Breathe

Help Me Grow was out again yesterday.  This time the occupational therapist came with the speech therapist. She was going to evaluate Ellies lack of enthusiasm when she's in certain settings.  It was a very weird visit.  After a lot of random questions and watching Ellie interact with the speech therapist, the OT suggested some movements to try with Ellie.  She said, in not so many words, that the ear is the key to the speech and facial expressions.  When we engage the inner ear, we will see improvement in several areas, not just speech. 

She also suggested some tactile trials.  She wants us to have something small for Ellie to hold/play with in situations where it looks like she is shutting down.  She thinks if Ellie has something to focus on and will stimulate some senses, that might distract her from her surroundings and help her stay engaged.

She also mentioned breathing exercises.  This is something the speech therapist touched on before, but not in this kind of detail.  Ellie can go from zero to crazy in about 5 seconds.  As soon as she feels threatened (like someone is going to take a toy or food) or if she doesn't get help with something immediately or when things don't go her way, she will often have irrational responses which lead to temper tantrums and breath holding.  She said the normal kid is about a 5 (out of 10).  When they get mad, they have some room for their emotions to grow and don't immediately turn into Mr Hyde.  Ellie seems to run on a 7 or 8.  When she gets mad, she doesn't have anywhere to go except crazy!  The therapist said when this happens, kids are often very tense and literally hold it inside.  Kids will often tense up their stomach area which contributes to the crazy.

We need to start playing with more straws.  Very long, bendy straws for water and long, straight straws for smoothies.  She also wants her to play with whistles and bath flutes.  All of these things will help her work on her breathing and will let her relax her core.  If it works as planned, we should see a more relaxed Ellie who wont fly off the handle every time her brothers look at her the wrong way.  Then somehow this will translate to more facial expressions and not shutting down when she is overstimulated.  I started to lose her when we got to that part.

We'll try it and hope it works, but I'm just not sure how she came up with all that after an hour with Ellie.  How does she know its a tense breathing issue and not just a kid being 2 and not wanting to share or 101 other possibilities??  I guess we'll see.