[blindkid] rocking

[Barbara Hammel]

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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