Shop During Harkla’s Christmas SALE! Save 15% on ANY order! Shop and Save Until Dec. 14, 2023! harkla.co/pages/christmas-sale
In this episode, we explore the fascinating topic of organization of behavior in children and how occupational therapy can play a crucial role in addressing these challenges - and how parents can use the same strategies at home!
We start by talking about how to identify sensory preferences, then jump into using specific sensory activities to meet sensory needs.
We also give tips for adding emotions into the sensory activities, practicing specific sensory strategies for when the child feels disorganized and dysregulated, and finally we touch on how to use the strategies in different situations.
Shop During Harkla’s Christmas SALE! Save 15% on ANY order! Shop and Save Until Dec. 14, 2023! harkla.co/pages/christmas-sale
In this episode, we explore the fascinating topic of organization of behavior in children and how occupational therapy can play a crucial role in addressing these challenges - and how parents can use the same strategies at home!
We start by talking about how to identify sensory preferences, then jump into using specific sensory activities to meet sensory needs.
We also give tips for adding emotions into the sensory activities, practicing specific sensory strategies for when the child feels disorganized and dysregulated, and finally we touch on how to use the strategies in different situations.
So, when they're struggling with that organization of behavior, they're not having an adaptive response or they're frustrated or mad, then you're actually incorporating those sensory strategies, ideally before they reach a point of like no return. So you also want to have kind of a plan in place of what you can do when they have passed that point of no return. But ultimately, you actually need to implement those strategies, in the moment, during those moments of frustration, when the child is disorganized.
Rachel:
I'm Rachel.
Jessica:
And I'm Jessica. And this is All Things Sensory by Harkla.
Rachel:
We are both certified occupational therapy assistants and together with Harkla, we are on a mission to empower parents, therapists and educators to help raise confident and strong children of all abilities.
Jessica:
On this podcast, we chat about all things sensory diving into special needs, occupational therapy, parenting, self care, overall health and wellness and so much more.
Rachel:
We're here to provide raw, honest and fun strategies, ideas and information for parents, therapists and educators as well as other professionals to implement into daily life.
Jessica:
Thank you so much for joining us. Before we jump into today's episode, we want to let you know that our Holiday Sensory Survival Guide is on sale right now through Christmas and this is something that we've had on sale for the last couple of years during the holiday season, because it provides you with some tips, tricks and strategies to just get through the holiday season.
Rachel:
There are over 35 pages in this survival guide and they include things like road trips survival activities and strategies holiday picky eating, our gift guide, our modified gift guides and all like a huge ones like our sensory gift guide. We provide you with a holiday season sensory diets, visual schedule template, because we are obsessed with visuals, how to use sensory diets and visual schedules, sensory diets for when you're traveling, which is what I'm going to be using quite often this holiday season. Holiday traditions, low talks, holiday ideas, you know surviving holiday parties, and we also share 10 tips for sensory friendly holidays. So lots and lots of information is included in this survival guide PDF document that you have access to forever. It is $5. You can head to the link in our show notes and check it out. We have one other announcement we want to share on this episode before we jump in. We do have our 12 Days of Christmas sale happening from November 28 through December 9 2023. So if you're listening to this episode right now, it is time to save.
Jessica:
For our 12 Days of Christmas sale you will save 12% on everything on our website that includes our physical products and our digital products. Plus on Giving Tuesday which is November 28th, we will double our donation to game changers. This is a local non profit organization to get kids involved in sports. We currently donate 1% of all of our proceeds to game changers, but on Giving Tuesday November 28 we will double any purchases that are made.
Rachel:
You don't want to miss this sale in case you missed our Black Friday Cyber Monday sale. This is another fantastic discount that we are sharing for our most popular compression swing, our weighted vest, our weighted compression best, blankets, hugs, lap animals, weighted animals, weighted lap pads, you know we've got body socks, compression sheets, we've got everything you need for a happy, healthy organized sensory system.
Jessica:
So you can go to the link in the shownotes. The 12% discount will be applied automatically when you click that link. Again, that's our 12 Days of Christmas sale from November 28 to December 9 2023.
Rachel:
Happy Holidays, let's jump into today's episode. Hey everyone, welcome back to all things sensory we are again so happy to have you here. Welcome if this is your first time listening, this is just the best place to be if you're curious about sensory integration, just parenting kids with unique needs, learning about your own unique needs. If you have listened to every single episode then welcome back. This is a unique episode. We're excited about it.
Jessica:
Do you know what's so funny?
Rachel:
What?
Jessica:
You say that in almost every episode.
Rachel:
Because I think about it I'm like man if I start a new podcast and I start like right in the middle, like on the latest one. I haven't listened to all of them. Some people, it's like their first time listening. They're like, am I gonna like these chicks?
Jessica:
No, I mean, you say today's a unique topic.
Rachel:
Oh.
Jessica:
No, your introductions great. No, you
Rachel:
all I say it's a unique topic.
Jessica:
We're talking about something very unique and different.
Rachel:
There all so good, though.
Jessica:
Anyways, I just wanted to point that out, in case anyone else has noticed.
Rachel:
So what Episode Are we recording today Jess?
Jessica:
Today we're gonna talk about organizational behavior. We're gonna talk about what it is, why it's important, and then we are going to give you five strategies, tips on how to improve organizational behavior with your child, your clients or your students.
Rachel:
So what is organization of behavior? It's a mouthful, but it really just refers to the way a person processes sensory information, and has an appropriate adaptive response to sensory input. So a real life example would be a person, or let's say a child, is we'll give a couple different examples. A child is swinging on a park swing, and they just want to go higher and higher and higher and it is helping them it's helping to organize their nervous system, and they are able to get off the swing and go play or maybe they're going to school afterwards. And they're able to focus at school, it's helping to have an appropriate adaptive response. Whereas if it was disorganizing them, they get on the swing, swing high, high, high, and then they're just riled up. They're rambunctious,. They can't sit down and focus. That is not an appropriate adaptive response. So an adaptive responses, like what is happening after the sensory input is provided.
Jessica:
Yes. And if they're disorganized, then we in the clinic setting we call that poor organization of behavior. And so I actually document on organization of behavior, which I abbreviate in my notes as OOB. I document on it pretty much every session for every client, because it is their ability to come into the clinic session, and modulate all of the sensory input, modulate the activities we're doing, be able to focus and attend, and if not, then you know, my job as a therapist is to help them improve their organizational behavior and improve their ability to have that adaptive response and to get through their session and ultimately get through their day. So.
Rachel:
I'm glad that you brought that up.
Jessica:
Yeah.
Rachel:
Because I think if you're documenting audit in the session, and you're saying Johnny had poor organizational behavior today, and he would maybe he was struggling to transition away from his caregiver. He was struggling to attend to tasks, he was maybe all over the place, or maybe he was laying on the floor. So things like that those types of behaviors that we see that's like the organization of behavior. But if they had great organizational behavior, they were in a good mood, they were focused, they were happy, they were able to follow instructions in transition, and I think it's a really easy way to document like, overall, how did the session go? Would you agree?
Jessica:
Oh, absolutely and oftentimes, I'll also compare it to a previous session in my note. I'll say, Johnny, demoed improved organizational behavior as compared to previous session due to these factors or these things that I provided to them or helped them do. So that I can show the need for therapy, but also to show that the child is learning new skills and learning new strategies that they can then take home.
Rachel:
Yeah, love that.
Jessica:
So how do we help our clients or if you're a parent, how do you help your child improve their organization of behavior? We have five things to do and we did put them in order of kind of the best way to go about it.
Rachel:
The order of operation.
Jessica:
The order of operation.
Rachel:
Yes. Okay, so improving organizational behavior. Number one, we need to know what their sensory preferences are. I feel like this is our number one for literally everything in life. We
need to be able to identify:
Are they sensory craving? Are they craving vestibular input? Are they avoiding auditory input? Are they over stimulated by the busy room or the environment of the therapy clinic? When I walk out side and there's like leaves all over the floor outside, like the floor, the ground, we have turf, so it looks like like carpet. It's just like I can't even focus. I'm like I suck these leaves up and like it really stresses me out. I know that it's a sensory like trigger for me, so I know what I need to do in order to help my body have an appropriate adapter. response.
Jessica:
Yeah.
Rachel:
So yes, identify their sensory preference, fill out the sensory profile with the parents or have the parents fill it out, we do have like a quick sensory checklist in our sensory diet course, and then if you're in the clinic, if your therapist observing their behavior, observing their sensory needs in the clinic, during the activities that they're doing. Just get a good overall understanding of where their sensory preferences are.
Jessica:
Yep and a lot of it is just observation. Watching them throughout the day, watching what they seek out, what they avoid, that kind of stuff. Number two, is after we've identified sensory preferences, we want to start providing the child with specific sensory activities to meet their sensory needs, or their sensory threshold is what we call it, and talk to them about it and incorporate emotions into it. So if your child loves to jump on the trampoline, and they laugh, and are happy during this activity, make sure you incorporate those emotions into it. And you can tell them, You're smiling right now, while you're jumping on the trampoline. It looks like you're happy or you can ask them questions and say, How does jumping on the trampoline, make you feel? Does it make you feel happy or sad or mad? And have them identify how they feel during this specific activity.
Rachel:
Yeah, I think that's so helpful and just modeling and making sure that they are recognizing that that's a good thing that we're talking about this and being aware of it. So number three, we are going to start identifying situations where maybe they become upset or disorganized and we like to use a program called the zones of regulation. We have a couple of episodes on the zones of regulation, we'll link. But you're going to identify the color of the zone that they're in and you can talk about different situations. And oh, when you are going to school in the morning, and you're feeling a little bit nervous, do you know what zone that is? And you can talk about that being the yellow zone and what strategies they can use in order to feel a little bit more calm. We're going to model these. We're going to talk about it ourselves as the parents or the caregivers or the therapists. When I'm feeling frustrated, I have to take a break and take three deep breaths and push my hands together. They need to know that it's normal to get upset, to have these hard days, and to know that they can turn around easily just with some strategies.
Jessica:
Yeah, and we do have a social story template that you can download for free. We'll link the freebie page below in the shownotes. But it's a really great strategy to use and you create this story with your child or you can do this in the clinic too. You identify a situation where the child feels anxious or mad or frustrated, you draw a picture, you write a little blurb about it, and then you create a variety of strategies, and you have it all written out, drawn, pictures, whatever is best for that child. And you have it as a story. And then you can read the story, you can practice and roleplay. So that when the child is starting to encounter that situation, and they become anxious or frustrated, you know, they already know what they can do, and you can help them implement those strategies.
Rachel:
I love that. One other thing that I was thinking of for playing games to identify those situations. This is for an older child maybe who has language skills, and they can identify these emotions, but putting different examples or situations on dice and rolling the dice and talking about them or writing the different situations on Jenga blocks and then playing Jenga. So every time you pull a block, it has a situation or it has a zone and you discuss the different feelings and the different emotions and situations and you problem solve working through those different situations.
Jessica:
The next thing, so number four, is to actually implement those strategies when the child is disorganized. So when they're struggling with that organization of behavior, they're not having an adaptive response or they're frustrated or mad. Then you're actually incorporating those sensory strategies, ideally, before they reach a point of like no return. So you also want to have kind of a plan in place of what you can do when they have passed that point of no return. But ultimately, you actually need to implement those strategies in the moment, during those moments of frustration,when the child is disorganized.
Rachel:
You want to make sure that you're reviewing if the strategy helped or not, but wait until they're calm to do so. It's really hard to have a solid conversation when the child's in that fight or flight or when they're in that red zone. So we want to make sure that we are speaking less, we're not, you know, the lights are turned down if possible, we're helping them regulate in the moment. We're not quizzing them. Why did you do that? I mean, we would never say that anyways. How come you got frustrated, when Johnny took the ball from you? We don't want to have those conversations when they are disorganized. So help them calm down, co-regulate, identify the emotion, identify the strategy that they're going to use. Once they're calm, and they're organized, come back, discuss it. If it's appropriate, and you want to take a video or you can take a video of them when they are really disorganized, save that for later and then once they're calm, show it to them, see if they can figure out what they think about it, what thoughts they have, and then what they could do next time to help. So sometimes if it's appropriate, if you have consent to videotape them, and use that to help them learn from it. That can be really beneficial.
Jessica:
And last number five, we want to generalize all of this for different situations and different environments. So if you are practicing all of this in the clinic, we want to be able to carry this over into home, school, grocery store, playdates, the park, anywhere that the child is going and spending time. So we want to have strategies and tools for different environments. We want to use visual supports, because so many of our kiddos are visual learners, but overall visuals just help when someone is disorganized. It's so much easier to process a picture than it is to process auditory information. And so having those visuals available, you can use a key ring with picture cards, that's always an easy way to take strategies with you. And just make sure that everyone in the child's life is using the same verbiage. So teachers, therapists, grandparents, daycare providers, that everyone is on the same page of okay, when Johnny starts to feel frustrated, this is what we say, this is how we help him, this is what's working best, and make sure that those tools are available to everyone who's caring for the child.
Rachel:
Keep in mind, it's not going to be an overnight fix or solution to improving organizational behavior. It takes time it takes practice and consistency. If we're not carrying over these strategies in a variety of environments, it's going to be really difficult for the child to learn and recognize like, oh, when I'm frustrated at school, I can do this or when I'm frustrated, when I'm angry at home, I can do this, and when I'm at Grandma's house, oh, I can do that. So they really need to practice in those different environments in order to learn that it's it can help and they can learn how to improve their organizational behavior. And again, it will look different for younger children, it will look different for older children, it will look different for kids who are pre-verbal or non speaking, it will look different for everyone. Just like everyone's sensory needs are unique, everyone's organization of behavior is unique and also its ever changing too. Like, hour by hour, minute by minute, day by day, it can change on a dime. So keep that in mind. If you have additional questions on this topic, let us know. Shoot us a message on Instagram at all things sensory podcasts, we're happy to help and problem solve with you if you need it. If you need more help, we do offer our two-on-one mentoring sessions and those are great because you meet with Jess and I. Two-on-one. There's two of us, one of you. I always think that sounds funny. But we meet with you for a virtual consult. We run through some things and give you some ideas. It's not therapy. It's not a replacement for therapy. But it is a really beneficial tool that and service that we provide.
Jessica:
Also, if this episode was helpful, but you want to learn more about sensory preferences and incorporating sensory activities or sensory diet routines into the day, we do have our full length digital course, our sensory diet digital course, that parents can take to help gain a better understanding of how to meet their child's sensory needs throughout the day. Also, it is approved for continuing education units through AOTA. So if you're an OT or an OTA like us, a COTA, then you get your continuing education units by taking the course and passing the quiz. And so yeah, that'll be linked in the show notes. And I think that's it.
Rachel:
That's it. We will plan on chatting with you next week. If this is your first time we hope you come back. If not, we will just chat with you next time.
Jessica:
Yeah, we'll see you back here for another unique episode.
Rachel:
Okay, love you. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to All Things Sensory by Harkla.
Jessica:
If you want more information on anything mentioned in the show, head over to Harkla.co/podcast to get the shownotes.
Rachel:
If you have any follow up questions, the best place to ask those is in the comments, on the show notes, or message us on our Instagram account which is at Harkla_family or at all things sensory podcast, if you just search Harkla, you'll find us there.
Jessica:
Like we mentioned before our podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla. Whether it's for one of our digital courses or one of our sensory swings, the discount code sensory, will get you 10% off.
Rachel:
Head to Harkla.co/sensory to use that discount code right now.
Jessica:
We are so excited to work together to help create confident kids all over the world. While we make every effort to share correct information, we're still learning.
Rachel:
We will double check all of our facts but realize that medicine is a constantly changing science and art.
Jessica:
One doctor or therapist may have a different way of doing things from another.
Rachel:
We are simply presenting our views and opinions on how to address common sensory challenges, health related difficulties, and what we have found to be beneficial that will be as evidence based as possible.
Jessica:
By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or your child.
Rachel:
Consult your child's pediatrician or therapist for any medical issues that he or she may be having.
Jessica:
This entire disclaimer also applies to any guests or contributors to the podcast.