Play to Progress
Lead Your Child to Success Using the Power of Sensory Play
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- 3,99 €
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- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
For children to develop to their fullest potential, their sensory system - which, in addition to the big five of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell, includes movement and balance (vestibular), body awareness (proprioception), and internal perception (interoception) - needs to be stimulated from the time they are born. Their senses flourish when they explore their environment by touching new textures, including their food, running, jumping, climbing, and splashing outside - never through screens.
As an occupational therapist with a specialty in sensory integration and early childhood development, Dr Allie Ticktin has seen an alarming increase in cases of children who can't sit in circle time or at their desk upright and who are delayed in learning to walk, talk, or socialise, many of whom have been diagnosed with ADHD or sensory processing disorders, in part because these critical systems have been neglected. In the recent past, the sensory system and many developmental skills evolved naturally outside in the garden or on the playground. But with increasing time pressures for both kids and parents, as well as safety concerns, children are often sat in front of screens, without sufficient opportunity to explore and interact with their environment.
The good news is that boosting your child's sensory development doesn't take enormous amounts of time or supplies, or any special skills. In Play to Progress, Ticktin discusses the eight sensory systems and how a child uses them, and offers easy, fun activities that will encourage their development so that your little one will be better able to respond to their emotions, build friendships, communicate their needs, and thrive in school. That's the power of sensory play.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Occupational therapist Ticktin offers in her excellent debut dozens of suggestions to help parents maximize their child's development through games. Ticktin emphasizes the importance of play, which can give children "the confidence and skills to chase their dreams," and details the necessity of attending to the development of all eight senses: vestibular (movement), proprioception (body awareness), and interoception (internal awareness) in addition to the familiar five. She identifies how problems created by sensory underdevelopment are often misdiagnosed, such as in a four-year-old who loved to "karate chop, squeeze, and roll on his friends." Ticktin recognized that the child was calmed by these actions and was able to find alternate methods for him to do so. Well-organized chapters use similar anecdotes to make Ticktin's guidance easy to understand, and each chapter contains a slew of suggested activities: backward bowling helps a child develop balance and their vestibular sense, while a laundry-basket obstacle course helps with proprioception. Some advice, such as banning toys from bedrooms, seems aspirational at best, but the vast majority of Ticktin's strategies can be easily implemented. Full of fun, this guide is worth a look for parents of young children.