I can tell you that I walked away wanting to learn more about brain stem function. There is a 'thing' (don't know much about what it is) called Hypothalamus that has a regulatory function over appetite. Interestingly enough, I just worried about this out loud the other evening! So often, I'm asking myself - "Is Nathan full? Will he throw it all up if I feed him one more bite?" You see, Nathan often does not indicate when he's full. So, I have to glean that information from signals that he gives with his body. It's hard! I need to learn more about this hypothalamus thing!
Just to give you an idea of what that is going to look like - I'm going to talk to my nutritionist and GI doctor. I'll talk to my pediatrician, I'll go back and talk to Nathan's neonatologists from the NICU. So, I'm going to get information from traditional medicine. And, I'm going to also talk to every therapist who I think might have some education around this brain stem thing. I'm finding that most good therapists will tell me if they don't have a clue about something and will point me towards people who may be able to help me. THEN, I will be able to take what I find out on the wonderful wide web and maybe understand a little bit of it.
I'm finding that this learning around things that might be affecting Nathan's development isn't easy! It takes a lot of footwork/phone work, whatever you want to call it.
Back to the lecture, I also came away from the lecture realizing that a lot of Nathan's little social idiosyncrasies may be sensory integration issues - so, maybe we can help him be more social with some therapies.
Briefly - we take in information about our surroundings and our bodies through way more than five senses. Our bodies transmit that information through our nerves to our brain stem where our brain organizes the information and routes it to the area of the body that needs to respond. Sensory integration issues are about the brain not being able to handle some portion of that pathway efficiently or well.
She explained that no one's nervous system performs perfectly all the time. Those days when you bump into everything or drop everything - that is an example of having issues with integrating your senses with your body. Hey! We have a real reason for those days when we're having "issues!" Isn't that great!?!?!
Christy also said that everything affects how our body transmits these signals. Diet. Chemicals in our body can either help or hinder how well signals travel. Sleep. We intuitively know that. How much stimulation you get in any given day.
One big thing I came away with was an understanding of a couple of things that occupational therapists are trying to do.
First, to build success in sensory responses to make the neural pathways more automatic for a child. So, visually - the ball comes at you, raise your hands to catch it. In any system that Nathan might be having issues, we want to help him make those neural pathways more automatic. That helps my understanding!
Second, they try to help a child be less (or more - depending on their issue) sensitive to certain stimulus. By doing this, they can increase a child's capability to learn because they are either less sensitive to distractions in their environment and able to focus easier or more aware of their environment in order to be able to pay attention to something outside of themselves.
Overall, I came away with a hopefulness that I can actually learn about this stuff and help Nathan. Yay!
I can't say much more about the lecture; it was too much information! I do know that a website that I posted a few days ago really made me more aware of different behaviors that might actually be sensory integration issues. That site is:
With Christy Kennedy's permission, I will post her contact information to find out how you might be able to attend her lecture series or gain access to the information in it. She is in the Atlanta, Georgia metro area.
A quick report on the Deep Pressure and Joint Compression program we're working on with Nathan, he's making more and more noise; he doesn't seem to be as bothered when his hands get messy; and, he is walking in the grass with bare feet without even thinking about it. Cool stuff!
An honesty report - I still haven't managed to work the oral therapy program into our day. Ugh!
Happy home therapy-ing and playing!
1 comment:
Michelle, I just read through your blog. You have never ceased to amaze me with the dedication and perseverence you have for Nathan. You have had to go through so much more as a parent than most have and instead of complaining, you are sharing what you have learned to make lives easier for the next preemie family that comes along. I'll be adding you to my blogroll so I can check up on your progress, if you don't mind. I find all of this fascinating.
Post a Comment