or crash in to things. And without the outlet of gym class, recess, and other things that school may provide such as OT and PT, they may be having a harder time at home doing e-learning. Also, many things that kids may have had as an outlet, such as after school activities like karate, soccer, baseball, etc, have had to be shut down. So they are not getting their activities that way either. Kids that avoid may look a different way, such as having meltdowns over "nothing". Which is actually something in their mind. So, thats the difficult part about all of this. What can we actually DO about all of this? Well, there are some things that can still be done at home. Here are some calming tips from special mom advocate. There are many other things you can do in the home as well, to help your child if they are sensory seeking. An obstacle course can be fun, where they have to follow arrows (can use tape on the floor, or draw arrows on construction paper) up, down, over and under to get to a prize. Different animal crawls can help as a calming activity. Near crawls, crab walks, frog jumps,, there are so many that help as either calming activities or to get your child revved up for school, depending on what you are looking for. Now that we have snow (well, at least we do here in illinois) it can be fun to go outside and roll snow in to a ball to make a snowman. Rolling the snow, lifting it up and putting them together are all great heavy work items. Or shoveling snow if your child is old enough is also great heavy work. Provided they actually like that kind of thing. I have two kids who like to do that and one who absolutely hates it. Whatever you decide to do, hopefully some of these suggestions help so your kids aren't also climbing the walls.