[blindkid] rocking

Richard Holloway rholloway at gopbc.org
Tue May 1 15:17:46 UTC 2012 

I would suggest too that while independent travel is important and certainly the ultimate goal, we don't want to focus on that to the point that we actually discourage our kids moving about as much as possible. Beyond the activities I mentioned before, mix in some sighted guide travel or paired walking as Joe Cutter prefers to say. I like that term better too, though Kendra corrects me because I guess I'm the main person who uses the "paired walking" term around her. She will agree that the sighted person is no more important than the blind person when walking as a pair (or in general), but she still thinks my preferred term is "incorrect", LOL.

Kendra also likes to run, so I seek out locations that are really flat and clear and fairly safe if she falls. Our yard is a terrible option as it has dozens of trees and is not flat. Sometimes she runs with a sighted partner. Sometimes she runs alone with verbal cues. I know some kids also run along a guide rope or similar line. There are no "wrong" solutions. If it works, it works...

The therapy balls comment makes me think also of the large therapy/exercise balls, like the ones even adults can sit on. When Kendra was  younger, she used to use those a lot to move about and roll on. They were sometimes frustrating though, because they roll about in so many directions. Later, we found "peanut" shaped balls, like two overlapping exercise balls which roll in only one direction. Much better control. Much less falling off.

Over time, we amassed quite a bit of equipment the PT's and OT's used to offer her in sessions. Many kinds of swings-- hammock style, platforms, tire swings, stretched fabric and such were all setup where we could change them indoors and then we had outside options-- typical swings, porch swings, a glider bench, a glider chair, a double-facing swing with a moving platform "floor" between them. She always has founding swinging motions both delightful and calming.

Either all of the things we have offered Kendra in general have been really effective in greatly reducing unwanted motion or we have been super-lucky and she spontaneously quit the random spinning and such. She never rocked a lot, but we have the spinning concerns and we have eye pressing from time to time. One other eye-pressing thought-- I can't recall her ever doing that when she is sitting around with her BrailleNote in hand, reading and typing, and that is a LOT of the time. It  makes me think that busy hands and an occupied mind may press less. Then when she does it a lot, wearing glasses makes her hand bump the glasses if she goes to press and remind her to stop. We haven't used glasses much, but they seem to help when pressing is more of a problem.

I think what it comes down to is any combination of what we all have mentioned (and more) have a good chance of greatly reducing unwanted motion for our children, and even if these don't solve the problem, there's really no "down side" to getting more exercise!

	-Richard

On Apr 30, 2012, at 10:26 PM, Deborah Kent Stein wrote:

> 
> 
> Another area to consider is why our blind kids tend to be sedentary. How can they be encouraged to move in the ways that sighted kids move to burn off energy?  Early cane travel makes movement possible, but kids need the freedom to use their cane skills all day, every day, just as sighted kids are constantly moving and exploring on their own.  It would be interesting to observe sighted kids of the same age as a blind child in question and note the various activities in which the sighted kids engage. What are the differences?
> 
> Debbie
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Beyer" <jim at riversedgehomes.com>
> To: "'Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)'" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 8:04 PM
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] rocking
> 
> 
>> Trampolines are a healthy device for getting rid of some of the extra bounce
>> in our otherwise sedentary blind kids.
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindkid-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Barbara Hammel
>> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 2:28 PM
>> To: Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
>> Subject: Re: [blindkid] rocking
>> 
>> I've an idea.  Since he is so young, what about some of those therapy balls
>> that are soft and squishy?  See if it's wanting to poke his fingers into
>> something.  Some of them even have balls in them to poke your fingers along.
>> 
>> Eyeglasses have been suggested.  Obviously, he can live without it if he
>> stops for a while.  Think about what you might be doing different when it
>> quits.  Do you stop commenting about what he is doing?  Stuff like that. If
>> 
>> you stopped doing something because the behavior had seemed to become
>> extinct, do whatever you did before to get it back down again.
>> If he wants something to stimulate him in the eye area, maybe try a heat
>> pack or cold pack.  (Act like they must hurt so want to give something to
>> aid it.)
>> Just some out-of-the-box ideas that no one has suggested yet.
>> Barbara
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance. -- Carl Sandburg
>> -----Original Message----- From: Traci Wilkerson
>> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 3:14 PM
>> To: Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
>> Subject: Re: [blindkid] rocking
>> 
>> So what suggestions do you have for eye poking?  Our son has decreased it,
>> but then will kick it back up again, he even quit completely for about 4
>> months, but then it started up again.  He is 5, right now we are at the
>> bribing stage.  :)
>> 
>> I was just wondering about this reading your posts about movement, if I
>> could somehow spin these to apply to his poking,no intention to hijack!
>> 
>> Traci (Olivia,7 Evan,5, both LCA)
>> On Apr 30, 2012 3:17 PM, "Barbara Hammel" <poetlori8 at msn.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Richard's suggestion of a rocking chair might be a good one.  I can tell
>>> you that when I was 12, I was a jumper.  In the dorm I was always reminded
>>> that I couldn't jump without a jump rope.  Needless to say, when I'd go to
>>> the Gym, I'd grab a jump rope and jump as fast as I could.  (I always won
>>> the "How many times can you jump in x amount of time" contests, too.)
>>> Barbara
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance. -- Carl Sandburg
>>> -----Original Message----- From: Richard Holloway
>>> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 12:35 PM
>>> To: Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)
>>> Subject: Re: [blindkid] rocking
>>> 
>>> Frequent rocking or spinning or other "blindisims" can be an issue for
>>> certain. Our daughter, Kendra (age 9) is much more prone to spin than to
>>> rock, but I suspect a similar approach may work for both.
>>> 
>>> Blind kids generally move around less and end up with other motion in
>>> their "sensory diet" than sighted children. I'm absolutely certain this is
>>> true for Kendra. We got her jumping in a trampoline when she was very
>>> young. She has jumped to the point of destroying so many that I have lost
>>> count, She is 9 years old and we have gone through roughly 8 new
>>> trampolines (give or take a couple) in roughly 8 years. She used to jump
>>> as
>>> much as an hour or two a day. She still jumps, though a bit less now. She
>>> has broken countless elastic loops, springs, trampoline mats, and even
>>> actual frames (the springs wore the frame until it failed while being
>>> jumped on in one case). We have been through at least 5 designs from
>>> different manufacturers. It isn't the trampolines, she just wears them
>>> out...
>>> 
>>> We have added other movement as much as possible. Gymnastics, Dancing,
>>> Swimming, Biking, Swinging on various kinds of Swings... If Kendra feels
>>> she "has" to spin? We tell her to put it into a dance... We never really
>>> had to deal with the rocking so much, but I wonder if more "appropriate"
>>> rocking, like using a rocking chair would help get that out of her system,
>>> so to speak. THAT (a rocking chair) is just a guess-- I suppose it could
>>> make it better or worse, but I doubt a test for a short time would do much
>>> harm. On the swinging, if the feels to old to swing in a kid's swing, use
>>> a
>>> bench type (porch) swing. She can swing with a friend, sibling, or
>>> parent....
>>> 
>>> Our thought here is that socially appropriate movement like spinning in a
>>> dance, or in the pool is a good thing as compared to spinning in the
>>> middle
>>> of the den or a department store... Kendra has also developed sort of a
>>> "spinning seat drop" in the trampoline which we are okay with, so long as
>>> it stops (or at least reduces) other less desirable movement when she's
>>> not
>>> jumping.
>>> 
>>> Our approach has generally been  to send our girl her to the trampoline
>>> when she starts to spin at home. "Do you need to go jump?" We usually
>>> don't
>>> mention she's spinning but just suggest she go and jump, though sometimes
>>> we have addressed it directly too. What we have noticed is when she stops
>>> jumping so much, she starts to spin more when she is just standing around.
>>> It is very repeatable. Go back to jumping more and the spinning is quickly
>>> reduced. When she has the routine, sometimes she'll just say "I need to go
>>> to the trampoline" and she will self-correct for a desire to spin. That
>>> took a while, but it is pretty neat that she does it at this point.
>>> 
>>> So my suggestion is to redirect when she is rocking (spinning, etc.) and
>>> keep her moving as much as possible.
>>> 
>>> Good luck!
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Apr 30, 2012, at 10:12 AM, hpscheffer at aol.com wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi, I'm looking for suggestions or your feedback on how to help my
>>>> daughter to stop rocking. She is gotten a lot better, but as some of you
>>>> may know, when she gets excited or really into something she will do it
>>>> without realizing it. I'm thinking we are missing something, because just
>>>> reminding her does not do it. I've heard about the vestibular stimulation
>>>> rocking will do for a blind person, but her OT and her PT have never
>>>> worked
>>>> with a blind child and they do not seem to have an answer. She is 12 and
>>>> soon to be 13, she is blind from ROP.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Any information will be appreciated.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Heidi
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
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