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Emotional Regulation

Auditory Intervention

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AUDITORY INTERVENTION

As part of working as an occupational therapist, and under sensory processing integration, we work with all of the 8 sensory systems. 

One of these is the auditory system. The auditory system is complex and many other sensory systems are connected to it as a multisensory functioning organ.  

So What is Auditory Processing?  

Auditory processing is the process of recognising and responding to auditory input. Auditory processing refers to the ability to discriminate between similar sounds, tune into a parent, teacher or friend to pick up important information, in order to communicate effectively with others. There are multiple skills linked to auditory processing including memory, sequencing, development of expressive and receptive language, academic skills such as association of sounds with letters or numbers, listening skills, communication skills, social skills, and maintaining attention.  One of the greatest skills needed is the ability to differentiate sounds.  Our ears are developed to interpret the different frequencies of sounds a world presents us. The frequency (Hertz- Hz) of sound is then determined by the way in which sound waves vibrate whilst travelling through our ear. Once sound waves reach our ear, they cause the membranes within to vibrate at varying intensities, causing the activation of certain musculature of the ear, which then allows us to hear!  There are varying frequencies such as:  

Low Frequency sounds (1000 Hz and below): This sound activates the outer ear muscles, moving slow as it passes through. This includes sounds like: 

  • Dog’s barking
  • Lawn mowers
  • Thunder
  • Vacuum cleaners 

Middle Frequency sounds (1000-3000 Hz): This sound activates the middle ear and where language and social skill development is primarily processed.

High Frequency sounds (3000Hz and above): This sound activates our inner ear, moving hard and fast as it passes through. This includes sounds such as: 

  • Women’s voices
  • Birds chirping

Challenges in Auditory Processing

Difficulties arise when the brain does not effectively or accurately interpret and respond to auditory information. This creates misinterpretation of information. 

There are two forms of difficulties with auditory processing: 

Hypersensitivity to sounds (Auditory Defensiveness) 

This is a child who is overwhelmed by auditory input and may present with the following: 

  • Easily distracted by sounds not noticed by others (clocks, fans, air conditioners)
  • Disliking sound of vacuums, hair dryers
  • Startled or distracted by loud or unexpected sounds- running away, crying, covers ears.
  • Frequently attempted to control sounds in their environment (asking people to stop talking)
  • Refusing to go to busy/ noisy places

Hyposensitivity to sounds (Under Registration) 

This is a child who does not easily register auditory information in his environment and may present with the following:

  • Does not respond to verbal cues or own name
  • Loves loud music or TV
  • Loves to make sounds or noises
  • Difficulty understanding or remembering what was said
  • Talks to self when completing a task
  • Needing directions repeated

At Explore and Soar, we are dedicated to understanding these sensory systems, determining ways to integrate and apply intervention approaches that alleviate these concerns. To do so, we engage in continued professional development and collaborative reasoning sessions with our senior OT’s.

There are many auditory interventions that can be supplemented into your sensory diet or OT home programming routine, presently at Explore and Soar, we utilise two intervention types; Therapeutic Listening and Quickshifts. In addition to these we have other auditory training and supports, which are tailored to each individual client where appropriate. 

Contact our OT’s to find out more information or  to see how we can help you. We will tailor an appropriate auditory intervention solution for your child. 

From a personal perspective, when I’m feeling like my mind is scattered or overwhelmed, I put on one of our quickshifts that emphasise the lower frequency sounds in order to ground me, to feel safe and to slow my heartbeat.

If I’m feeling slow, I’ll put on a track with shifts of high and low tones, and varying rhythms to invite movement to my muscles to activate and boost my energy levels to get going. 

When i’m really needing to concentrate and get work done, i’ll put on music with a constant rhythmic sound, that holds my attention in one space, it provides intensity with high and low sounds, with a fast but constant and non changing rhythm to allow my body to sync with the music and work to that speed. 

Our families at Explore and Soar know we love to put on music in sessions to add as much support to our kids intervention as possible. Whether it be through speakers or headphones, the impacts to the child’s regulation, engagement, social skills and communication is amazing to see. Some examples of these include:

Child one: A young boy who has high levels of energy. One of his biggest challenges was sharing space, regulation and holding attention to share engagement for more than 5 minutes. When putting on the QS space, you could instantly see the change in his body. He slowed his body and movements, he took a deep breath and paused. The music gave him time and space, it give him the support he needed, prompting safety and regulation. 

Child two: An overwhelmed child. He has challenges moving and communicating with others around him, to follow the lead of others, to transition between environments and settle enough for sleep. With persistence, through each day of our 5 day intensives, little by little, the boy that started the week was a completely different child by the end of the week. He stayed in the room for the whole 50 minutes, he could regulate and move through the changing of ideas, he shared eye contact, laughs and we beautifully transitioned out of the session with no crying or frustrations. 

Child three: With a confident personality, she loves to be in control of the things around her. She does so with constant attempts to change the activities that are new or tricky, tensing her body to try and stabilise movement or completely avoiding an activity all together if it means using both sides of her body together. Music had an instant effect on her body. She began to use both her left and right hand together during sit down fine motor tasks. The music prompted a huge smile and by moving with the rhythm of the music, she gracefully challenged herself throughout the activities.

Auditory processing is such an integral part of development. If you think your child may need some auditory interventions, please don’t hesitate to reach out and see how we can help!

Until next time,
Maddie

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

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Health Promotion for our Families

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HEALTH PROMOTION FOR OUR FAMILIES

As occupational therapists we are trained to provide support to all our clients and their families, in order to increase their independence, grow their confidence and to live a happy and healthy life. 

More often than not, this is first done or activated when someone is starting to experience discomfort or challenges in certain areas of their life. For our children, self-care, play, schooling and their social interactions with their peers are where areas of concern often arise. As we’ve spoken about previously, when these challenges occur, they manifest in behaviours. For our children, the way in which they behave is in fact their method of asking for help. They are in turn telling us as adults, that something internally doesn’t feel right and they require extra help. It is then our role to determine what is going on and how we can provide effective support. 

But what if we could actually reduce these areas of concern and the amount of worry that comes along with them but being proactive rather than reactive? 

This is an area that as occupational therapists we are so very passionate about. Through health promotion we can bring awareness, education and support to all families and communities about child development, patterns to look out for and access to support services when you have questions. This should be readily accessible to every person in each of their communities. By having access to services that offer advice and support, promoting health and wellness for both the parent/carer and their child, inadvertently increases well being and reduces the risk of mental health. 

From an OT perspective; the definition of health promotion from the World Health Organisation is “the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health. To reach a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, an individual or group must be able to identify and realise aspirations, to satisfy needs, to change or cope with the environment. Health is, therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasising social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. Therefore, health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector, but goes beyond health lifestyles to well-being.” (1986, para.2). 

Something that we do as a company outside of providing intervention strategies and support to our clients and their families, is also providing them with a range of essential health promotion strategies to positively influence, empower and educate in order to further reduce the inequalities in our health industry. Therefore, significantly supporting positive interactions and emotional connections in our client’s support networks. 

Each of our OT’s provide strategies and supports to our clients, such as:

  • Teaching positive ways for your child to move their body that feels good for them, to increase control and awareness.
  • Teaching them to feel safe and comfortable sharing their emotions and sitting within their feelings.
  • Providing as many possible positive social interactions with other peers who are presented with similar challenges in group program settings.
  • Conducting skill based training for self-care so that children can be successful on school camps or overnight trips.
  • Teaching your child how to plan, organise and sequence activities or thoughts together, to help with positive inclusion in school – this makes them feel clever, smart, successful and allows them realise their worth. 
  • Providing strategies and support to be successful and confident in navigating their local communities.

Additionally, each of our OT’s provide strategies and supports to our clients parents/caregiver’s such as:

  • Providing connections and relationships within the Explore and soar family; other families, clients or health professionals.
  • Taking into account every parent’s well-being when working with their children, giving them emotional support, and interventions that are based both on the child and the parent, so as not to overwhelm and contribute to more stress.
  • Running parent groups, where like minded parents are present to talk about their own situations, so that they feel heard and they are able to build connections around them without feeling isolated, increasing their support network outside of health professionals.
  • Utilising parent coaching strategies to teach them how to do the interventions; positively reshaping their confidence in order to be able to manage all aspects of their lives with their children. 

Within Explore and Soar, we support and provide strategies to our local communities for health promotion such as:

  • Education nights at preschools for the parents and their educators. This is a regular offering as a part of our service to build awareness and health promotion for development – it’s one of the most consistent things we do. 
  • Work within our local schools; teacher professional development courses that support them in the classroom and the playground. This differs from early education nights, as rather than identifying areas of concern at a younger age, it’s more about working with difficulties that have already been identified and enveloping the right strategies.
  • Remaining very community orientated by sponsoring and supporting sporting events or team members. We do so, so that the community knows there is a point of access, that if information or support is needed, there is a place to ask questions. We always seeking to create a presence in the community to bridge the gap and get people openly talking about behaviour, emotion or social skills.
  • Promoting safe access within the community, so as to eliminate anxiety and stress.

This brings us to an exciting event happening at the end of this month in support of the Hunter Region! We are participating in the Hunter Disability Expo this May! We participate in local expos in the community to bridge the gap and bring awareness to the support that is offered.

The Hunter Disability Expo is open to anyone that would like to attend and it is on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd May at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre. 

Participants get to see all the different supports and companies within the Hunter that offer assistance to our kids, all the way through to adulthood, from allied health professionals to general support services. 

On a personal note, growing up, this level of awareness, education and events to support our local communities and families simply weren’t available. This is often still the case in our regional communities. So participating in events like this to share with others within a safe space, is and will always continue to be a passion of mine. 

So, if you have time and want to see us and many other local health professionals, join us at the Hunter Disability Expo and don’t be afraid to say Hi! We would love to see you there. 

Until next time,
Jess

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 5, 2021

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The Emotional Continuum

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THE EMOTIONAL CONTINUUM

Emotions; the one thing that many people find hard to acknowledge, understand and express freely. 

Yet they are the one thing that binds us together. They are a constant in out lives, changing as we navigate through day to day life. Our emotions live on a continuum and on any given day we eb and flow between them. 

At Explore and Soar, we describe this by using the terms optimal band of arousal and window of tolerance. Each allow us as humans to function optimally on any given day, to be able to maintain a home and  hold down a steady job as adults. For our children, being able to participate in everyday self-care activities, maintain engagement at school for learning and be flexible and dynamic in their thinking and feelings when socialising and playing with peers, is obtained when their optimal band of arousal is reached. 

There are many everyday functions and aspects of our lives that are relying on us to live in our optimal band of arousal, in order to attend and achieve these expectations. However, this is not always achievable and on any given day, our body and minds experience a range of emotions from our internal and external environments. When this happens, our ability to remain in an optimal band of arousal is not always achievable. Instead, we start moving on the emotional continuum either into a high arousal state of survival with responses of fight, flight, fright or freeze where an array of emotions and behaviours can become apparent or alternatively into a low arousal state where fatigue, tiredness or sickness can become apparent. 

Our ability to move consistently on the emotional continuum is guided by natural and unique instincts. 

By doing so, our body is expressing how we are feeling in the moment by telling our mind and body to respond in a particular way. As an example, if we are beginning to feel overwhelmed and stressed, moving into a heightened state, we are required to slow down to allow our body to rest. We can all become unstuck in this state from time to time, when we have difficulty regulating our emotions appropriately and being able to respond to our internal and external environment in an appropriate way, such as size of problem vs reaction. This is where the foundational emotional regulation skills of co-regulation from a young age and the development of self-regulation capacities is fundamental in supporting our children, but also enhances our adaptability and flexibility in all situations when we are older.

Take a look at our previous blog on co-regulation and self-regulation strategies >

In everyday life, if a child is expressing themselves with an action or emotion, that is their way of asking for help. As social beings we do not like expressing ourselves in a way that is perceived to be out of the norm, yet when things are not going ok for young children, their way of and asking for help is through emotive behaviour. As adults it is our job to be role models, provide support and teach them how to express their emotions appropriately. We must offer support to them as they move through these feelings, whilst trying to understand the situation at hand. That’s not always easy. Sometimes we as adults alone are unable to figure it out. This is where we as occupational therapists working within emotional regulation and sensory processing capacities can come in and help, to further breakdown what is going on, determine what is impacting our children and to determine the best strategy to support them in their daily experiences, on their own individual emotional continuum.

As occupational therapists there are a range of strategies and intervention options that we can do to support your whole family in better understanding each other’s emotional continuum. 

Our ultimate goal is to work successfully through everyday activities and allow you and your children to live your life to the fullest.  

Regulation strategies: As occupational therapists we can determine where each individual’s band of arousal sits on the emotional continuum. Once identified, we develop goals and implement strategies to support increased time in optimal throughout the day. Goals and strategies are targeting the development of co-regulation strategies with parents/caregivers and loved ones, self-regulation strategies and increasing the independence in identifying how your body is feeling and reacting, then completing strategies to calm, additionally reducing the time frame and recovery time if their emotions heighten. These are all powerful approaches to supporting our children in order to be successful in everyday activities. 

Take a look at our previous blog on co-regulation and self-regulation strategies >

Sensory processing activities: Utilising our individual sensory needs helps facilitate and develop regulation and achievement in maintaining an optimal band of arousal. Well known strategies such as heavy work, respiration and roughhousing strategies can be quick sensory activities in your everyday life in order to facilitate this. Over the years we have written about the benefits of all these strategies and you’ll see them regularly in our social media posts. This is because the benefits are paramount. This is also why you will see us in sessions working with our children with things like whistles, utilising oral motor strategies to support the development of skills, and individualised heavy work strategies (movement with resistance such as push, pull, lift, carry) to help achieve these outcomes. 

TRE (Trauma Release Exercises): Known as trauma release exercises are a simple yet innovative series of exercises that assist in the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of stress, tension and trauma. TRE can be implemented through an active way of exercises that activate the natural reflex mechanism of shaking or vibrating that releases muscular tension, required for calming down the nervous system. I have been utilising this strategy as a self-regulation and self-care tool for myself consistently since 2013. Due to the extreme benefits of TRE and my own love of it I then studied his intervention approach and have completed my qualification in 2018-2019 to become a trained trainer. Since then, I have been implementing these strategies within our sessions with our children where needed through a passive, non-invasive and safe way. This strategy has been successfully implemented with adults and children in altering their band of optimal arousal and increasing their control and confidence in sitting in the emotional continuum. Do not hesitate to seek further knowledge and information from us on this method.

Cognitive emotional strategies: When working on the emotional continuum, sometimes using sensory processing and bottom up strategies are effective, but can be complimentary providing top down cognitive strategies to assist in the refinement of knowledge and applying these skills in social situations or transfer these skills in everyday environments, including home, school (classroom and playground), and the community. Some strategies you will see us utilising in sessions are concepts of ‘Zones of Regulation’, ‘Size of Problem vs Reaction’, ‘The Alert Program’, ‘The Incredible Flexible You Series’ and ‘The Social Thinking Detectives’. These strategies for us are generally used once the development of the above mentioned skills have been supporting each individual’s emotional continuum and then building these skills on top of. 

As a team we are always building our knowledge and exploring further strategies and intervention approaches to enhance our children’s emotional capacities and independence. Ultimately we are all learning to understand and identify their emotions on a daily basis. The emotional continuum is so important to us as it allows our children to build their confidence, self-worth, self-awareness and to develop strong foundational blocks in order to achieve success in their life. Don’t hesitate to chat to us further about how we can support you and your children with their emotional regulation capacities. 

Until next time,
Jess

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MARCH 3, 2021

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Emotional Regulation

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EMOTIONAL REGULATION

Today I want to speak about the importance of emotional regulation. Not only its development and significance in our children’s lives, but in our own as parents, caregivers and individuals. 

Emotional regulation is an important skill that is developed over time. Beginning in childhood, its development is a key milestone. Commencing with the foundational skills of co-regulation and leading into self-regulation in toddler and childhood years and eventuating into emotional intelligence in adulthood, it supports everything we do during our lives.

Self-regulation is the ability to notice, grade and modulate your own feelings, ultimately learning to respond appropriately to them. It is the ability to naturally adapt to those around you or the situation at hand. This process won’t always begin naturally with some children, some find it challenging to express themselves and others occasionally mis-interpret information that allows them to optimally adjust to their surroundings.

Emotional regulation is at the crux of everything we do. 

It starts in utero and further develops via a connection with your parents once born. It is the foundation of the connection between parents and their child from birth, that creates the building blocks for our first stage of emotional development; co-regulation.

This process allows children to learn, explore and understand what it feels like to be soothed, especially in unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations. As infants, our parents offer affection and protection from the world as we enter into it. Throughout our earliest months of life, our foundations are being solidified. We are opening our eyes, processing more and beginning to push boundaries. 

As we continue to grow, we are connecting, becoming more alert and adapting to the world around us. This is done so through our sensory systems and the motivation to learn about new surroundings. 

Co-regulation involves a mutual understanding and safety net that our parents or caregivers provide, keeping us safe as we test boundaries and explore the world. This sense of comfort can sometimes give us that little extra push we need when new scenarios or uncertainty may arise. These experiences, along with meeting others, allow us to learn some essential non-verbal social cues, beginning our journey into self-regulation. 

We begin to learn self-regulation by sharing and working through our feelings. Having people around us modeling, teaching and supporting us to learn how to manage emotions, allows us to appropriately deal with feelings. Most people develop these skills by the time they enter their teenage years.

But what if we couldn’t learn how to self-regulate emotions?What if we didn’t feel safe in our surroundings?What if we missed all the non-verbal social cues from people in our family growing up?

What if we didn’t understand the emotions we had or had any control over them – not knowing how to self-soothe or react appropriately to a situation? This is what our children go through daily before being about to self-regulate.Children have difficulty understanding their body and the many feelings that they encounter day to day. So how do we support them through this and encourage development?

It can be very overwhelming as a parent or caregiver. The fatigue and ongoing support needed to provide guidance can be exhausting. As soon as we, the adults get overwhelmed and stressed, our capacity to cope and remain in a regulated state too, gets altered. Our own ability to regulate ourselves and cope in our everyday life is challenged. Often we are faced with a sense of guilt – not being able to cope with emotion on top of emotion.

So, how can we support you but also support your children in managing their self-awareness and emotional regulation for resilience, empathy and emotional intelligence? We thought we would offer up some strategies for you, the parent or caregiver to best take care of you and your family. These are:

  • Checking in; asking yourself ‘what do I need to do to be my best self and what does my partner need to do to be their best self?’. Make a note for today, for the week for the month and for the term.
  • The everyday essentials: sleep, good food, and staying hydrated. If you’re sleeping and eating well then you are supporting your body in the best way, having energy to work through the day
  • Setting weekly intentions: set 3 realistic activities to achieve in the week that would make a difference to you and your family. One for yourself, one for your children and one for your family as a whole.
  • Daily Intentions: sitting down and making a plan for each day to work towards these goals for the week. Do the important things first.
  • Build your tribe: don’t be afraid to ask for help and reach out to those in your community.
  • Breathe and Move: find what works for you. Mindfulness, exercise or even having coffee with a friend. Take a moment and a deep breath with things get too stressful. 

Once you’ve taken care of your own emotional well-being, look to your children. They too need support and strategies to continue to grow and develop their minds, empathy and social connections. The below strategies can be used before and after interactions, or even sometimes in the moment. 

  • Build Body awareness: move, explore and climb. Get your children using their core and bodies in challenging ways. This increases their gross motor skills, posture control but also builds upon their body awareness and understanding themselves in space. 
  • Experience emotions: let your children experience a range of emotions, help them understand what these emotions are and how to work through them by discussing their feelings.
  • Modeling: don’t be afraid to get on the floor and act silly, expressing your emotions and how your body responds. Act out how you self-regulate and what strategies work for you to calm your body. Modeling emotional regulation strategies is very powerful for our children.
  • Repair: Never forget the importance of repair. Talking and working through a situation to help provide clarity, understand perspectives and to emotionally interact with others is very powerful. Our children need to know when to say sorry and why. 

These strategies don’t always work for our children in the moment or when they are in a heightened state. It’s also ok to let them feel the emotion and allow it to eventually pass. In these moments, you can employ strategies to offer support if they attempt to reach out, these include: 

  • Remaining available: remaining open and available to your child to let them know you are there as reassurance (even if sometimes they are telling you to “go away”)
  • Ice chips or cold packs; chewing on ice chips, ice blocks or having ice packs available is a natural body reset. The coolness will help the child regulate their body temperature and start to cool down, inadvertently calming their emotions..
  • Providing deep pressure or hugs (heavy work and deep pressure is a natural calmer and regulator). Each child reacts to this differently; some love hugs, others love to throw, hit or kick things. It is finding safe activities and strategies for them at that moment.
  • Phrases of reassurance that you can offer up such as – ‘You are safe, It’s ok, and I love you’
  • Respiration and breathing activities: bubbles, water,  or even a cup with a straw are all ways to practice breathing in order to calm your child down. 

Your own emotional regulation and health as an individual and as a parent is a central priority. In order for you to be a good parent, you need to self soothe and look after your own well being. If you are not ok, then your children are not ok. Please implement and give these strategies listed above a go to aid or expand upon what already works for you and your family. If you have any additional questions, thoughts or ideas, please do not hesitate to contact the Explore and Soar team, as our passion lies in helping our families on all levels. Supporting our families and building our children up to have great emotional awareness for themselves and empathy for others is perhaps one of the greatest things we as therapists get to do.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Jess

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MARCH 4, 2020

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