Raising a Sensory Smart Child: The Definitive Handbook for Helping Your Child with Sensory Processing Issues [NOOK Book]

Advance for Physical Therapists

What does sensory integration (SI) dysfunction feel like? Authors Lindsey Biel, MA, OTR/L, and Nancy Peske, parent of a child with SI dysfunction, ask the reader to imagine how an adult with SI dysfunction might feel while preparing a spaghetti dinner in her own kitchen. ¿The fluorescent light gives you a headache, and you can¿t find the tomato sauce in your crowded pantry. The lettuce in your hands feels slimy and repulsive. The smell of garlic makes you queasy. You don¿t hear the boiling water on the stove, and it bubbles over, flooding your pilot light so the stove won¿t relight. You bump your head on a cabinet, trip over the cat, and spill the salad. By the time dinner is on the table, you¿re a nervous wreck and you¿ve yelled at everyone. All you want to do is crawl into bed and sleep. What if you were to experience this disastrous dinner scenario every night, and nobody seemed to understand? After all, everyone else is able to see the can on the shelf and the cat on the floor, so why can¿t you? Strong smells don¿t upset them and flickering, harsh lights don¿t give them headaches.¿ (p.15) Through vivid illustrations like this, Raising a Sensory Smart Child: The Definitive Handbook for Helping Your Child with Sensory Integration Issues continually reminds readers that children with SI dysfunction do not experience the world as we do. They need their parents¿ help to learn how to self-regulate, adapt and overcome. The evaluation and treatment of Peske¿s son, as seen through the eyes of parent and therapist, demonstrate key points and provide continuity throughout the book. Biel and Peske explain the sophisticated reasoning of occupational therapists ¿ what may look like ¿play¿ to a parent is actually a well-planned response to minute-by-minute observations performed by a skilled practitioner. Sensory Smart¿s most helpful aspect is teaching parents how to be better observers and analyzers of behavior. The book abounds with checklists¿from signs of sensory overload to self-help, cognitive and self-regulation benchmarks. Chapter seven, ¿Practical Solutions for Everyday Sensory Problems,¿ offers effective suggestions for problematic activities familiar to pediatric therapists¿hair washing, bathing, mealtimes, parties and more. Websites and toll-free numbers are included in the text for immediate use and are repeated in an appendix for handy reference. After reading this book, parents will be able to take advantage of everyday opportunities to address specific SI challenges. The authors are constantly optimistic and encouraging about potential ¿ the potential of parents and children to develop sensory smarts, and the potential of children to become happy, productive adults. At the same time, Biel and Peske are realistic about human nature. Parents won¿t be discouraged if they can¿t provide the optimum environment 24 hours a day, seven days a week. What could the authors have done better? There are few charts, illustrations and photos, making this a very text-heavy read. A greater variety of font sizes and types, and more bullets, charts and photos would break things up visually, especially important for busy parents. I would also recommend repeating all the checklists in a single appendix. One last point: Biel and Peske offer sound advice for choosing a therapist (p. 104), counsel that serves as a wonderful reminder and pick-me-up to pediatric therapists: ¿Good technique and good intentions are crucial, but they are inadequate in and of themselves. Find someone who is very skilled and who will also love your child and create a safe, warm environment in which your child can express himself and flourish. Because only a therapist ¿ or any caregiver for that matter ¿ with an open, loving heart and a good eye and ear for spoken and unspoken needs will really be able to help.¿ Laura Knight is a pediatric physical therapist with Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System in Spartanburg, SC.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I LOVE this book! Raising a Sensory Smart Child is a must have!

In the world of special needs education, parents can sometimes get lost. They can actually be over looked, undervalued and sadly enough.. even belittled by educators who do not understand that (in the words of Glenn Doman, founder of the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential)," Parents are not the problem. Parents are the biggest part of any solution, and their child's best teacher." Parents will do virtually anything for their children. The trick is to supply them with the appropriate information as to how to move forward. As one who knows this to be true, imagine my joy to have early childhood professionals and authors contacting me, and voicing that same exact philosophy.

Two such individuals are the authors of the book, Raising a Sensory Smart Child, Lindsey Biel and Nancy Peske. Lindsey is a pediatric occupational therapist, and co-wrote Raising a Sensory Smart Child with Nancy, the mother of one her former clients, in 2005. Temple Grandin, an amazing associate professor, author and adult with autism, wrote their foreword. They have received several awards such as the NAPPA Gold. While Lindsey still maintains a full caseload, she speaks around the country on parenting and teaching children with special needs, particularly SPD. Nancy Peske is the parent of a child with developmental delays and sensory issues and consequently an expert in the field of sensory processing.

This summer, they will be releasing a new expanded edition of their book with a new chapter Lindsey wrote on sensory issues and autism, as well as additional information on practical strategies for teachers, teenagers, and adults--and many other additions as well. It has been a pleasure for me to explore this wonderful resource and to have the opportunity to view the new material in the book, which I will be highlighting in future articles.

Raising a Sensory Smart Child reads with the ease of a novel and the practicality of a manual. I found myself wishing I had access to such clear, concise material when working in the early childhood classroom, realizing at once how incredibly valuable their information is. The book is divided into five sections:

1. Recognizing and Understanding Your Child's Sensory Issues
2. Addressing Your Child's Sensory Needs
3. Fostering Your Child's Development
4. Parenting with Sensory Smarts
5. Recommended Products and Resources

Through careful implementation of the information contained in their book, (which includes information on how to obtain top notch therapists), you will be able to assemble a sensory diet that is appropriate and effective, specifically for your child. This is not a "one size fits all" philosophy, but a tailored approach to best facilitate learning for your child. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Please keep checking back to this page, as I will be referencing this wonderful resource often.

Lindsey and Nancy's website is also a wealth of information that you will want to consult: www.sensorysmarts.com.

~Kathleen Tehrani, Early childhood Education Examiner for Examiner.com

Everyone should read this book!

Everyone should read this book! I cannot think of a person out there that would not benefit from the wealth of knowledge contained in its¿ pages. If you have a child or even know of a child that might have sensory issues but are unsure, this book will help you decide through many easy behavior checklists as well as more detailed narratives and descriptions of what to look out for. If you know your child does suffer from sensory integration dysfunction, then this is truly the ultimate resource. It includes endless lists of appropriate toys, activities, therapies, further reading, organizations to contact all geared towards helping you help your child navigate the world more joyfully, with significant less stress and discomfort, and more awareness. It explains the condition so thoroughly, in such simple language, with such clear examples, you will feel you really understand what is going on with your child and hundreds of ways you can help. Even if you known about your child¿s sensory issues for years and have been having regular therapy, I still think the book offers insights and advice that go way beyond the standard information and activities suggested. It goes into great detail, for example, of what to expect in an occupational therapist, what not to settle for, how to handle communication with therapist, your own role in therapy and many other valuable topics that even in a very aware parent could miss or learn from. I would even think parents or those involved with kids who don¿t necessarily have problematic sensory issues could benefit from reading the book I know I read the book because my second daughter suffers from sensory integration dysfunction but found as I was reading that my first child really had touches of it earlier on that still come up at times today. Though they were not disrupting her life in any glaring way, I wasn¿t always compassionate about some of her seemingly exaggerated requests or complaints that after reading the book I could see where actually quite valid for someone who is even slightly more sensory sensitive. This book will make you a better, more aware, more effective parent or child care giver. I can¿t recommend it highly enough!

Psychologist highly recommends

I highly recommend this comprehensive and detailed guide to helping children with sensory issues. With authorship shared by an occupational therapist and the mother of son with sensory issues, it is chock full of helpful insights and tips from both a therapeutic and a parental perspective. This book goes into more detail than most, is very up to date, and includes numerous resources for appropriate toys, products, and additional websites. This is a very useful book for parents of any child who has been formally diagnosed with sensory issues or sensory integration disorder, but also for those parents who simply notice that their children are sometimes overwhelmed by their internal states or environmental stimuli. Chapters include descriptions of the seven senses, how to tune in to your child, working with occupational therapists, handling developmental delays, improving speech, picky eating, learning and getting organized, nutrition, sleep, stress, discipline, tantrums and more! There are also great sections on advocating for your child at school and helping your teenager with sensory issues.

Super book with great insight and suggestions

This is the book you need if you are trying to get your sensory sensitive child services through your board of education, and guides you through it. Even if your child has an IEP, it helps you to learn how and where to advocate for your child to ensure the IEP is working for your child.I can not recommend this book highly enough, it is amazing! The language is geared towards facilitating parental understanding of the Central Nervous System and how an improperly functioning one manifests itself in the many faces of Sensory Processing Disorder. I now understand the basic underlying reasons why my child reacts to certain situations the way that she does, and have gained tremmendous patience with this new understanding and have taught others to understand her triggers and needs better. It has made for better family dinners and play dates overall. We still have a way to go, but we are making progress.

Intelligent and Practical!!

'Raising A Sensory Smart Child' is a 'must have' reference for anyone involved with a child experiencing sensory integration issues. The author de-mystifies a difficult subject and helps the reader feel comfortable with both understanding and being able to competently deal with these very involved issues. It is a refreshingly pragmatic and therefore highly useful review of the various aspects of S.I. leaving the parent, educator &/or provider feeling unusually enpowered in this poorly understood and often controversial area.

The best & most practical guide for anyone who wants to understand and successfully help a child with sensory integration!!!

I am a mother of a sensory child. This book changed my life, and it is an essential resource for anyone who wants to learn about or help a child with sensory integration. It is my 'Bible'. Unlike most books on sensory integration, it was written by a mother, Nancy Peske, and an OT, Lindsey Biel, who understand what it is like to have and raise and treat a sensory child. It is easy to read and understand and begins by telling a story of Nancy Peske's own personal experiences with her own child to explain what it is like to have a sensory child, and to accept that you have a sensory child and how to help your sensory child. This wonderful book provides practical solutions for everyday living. This book truly helps you to understand what sensory issues are, and what the technical language means (in easy to understand explanations and examples). This book is the best I have ever read with respect to providing specific techniques you can used to help your sensory child to eat, play, sleep and learn efficiently, to focus, to pay attention, to organize, to self-regulate and so much more. This book also tells you what you can do as a parent to help advocate for your child. It provides the steps for evaluation, and the types of therapies which are available at home and what to expect when you work with an OT. The book also contains information on how to set up an IEP or a 504 plan for your child and how to get the services you need to help your child. This book is extremely practical and what I like the best about it, is that is written like a handbook, so that if you already are familiar with sensory integration, you can read any chapter without having to read the entire book to find the resources that you need. The book provides plenty of links to current research and valuable sources of information in books, videos, DVDs and online, which have made such a huge difference in my life and my son's life! I have read all the books and research on the internet out there on sensory integration and this book is definitely the best. I highly recommend it to any parent, teacher, caregiver, OT or friend who wants to help understand and/or successfully treat a child with sensory integration.

Must read for teachers and Parents of a child that has issues

This is a great book for a parent who is trying to help thier child cope at home and in the classroom. Does your child seem easily bothered by loud noises. Is he a picky eater, have a hard time with clothes? Does your child have a hard time sitting down at the table.... can he only eat certain foods? This book is a must read for a teacher that has a child in the class that seems bothered by the other students being too close, has a hard time during circle time..... this book will help teachers find ways to help the easily distracted child. This book will help parents find ways to make life less stressful at home. It will give them tips and lead them to other resouces to make thier lives at home calmer.

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