Kirkland Pediatric Therapy
Kirkland Pediatric Therapy
Sensory Integration Therapy:
Sensory Integration therapy is child directed therapy. The therapist sets up the environment to provide sensory experiences and opportunities (including vestibular, proprioceptive, and tactile input) so the child forms an adaptive response to integrate the sensations and help with brain development. The goal is to create the "just right challenge", so the child feels successful, but not overwhelmed. Because sensory integration therapy is based on play, the child's interests and choices guide the therapist's selection of therapeutic activities. The goal is to help the child function better physically, emotionally, and academically, rather than to teach one specific motor skill.
The Zones of Regulation:
The Zones of Regulation is a systematic, cognitive behavior approach used to teach self-regulation by categorizing all the different ways we feel and states of alertness we experience into four concrete zones. The Zones curriculum provides strategies to teach students to become more aware of, and independent in controlling their emotions and impulses, managing their sensory needs, and improving their ability to problem solve conflicts. For more information, visit www.zonesofregulation.com
Handwriting Without Tears:
A handwriting program that teaches simple vertical style letters using a multi-sensory systematic method of teaching. For more information, visit Handwriting Without Tears. www.hwtears.com
The Alert Program:
The Alert Program (a.k.a. "How Does Your Engine Run") is a program that educates teachers, parents, and children how to monitor their state of alertness and choose appropriate strategies to change or maintain their state of alertness. For more information, visit The Alert Program www.alertprogram.com
Yoga Therapy
Yoga is an ancient system of exercise in which breath awareness comes together with body movement.
In yoga therapy, sensory integration is used to organize the central nervous system to increase control over the physical and mental state. Yoga poses help with development of gross motor skills, the mastery of which
can lead to improved fine motor skills, physical health and increased self esteem.
Yoga helps children with sensory modulation issues by providing structured sensory input. Yoga poses offer proprioceptive, vestibular, and tactile input. Poses that move the body in space provide proprioceptive information helpful in learning body recognition/ awareness. Standing balancing poses or seated poses calling for stability require co-contraction of synergistic key muscle groups and joint stability. These pose requirements provide opportunities for increasing proprioceptive information. Some poses, such as head inverted poses or active moving pose series also offer vestibular input. Yoga poses that incorporate pressure, such as a twist or an arm balance, provide tactile input.