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BOOKS FOR CAREGIVERS:
Sensational Kids (Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, Ph.D., OTR) This is also an important book for parents to add to their library. Dr. Miller is one of the best-known SPD researchers in the world and she uses her experiences and knowledge to help parents learn about the signs and symptoms of SPD, ways it can be diagnosed and treated, powerful strategies to cope with it, and advocacy methods to bring families hope and assistance. Very inspiring! Visit the SPD Foundation to read Dr. Miller's research for yourself. It fills my heart with hope and joy to know this is happening.
Getting Started--Tools For Parents and Professionals (Carol S. Kranowitz, Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, and Bonnie Arnwine): Do you want to know more about sensory processing disorder and be able to help children with appropriate and fun activities immediately? The "Getting Started" bundle is just what you're looking for! You will receive The Out-of-Sync Child by Carol Stock Kranowitz, the best selling book on recognizing and coping with sensory processing disorder and newly revised and updated. Learn about how SPD affects a child's learning and behavior in this friendly and very thorough book - a must-have for everyone who has or works with a child with SPD. You'll also receive the brand new book from Dr. Lucy Jane Miller, the leading researcher in the field of sensory issues, Sensational Kids. Warm, clear, and upbeat, Dr. Miller identifies the disorder and its four major subtypes, provides insight into assessment and diagnosis, and suggests treatment options and strategies, including the importance of occupational therapy and parental involvement. Also included is Starting Sensory Integration Therapy: Fun Activities that Won't Destroy Your Home! by Bonnie Arnwine. As a parent of a child with SPD and a teacher, Bonnie combines both professional and personal experience and presents fun and easy activities for any child - with or without sensory issues. This is the "go to" book when you need some fun therapy ideas for home and school, for one child or a whole classroom. Activities are divided up by sensory area, so it's easy to find appropriate tactile, movement, hearing, tasting, and smelling fun at your fingertips. The tools you need are around your home - hair gel, zipper bags, baking products, and boxes. The possibilities are endless with "Extend It!" ideas to keep kids interested. They will never know the fun they're having is therapeutic, too!
Raising A Sensory Smart Child (Lindsey Biel, M.A., OTR/L and Nancy Peske): This book is a wonderful tool in helping to teach the reader to learn: How the senses actually work and integrate with each other; How and where to get the very best professional help; "Sensory diet" activities that meet a child's specific needs; Practical solutions for daily problems--from brushing hair to getting dressed to going on family outings; Using "sensory smarts" to help children with developmental delays, learning and attention problems; Ways to advocate for a child at school and make schools "sensory smart"; How to empower a child and teen in the world; and complementary therapies, recommended resourcses, and helpful websites.
We had the pleasure of speaking with both of these amazing women for our newsletter. To me, they are truly inspirational and their book has helped so, so many of us. It's my way of saying, "Thank you!!"
Love, Jean (A. Jean Ayres, Philip R. Erwin and Zoe Mailloux) What book could be more inspirational than one written by the founder of SPD? This book is filled with letters from Dr. Ayres and her nephew, Philip Erwin who had SPD. The book gives inspiration and insight for parents of children who have been diagnosed with this confusing disorder. The best part is not only do we read Dr. Ayres's gentle and subtle counseling, we get to read what goes on in the child's mind who lives with SPD on a daily basis: what it feels like before, during and after the diagnosis, what therapy is like and how they cope.
Starting Sensory Integration Therapy (Bonnie Arnwine) This is a fabulous book describing funtime activities that "won't destroy your home or classroom!" Bonnie is a mother of a child with SPD and has seen the difference that sensory integration therapy made in her son. So, like most of us who have found success with certain forms of therapy, she wrote a book about some of the tools to help other families. That's awesome!!
Music Therapy, Sensory Integration, and the Autistic Child by Dorita S. Berger:
This book is excellent because not only does it teach caregivers about music therapy but it also discusses sensory integration, Autism, brain structures and functions in clear, simple, easy-to-understand language so even the layman can understand. We have had the opportunity to chat with the author and will be posting the interview on 'The Gift' blog in the near future! Thank you for this incredible book, Dorita. We so needed it.
BOOKS FOR CHILDREN:
Goodenoughs Get In Sync (Carol Stock Kranowitz, MA): This delightfully illustrated "chapter book," geared for eight-to-twelve-year-olds, tells the charming tale of five family members and their naughty dog (each with a different sensory processing challenge) and how they get in sync after a tough day. The book is designed with the action of the story in larger print for younger readers to read or hear. Explanations of sensory processing issues are woven through the story in regular type for proficient readers to linger over at leisure. Everyone with sensory issues will find a character to identify with. Maybe your child is like Darwin with sensory overresponsivity. Or perhaps you know someone like Betsy and Filibuster, who are sensory seekers. The Goodenough's tough day starts to make sense when they realize what each needs to do to get back in sync. This wonderful book, from the best-selling author of The Out-of-Sync Child and The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun is a must-have for every family challenged by sensory processing problems!
This is Gabriel Making Sense of School
This Is Gabriel Making Sense of School is a needed book for caregivers, educators and therapists like. Hartley provides a needed piece to the SPD puzzle where she discusses seven of our senses in way that is easily understood. There are many children’s picture books out there on the subject of SPD but this book fills a void where we get to experience what SPD is like for children but we get to see every aspect of the disorder. We see how Gabriel is affected by it, how others may see it and how we can help him cope in our world. This is a very important book and I highly recommend adding it to your SPD resource library.Sensitive Sam is one of Jaimie's all-time favorite children's books. It's all about a little guy names Sam who isn't having a very good day. He just can't get his body to do what he wants or needs it to do and he's frustrated. But his loving teacher and parents teach him tools to use so he can stay organized and have fun! Sam is like a little boy version of my Jaimie. What I loved most about it was that Sam taught Jaimie that even when things in her world aren't going right and she can't do things 'right' we'll still love her and do everything we can to help her. Thank you for this amazing book, Marla.
"Squirmy Wormy" (Future Horizons) is written and illustrated by Lynda Farrington Wilson. What a sweet book this is! We follow a day in the life of little Tyler who struggles with certain events he comes across during his day but always remembers his wonderful coping methods to "Help Himself". This is a powerful message that we need to instill in our 'sensational' kids because they often believe that they 'can't. This book teaches them that they CAN! I read this book to Jaimie, who is having some difficulty with remembering and using her coping methods, and she seemed to enjoy how little Tyler told himself what he needed to do to get through his tough situation. It was actually Xander who loved this book the most--maybe it's because the little boy in the book looks so much like him. =) We thank Lynda for creating this book and glad that we have another SPD resource out there to help not only children with sensory issues but caregivers too. You can find this amazing book at Sensory World.
BOOKS FOR TEACHERS AND EDUCATORS:
Answers to Questions Teachers Ask About Sensory Integration (Jane Koomar, Carol Kranowitz, Stacey Szklut, and others): In this elegant approach to the often elusive subject of sensory integration, Carol Kranowitz, M.A., author of the best selling book The Out-of-Sync Child and expert occupational therapists Stacey Szklut, MS, OTR/L and Dr. Lynn Balzer-Martin, Ph.D, OTR, and other leading experts have assembled an extensive and easy-to-use set of checklists and other tools that are invaluable to every teacher and parent who has children with sensory integration challenges. Developed with OTA Watertown, this book can also be used with our audio product: Teachers Ask About Sensory Integration.
Getting Kids In Sync--Now On DVD! (Carol S. Kranowitz, MA): The author of The Out-of-Sync Child and the brand-new Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun demonstrates SAFE (Sensory-Motor, Appropriate, Fun, and Easy) activities with the help of the children of St. Columba's Nursery School in Washington, DC. If you work with children or have children of your own, you'll want to see this DVD. Learn about wonderful activities to help children of all abilities to develop their bodies and integrate their senses, and they are easy to use in a home or school! This is a great DVD for any parent, teacher, or childcare provider looking for easy and fun ideas for incorporating sensory activities into a child's day. The demonstrations by young children make the activities easy to understand, while Carol's explanations clarify how the activities can be used and how children on differing developmental levels react.
MUSIC/CDs:
28 New Instant Songames--New on CD! (Barbara Sher): 28 Instant Songames - musical, fun-filled activities that help children develop mind, body, and spirit. Includes 28 songs on compact disk and a companion booklet filled with wonderful activities for home and school. Helps children develop their senses, coordination, body awareness, self-esteem, and social skills. Appropriate for children of all abilities, ages 3 to 8.
Cool Bananas--CD (Genevieve Jereb): Cool Bananas was created to provide children with a selection of strong, regulated rhythms to support a state of calm, organization and regulation in their nervous systems. Enchanting favorite children’s songs sung at 50 to 70 beats per minute support the dysregulated child as background music during therapy, classroom and home activities (e.g., table top time, play time, bath time, car rides). Don Campbell, in his book, Rhythms of Learning, discusses the importance of using rhythms of 50 to 70 beats per minute: “The pulse in these slow movements is similar to the rhythm of the human heartbeat and has been found to slow body functions….” Soothing rhythms, songs and meditative sounds are also included on this CD to support bedtime routines, cool downs and quieter therapies.
Danceland--Audiocassette (Kristen Fitz Taylor RPT and Cheryl McDonald RPT): Fly aboard an imaginary airplane to explore the 'exotic continent of musicality' and all the sensory-motor activities hidden in Danceland. Polka to an authentic Krakowiak, or have kids choreograph their own movements to singer Lora Dart's Native American song "Touch the Earth." Kids can croon karaoke-style to an uproarious re-make of the 60's hit, "Wild Thing," or have a Kwanzaa party to "Wisdom of Africa." Danceland is an invitation to move joyfully and creatively. Danceland offers safe and surgent fun for kids of all abilities. The travel guide contains lots of good ideas with solid theoretical underpinnings to turn dances into games, choreographed stories, or theatrical activities. Many inexpensive prop ideas are also included. You'll be surprised and delighted by all the sensory-motor activities hidden in Danceland.
Danceland Compact Disk (Kristen Fitz Taylor RPT and Cheryl McDonald RPT) New 2nd edition now available on compact disk!: Fly aboard an imaginary airplane to explore the 'exotic continent of musicality' and all the sensory-motor activities hidden in Danceland. Polka to an authentic Krakowiak, or have kids choreograph their own movements to singer Lora Dart's Native American song "Touch the Earth." Kids can croon karaoke-style to an uproarious re-make of the 60's hit, "Wild Thing," or have a Kwanzaa party to "Wisdom of Africa." Danceland is an invitation to move joyfully and creatively. Danceland offers safe and surgent fun for kids of all abilities. The travel guide contains lots of good ideas with solid theoretical underpinnings to turn dances into games, choreographed stories, or theatrical activities. Many inexpensive prop ideas are also included. You'll be surprised and delighted by all the sensory-motor activities hidden in Danceland.
