Today during Raquel's OT session, I was able to get some insight from the Queen of Sensory (Karin) on how to determine whether or not one of Raquel's tantrums is sensory related or simply behavior provoked. Either way, they are hard to watch, but today I learned quite a bit from Karin - as usual.
Raquel was in a very playful mood this morning and greeted Karin at the door like she always does. It started out to be just another typical OT session but then a tantrum started for what I thought came out of no where. We both tried unsuccessfully to redirect her, so I picked her up, put the song on, and in a few minutes, we were back to work. Karin then asked me why I did that. My immediate response was that it was a sensory tantrum, and I didn't want her to get hurt. Karin disagreed. She said that it was definitely behavioral and that I should have gotten a pillow in case she threw herself back. She said that what I did was bail her out of a frustrating situation, completely reinforcing the behavior. GREAT. Now our occupational therapist is turning in to a behavior one...
Karin then described what she felt happened: They were working with these big, snap on beads. Raquel was sitting between Karin's legs, and Karin was having Raquel push in and pull off the beads. Raquel became frustrated because she couldn't do it without Karin's help, then walked away from it. Karin and I started having a conversation - not giving Raquel any of our attention - and the tantrum started, gradually escalating.
Then she asked me to describe the tantrums yesterday during Jennifer's session. I told her how Gabby was wound up from being at school, I was irritated at her not calming down and instead running through the house, and that Raquel just got way overstimulated - one time at the table when Gabby was sitting across from her and messing with her toys. Karin said that would be considered a sensory tantrum, a tantrum provoked by energy changes. She also reminded me how much Raquel feeds off my energy source and that I need to constantly remind myself to stay calm.
We were talking about all of this as Karin was working with Raquel. She took the visual over-stimulation one step further by showing me something. Karin was giving Raquel the plastic eggs to crack open one by one. Raquel was having a great time, being very successful, and had a huge smile on her face. Karin said, "Watch this" and dumped the whole bag of plastic eggs in front of Raquel. Her temperament completely changed. The smile vanished. She got extremely overwhelmed by it, and instead of picking them up one by one, she was just aggressively touching all of them with no kind of play action. Karin then put them away and got Raquel back to where she needed to be, but it was AMAZING to see the difference in her by such a simple thing. Karin wants me to notice what we are doing during the ABA sessions that is causing her to be the most frustrated, that it could be a visual thing with simply too much stuff being out at once. Me witnessing this was HUGE and makes me much more aware of how such sudden changes can really affect her.
She had a great session with Jennifer this afternoon. I tried to keep Gabby preoccupied for the most part and we didn't have one tantrum. After the session, we had our ABA Team Meeting. Again, very encouraging and we all seem to be on the same page. My biggest concerns right now are Raquel having the tantrums again (although they are much more mild), and Gabby interfering during the sessions she's here for. Janine put a "Gabby Plan" in place tonight, which I think will really help. It will allow Gabby to feel like she is a critical part of Raquel's therapy, but at the same time, confine her to the kitchen area or office to do special arts and crafts "needed" for the sessions.
Raquel was in a very playful mood this morning and greeted Karin at the door like she always does. It started out to be just another typical OT session but then a tantrum started for what I thought came out of no where. We both tried unsuccessfully to redirect her, so I picked her up, put the song on, and in a few minutes, we were back to work. Karin then asked me why I did that. My immediate response was that it was a sensory tantrum, and I didn't want her to get hurt. Karin disagreed. She said that it was definitely behavioral and that I should have gotten a pillow in case she threw herself back. She said that what I did was bail her out of a frustrating situation, completely reinforcing the behavior. GREAT. Now our occupational therapist is turning in to a behavior one...
Karin then described what she felt happened: They were working with these big, snap on beads. Raquel was sitting between Karin's legs, and Karin was having Raquel push in and pull off the beads. Raquel became frustrated because she couldn't do it without Karin's help, then walked away from it. Karin and I started having a conversation - not giving Raquel any of our attention - and the tantrum started, gradually escalating.
Then she asked me to describe the tantrums yesterday during Jennifer's session. I told her how Gabby was wound up from being at school, I was irritated at her not calming down and instead running through the house, and that Raquel just got way overstimulated - one time at the table when Gabby was sitting across from her and messing with her toys. Karin said that would be considered a sensory tantrum, a tantrum provoked by energy changes. She also reminded me how much Raquel feeds off my energy source and that I need to constantly remind myself to stay calm.
We were talking about all of this as Karin was working with Raquel. She took the visual over-stimulation one step further by showing me something. Karin was giving Raquel the plastic eggs to crack open one by one. Raquel was having a great time, being very successful, and had a huge smile on her face. Karin said, "Watch this" and dumped the whole bag of plastic eggs in front of Raquel. Her temperament completely changed. The smile vanished. She got extremely overwhelmed by it, and instead of picking them up one by one, she was just aggressively touching all of them with no kind of play action. Karin then put them away and got Raquel back to where she needed to be, but it was AMAZING to see the difference in her by such a simple thing. Karin wants me to notice what we are doing during the ABA sessions that is causing her to be the most frustrated, that it could be a visual thing with simply too much stuff being out at once. Me witnessing this was HUGE and makes me much more aware of how such sudden changes can really affect her.
She had a great session with Jennifer this afternoon. I tried to keep Gabby preoccupied for the most part and we didn't have one tantrum. After the session, we had our ABA Team Meeting. Again, very encouraging and we all seem to be on the same page. My biggest concerns right now are Raquel having the tantrums again (although they are much more mild), and Gabby interfering during the sessions she's here for. Janine put a "Gabby Plan" in place tonight, which I think will really help. It will allow Gabby to feel like she is a critical part of Raquel's therapy, but at the same time, confine her to the kitchen area or office to do special arts and crafts "needed" for the sessions.
1 comment:
I am going to repeat myself. I cannot stop marveling at how insightful, patient, articulate and loving you are. You really inspire me.
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