On ball pits and trapezes
Our home therapy gym is coming along. This past weekend we added a ball pit (clever recycling of a Pack ‘n’ Play) making our setup nearly complete. I’d like to add a rope ladder. My husband is brainstorming that one.
I try to feed Chee her Sensory Diet on about the same schedule as her Food Diet - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Before bedtime we try to encourage swinging only. The calming effect of swinging seems to carry her a little more sedately upstairs and into dreamland.
The recent additions of the trapeze and ball pit seem to have yielded some positive fruits. Sunday she navigated a trip to the Children’s Museum with only the most minor of dances with dysregulation brought on by unexpected, loud clapping and cheering. Celebrations such as that typically send her right into meltdown. After freezing in place when she heard the loud laughter, clapping and shouts of “Good job!!” she quickly collected herself while mumbling, “Hi everyone…” and moved on to discover something new. And I quit holding my breath.
Monday her teacher reported to me that she “didn’t blink an eye” during a birthday celebration in her class. Another first for her. The singing of happy birthday has typically led to a crying, inconsolable meltdown.
We’ve seen smoother transitions. More conversations. Longer conversations. Less frustration with Ess grabbing her toys. She deserves serious props for that. Ess can be pretty obnoxious.
While it’s not possible to say for sure what led to our awesome weekend and rockin’ first couple of days of school this week, I can say the timing matches up pretty well with the set up the trapeze and the ball pit.
The ball pit is something. I admit I like to climb in myself. There is a peaceful, just rightness to swimming in 300 lightweight plastic balls. Chee’s Sensory Diet is proving to be good not just for her, but for all of us.
How great! All of that sounds like such fun stuff - it’s amazing that it’s therapeutic, too!
My son LOVES ball pits. But he’s so big now…Anyway, when he started therapy at about 3 years old, the ball pit was Mecca. He just couldn’t make it through the day without a little swim. I think it’s great that you’ve worked so hard to create your own sensory gym. I wish you lived closer, we’d come over to play (though I’m pretty sure my son is big enough and strong enough to break a pack ‘n’ play with very little effort!
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Wow, am a I glad I stumbled over here from Kristen’s place! Your home sensroy gym sounds pretty cool. I’d love to read more about that…and get some ideas for something I might try at home with/for ny son, Nik.
So glad to read that your daughter’s making great strides since you installed the gym.
Niksmom, I’m glad you stumbled over here too! I’m happy tell you all about our home gym! We’ve tried to be creative and economical with it. We bought a porch swing frame to use as the frame for our swing. It was reasonable ($125) and we were able to avoid having to hang something from a beam in the ceiling. And eventually it can be repurposed as an actual porch swing when its therapeutic services are no longer needed.
We installed a couple of extra bolts in it so that in addition to a regular swing, we have right next to it the trapeze (which we just pulled in from our swingset in the backyard). And then of course there’s the ball pit. We also have a mini trampoline and a giant pink exercise ball (pink because it was on clearance for $10 - LOL). And let’s not forget the balance beam and the ladder (which lays flat on the floor) that my husband made so she can work on her balance (although it was the orthotics in her shoes that really made the difference there).
If you want to know more about what exercises we do and why, let me know. I can talk about what works for Chee.
[...] a revamping of our home Sensory Diet. We’ve been doing the same stuff since January without much change. Maybe another social [...]