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. 
