Articles

Published in Bethesda Magazine, January-February

At some point during her 25 years of teaching music at St. Columba’s Nursery School in Northwest Washington, D.C., Carol Kranowitznoticed something odd: A number of the kids avoided the sandbox, finger paints and shaving cream activities. These were the same kids who didn’t respond to the piano.

When an occupational therapist came to the school, Kranowitz learned that these children had sensory processing disorder (SPD), a condition that makes it difficult to process information received through the five senses, plus movement/balance and body position.

“It explained the behavior of a lot of these kids—they were out of sync,” the Bethesda resident says.

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Published June 8 on Parents.com

Kids who are “out-of-sync” with the world due to Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) struggle with a variety of sensory and motor challenges, but we can help them through simple routines and consistent activities.

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Published May 31, on Boston Parents’ Paper

At recess, Emma, 9, refuses to participate in jump-rope or four-square games. Emma is over-responsive to movement sensations, which terrify her. She tells her friends, “I’m no good at that.”

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Co-authored with Joye Newman in “Exchange: The Early Childhood Leaders’ Magazine Since 1978,” Vol. 34, Issue 1, No. 203, January/February

It’s 50 degrees and raining outside. The playground is all mud and puddles. The morning has just begun, and the preschoolers are full of energy. You, like most early childhood educators, want to give your young students a leg up and a head start in reading and other academic endeavors. So, how do you use this time? Do you:

1. Set up your four-year-olds at the computers to play the latest ‘educational’ video games?
2. Conduct a longer-than-usual Circle Time?
3. Bring out the flashcards and try to entice the kids to call out quick answers?
4. Take your children outside to splash in the puddles?

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Published in Child Care Information Exchange magazine (May 2000), and in Curriculum: Art, Music, Movement, Drama – A Beginnings Workshop Book (Exchange Press, 2006)

Typically-developing children are usually adaptable. They sing and dance, play rhythm instruments, and willingly try traditional preschool experiences. Children with special needs, however, may prefer sticking to the same-old-same-old activities that make them feel successful.

Whatever the skill level of your preschoolers, a variety of sensory-motor activities in your curriculum can satisfy most children’s needs. Music and movement activities, with their flexible structure, can foster every child’s creativity and competence.

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Published in Sensations, Volume 3, Issue 2, September, a newsletter for the benefactors and friends of The KID Foundation (now STAR Institute for Sensory Processing Disorder)

 
Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, and kids gotta climb, jump, and balance. While dangling from banisters, scooting under turnstiles, teetering on curbs, and jumping into puddles may dismay grown-ups, children persist with good reason.

How do kids learn to think and relate to the world around them? By scanning their surroundings; touching wooden, metal, rubber, or concrete surfaces; grasping and releasing handholds; changing body positions; maintaining equilibrium; and experimenting with different movement patterns. Furthermore, they are having fun, and “fun,” Dr. Ayres wrote, “is the child’s word for sensory integration.”

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