Bonus: Proprioception

Aloha, sensory heroes.

I'm going to go into a little more depth on proprioception. We talked about it a little bit before. This is our sense of position. So for example, if my eyes are closed and I point my finger up or I point it down, I know where my finger is. And that's because of these little receptors that are in the muscles and joints that send the signal to me about and every part of my body knowing where it is in space. We rely on this sense quite a lot. If we get up to go to the bathroom at night and it's dark. So you can imagine this is something that's just operating in the background, helping us all the time. And what I'll notice with kids that don't have a very good sense of proprioception is that they have to look at every, they have to look at their body to know what it's doing. So, so for instance, if you're writing, they really have to like look at their hand. They can't just like just look at the board and then, and then write and kind of look up and down. It's very hard for them. And our test, we have a few tests that we do. One of them is, is just having them do a finger sequence like this. Eyes open and then eyes closed. And a lot of times the kids that struggle with this, they can do it fine. Eyes open. But eyes closed, they, they get the order wrong. They get kind of mixed up. You can also do a finger to nose test. Five years old, you would be within a centimeter starting way out here with your eyes closed. And a lot of times you'll, you'll see them like way off. You can also just kind of observe them because, you know, the littles can't really follow a test like that. So a lot of times I'll see them like not notice where the mat is 2 inches higher. And they don't get the feedback from their foot that, that, that surface is different and then they'll trip. So kids that bump and trip and lean and, and also kids that are always seeking a lot of movement, jumping, slamming down on their knees, slamming into you. The human crash pad. Those kids are usually have that proprioceptive sense turned way, way, way down. And they're just trying to get input to feel their bodies. And so sometimes the way I can imagine it is like when you go to the dentist and your face is swollen and it's just so hard to pay attention and you're just like touching your face because it feels so weird or when your leg falls asleep. And so not having this information, being really strong and present and matured is very distracting. It's very hard to focus and learn when you have to put mental energy into paying attention to your body so that it can do what it needs to do Now. Interestingly, proprioception, when you get that kind of sensory input is very calming and organizing and, and it's one of the, the best tools we have for helping kids get, you know, just, just to get calm and be able to focus. And so we use a lot of spandex swings and that gives them everything because they get movement, vestibular input, they're working their muscles, climbing up and down the layers, they're getting that firm tactile input. And you can get this from the body sock. I think I talk about this in the body sock where you get the resistance where you're pushing against it. So think any activity that's push, pull, carry. I really like weighted balls for the little kids, like putting them up on a slide, tug of war, push of war, just lots of different activities. Anything that makes you grunt is usually what I tell the parents. They could be in a laundry basket, give them a towel and you got to pull them and they got to hang on really, really tight. In the clinic we do a lot of adding pull ropes so they have to hang on to something while they're swinging and, and use their muscles to make themselves move and go. So that just kind of gives you an idea.

Having the kids help with chores is really great if they can handle the sound of the vacuum. Like pushing the vacuum around is really

good sensory input and really just good old fashioned play outside is a lot of proprioception.

Playing in the dirt, digging, carrying rocks,

climbing up trees, just all of that,

you know, climbing on a jungle gym, all that kind of stuff is really, really good. So you'll notice when kids do that and they ex hurt themselves and they, they build strength and they contract their

muscles and they, they're just going to

feel so good and centered afterwards. So proprioception is just a really, really important sense. And when you think of like kids sitting, sitting all day in the classroom, they're not getting enough movement, they're not getting enough proprioception. So getting little breaks like getting up and doing like a little sensory course in the hallway, if they have those where you can jump from lily pad to lily pad or do wall push ups or that sort of thing can really, really help, even if it's just

a short little break.

And I like also wheelbarrow walks are a really good one because that just makes them work every muscle. So that sensory input, like the vestibular, it's going to go to the limbic system, it's going to go to the rib particular activating system, the brain stem. And it has just this huge impact on being able to be calm, interpret the sensations around us. Emotional regulation, alertness, sensation of pain modulation. You'll notice a lot of these kids, you think it's so crazy because they're slamming down on their knees or doing all these things. You think that's got to hurt and they don't even feel it. But you try to trim their fingernails and they act like you're trying to kill them. So that's, that's most of the kids. There's something about the hair, nails and teeth that they're super, super sensitive in those areas. But the larger muscles in the joints, the sensation is typically turned way down. So hopefully that's helpful to you. Give you like a little bit more information on the proprioceptive system and I'll see you in the next video.

Aloha.