Associating EATING with a POSITIVE AFFECT: I WANT TO EAT!!

I wrote about Anirudh last week also. I see this 3 year old bright child with Cerebral Palsy. He is the only child of his parents. He is on liquid diet. We engage in eating as a part of lunch time, thrice a week in Early Intervention Group. It is becoming clear that the number of issues that the child is facing today is because of lack of exposure. The mother has been pouring liquid in his mouth holding his mouth up with her hands.

In last 9 sessions, i have been taking his eating, where in I was putting liquid oats in his mouth with a spoon, when I figured the food needs to be dropped in the mouth and he cant clean the spoon using his lips and tongue. He shows resistance when it comes to food. He turns his head away and blocks anything coming to him with both his hands.

Seeing his body language and facial expressions, and the way he is fed one can very clearly make out that eating or food is not associated with positive affect. Parent training is so important. Only if the mother knew she can try to make her child eat in a different way and try different things with him, the situation could have been very different. 

Another way to understand this child's situation is the diagnosis of neurological condition of Cerebral Palsy. The mothers looks dull and sad. The life is tough with a child with special needs. Accepting such things is a challenge. They are dealing with the social stigma of having a child with special needs. It seems the mother had lost hope that the child can do things like other children which lead to lack of exposure for many things.

I have had 9 sessions of eating with him. Today had ate well. With reminders he was able to keep his hands down. We took one line from the 'Johy johny Rhyme'- "Open your mouth" and then we used it to see what happens when Johny opens his mouth and what happens when Anirudh opens his mouth, reminders , play, voice modulation, narrations and observing his peer eating, Anirudh was able to eat like his peers today. We poured his rice in the plate and I made him eat with spoon.

I have told the mother to get his food in a tiffin and not a glass just like other children. My first focus with him is to bring Willingness in him to eat. Intent works wonders. If Anirudh will want to eat food, then we can introduce him with a range of textures and foods.

Excited to see how things go!!

Keep watching for more



Anirudh's Plate and spoon after we finished eating. 

Kinetic Sand or Spicy Cream: Creativity at its Best!!

My little 5 year old friend with Autism played with kinetic sand today. 

Aarav (name changed)  is tactile defensive. He doesn’t like messy stuff. He said that his hands became dirty when he played with spicy cream (masala cream) today. 

When we went into the FFC (function, features, and class) we figured that the word spicy came from the powdery structure and the softness Of the kinetic sand made it like cream. Since it was called spicy  we ended up tasting kinetic sand today. It was yuck!! Since it was cream, we also rubbed it on doremon and fish to make their skin soft.

The best part is he started naming things so creatively. This is much better then “this” or that” (non-specific indicators)

#playissurvival #autism #ASD #creativityatitsbest #kidswithspecialneeds #kineticsand #masala #cream #masalacream #tactiledefensive #messyplay #sensoryplay #cream #spices #iamhappy #vocabulary #language #languagetherapy

  Kinetic Sand.

Learning while Observing Peers: Therapeutic Peer Groups facilitates Learning

We recently started an Early Intervention Care (EIC) group for 3 children. 2 children in the group have a diagnosis of Autism and 1 child has Cerebral palsy. One of the kids with Autism has an exposure to school, where as the other two kids are completely new to a group setting. 

The children come in with strong rigidities and behavior patterns. The child with Cerebral palsy, Anirudh (name changed), is adorable. He has oro-motor issues and is still on liquid diet. He is cognitively sharp and has savant skills. He only eats with his mothers which was a challenge since eating time would become a struggle. 

We have had 5 sessions till now, which include a lunch time of 30 min each day. Every time when Anirudh resisted putting everything in his mouth, I let him be and we had 2-3 bites of liquid oats in first 3 classes, as an exposure. I would narrate for him that his friends Jaya and Raghav (name changed) are also eating. At the same time he would observe his friends eating and smiling. I would also label the feeling of the kids as they ate.

In the fourth class, we started with resistance again. One therapist blocked his hands and the other poured the liquid in his mouth. The only thought that struck me when was that this is such a task for the mother. Anirudh would not be enjoying eating at all. In the same class, he asked for one more bite saying 'one more bite'. I wasn't blocking his hands any more and he has good 10-15 bites of liquid oats asking for more.

Today Anirudh drank watermelon juice willingly. 

This has been a highlight of the week.