Recent research published in the Journal of Neuroscience, indicates that a mother’s touch not only provides security, comfort and love but also cognitive function and stress reduction. This study was performed using rats. The results indicated that “sensory stimuli from maternal care can modify the gene that controls a key messenger of stress called corticotropin-releasing […]
More research is being published in the Early Childhood Research Quarterly on self regulation skills in young children. The researchers studied 1298 children from birth through first grade. After controlling for at risk factors such as ethnic minority status, low maternal education, low family income and chronic depressive symptoms in the mother, children with strong […]
Therapists are constantly answering this question – are behaviors in children sensory based? There are different ways of finding an answer to this question. One quick tool to start with is the Motivation Assessment Scale. This was developed by V. Mark Durrand PhD and Daniel B Crimmins PhD in 1986. It consists of 16 questions […]
Title of Book: This is Gabriel Making Sense of School – A Book about Sensory Processing DisorderAuthor: Hartley SteinerIllustrator: Brandon FallISBN#: 978-1-4269-2777-5 Parents, teachers and occupational or physical therapists who interact with children who have sensory processing disorder will enjoy this new book entitled This Is Gabriel Making Sense of School – A Book About […]
Exciting research from the Journal of Neuroscience was published which indicates that is takes less effort for the brain to register predictable images than unpredictable images. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers determined that the brain is not static waiting to process visual information, but attempts to predict visual information. When the brain is […]
I came across two great articles written by Rachel Rudman,OTR/L to hand out to preschool teachers. The first one is entitled A Preschool Teachers Back to Basic Guide to Hand and Fine Motor Skill Development. This article is also appropriate to distribute to parents of babies and young children. It explains the importance of tummy […]
This is a great activity to encourage fine motor skills, tactile input and creativity. The big bonus – can be simple or very complex so it works well with kids of varying abilities. Here are the full directions for Fabric Creations. Give this one a try!
The Sensory Processing Foundation has provided information for OT’s, PT’s, parents, teachers or any professional with experience in sensory processing disorder on how to comment on the APA website to include sensory processing disorder in the DSM-5. Check out the SPD Foundation webpage to read sample comments and how to reigster on the APA website.
The Journal of Neuroscience published research indicating that if you have smaller fingers you have better tactile acuity. They found that in general, women had a better sense of touch due to smaller hand size. The authors conclude that smaller fingers have more closely spaced receptors (Merkel cells – associated with light touch). The researchers […]