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Treating Sensory Integration Disorders with the Sensory Diet

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Published on Thursday, 06 June 2013 06:00

What on earth is a “sensory diet”? Is this is another new fad diet? Not at all! In fact this is not a strictly a food diet but a term used to describe sensory activities that are used to treat kids with Sensory Integration Disorder. Your Occupational Therapist will create a “menu” of activities to do with your child. He/she will have you perform these activities in a particular order to create a sensory “meal” or “snack”. Just like nutritional diets, the sensory diet is designed for your child’s sensory needs. Your Occupational Therapist will create a plan of activities for you to do throughout the day.

In our new “Ask the OT” webcast topic, Dr. Covington explains sensory diet and its use as an effective treatment plan.


Common Sensory Diet Activities:

Proprioception activities- Proprioception has to do with body awareness (being aware of where your body is positioned in relation to other parts of your body). Receptors in the muscles and joints help to coordinate movements even without vision. Proprioception activities would include things like

  • Pushing and pulling activities 
  • Squeezing toys or popping bubble wrap 
  • Wrapping your child in a “burrito” by rolling him up in a blanket

Vestibular activities- Vestibular input has to do with your sense of movement and balance that is processed in the inner ear. Vestibular activities include:

  • Rocking in a rocking chair 
  • Swinging on a swing at the park 
  • Running, jumping or skipping

Tactile activities- Tactile activities include any activities that involve the sense of touch, texture or temperature. Some tactile activities are:

  • Messy play such as playing with shaving cream, finger paint, or play dough 
  • Reading and touching textured books
  • Tracing shapes on to your child’s back and letting him guess what shape

Auditory activities- Auditory activities include hearing and listening. Some auditory activities might include:

  • Playing with instruments, such as imitating a rhythm with a drum or tambourine 
  • Playing listening games to see if your child can guess the sound 
  • Listening to music or songs

Visual activities- Visual activities involve making eye contact, processing what is seen with the eyes and interpreting visual input. Some visual activities might be:

  • Stringing beads 
  • Matching games such as matching cards or matching words to cards
  • Picture games, finding pictures in a picture book like the “eye spy” books

Smelling and tasting activities

  • Play a guessing game with scratch and sniff stickers. See if he can guess the smell without looking. 
  • Add a new texture to a food your child already likes. For example if your child likes yogurt, try adding some crunchy granola to his yogurt. 
  • Play a guessing game with foods your child likes to eat. Put two or three foods and have him try them blindfolded.

A great resource for information, books and tools can be found with our friends at SensorySmarts. You can also post your questions directly to Dr. Covington, our resident Occupation Therapist, at Ask DrCovington.com.

Tune in to our Sensory Diet Webcast to learn more.

Mozzaz Professional Partner Program – mp3

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Published on Tuesday, 21 May 2013 05:46

We are thrilled to announce the launch of a new program to support our professional community of educators, therapists and care workers. The program is called ‘mp3’ short for the ‘Mozzaz Professional Partner Program’ and is designed to deliver the best assistive learning and therapy treatment plan for individuals with a special need or disorder.

What is mp3?

The mp3 program provides the care team with a set of TalkingTILES licenses to be used in client evaluations and assessments. In addition, Mozzaz will help support, educate and promote your TalkingTILES practice through client seminars, brochures and educational programming as your trusted assistive technology partner. Your clients can also receive a discount on a subscription licenses through your participation as an mp3 partner.

How can it help my practice and my clients?

  • No risk trial to assess if TalkingTILES is a fit for your client’s needs
  • Deliver a value-add service that will benefit your clients and build your assistive technology practice
  • Deliver a value-add service that will benefit your clients and build your assistive technology practice

Program details:

There are 3 levels to the program depending on your team or clinic’s size. In each level you will get:

  • A set of TalkingTILES licenses to be used for client evaluation and assessments to see if TalkingTILES is a fit for their needs
  • A 10% discount if your client purchases a subscription for their therapy or learning use
  • Mozzaz will help you educate and raise awareness of your services with TalkingTILES with full technical and setup support
Program mp3 Professional mp3 Premium mp3 Ultimate
Price per year $49 $99 $149
Licenses Up to 5 Up to 10 Up to 10
Discount for your clients 10% 10% 10%
Education Kit Yes Yes Yes
Live Helpdesk Support Yes Yes Yes
Joint Webinars 1/year 2/year 4/year
Joint Awareness Campaign 1/year 2/year 4/year
Assigned Mozzaz Specialist No Yes Yes
Configuration & Setup No Yes Yes
Live Webinar Training No Yes Yes

For more information and to learn more, please email us at: mp3@mozzaz.com 

Greater Customizability & Expanded Use Cases

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Published on Monday, 13 May 2013 06:09

The current update to TalkingTILES is definitely a milestone release that we’re excited about! This latest release includes a feature that we’ve been asked about many times – “grid customization.” Grid customization enables you to modify the number and size of Tiles on a page. You can have a single large Tile displayed or a maximum of 24 Tiles. In version 2.0 – set to release in June 2013 – we’ll be extending custom grids to support smartphones (iPhone, Android and Windows Phones) since the page views can be modified to fit the mobile phone screen in a more usable format.

Here are some examples of how TalkingTILES can be used in different ways beyond just AAC:

Flashcards:



Math Exercises:



Behavior Management:

Note, phone support will be in v2.0 scheduled for a June release. But look at the flexibility and power of custom grids for a phone.

These are just some examples of what custom grids will allow users to do. We will continue to build on this fundamental feature by building more advanced features such as different image and font sizings and label-image placement in the upcoming releases.

Stay tuned!
Team Mozzaz

Sensory Integration & Occupational Therapy

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Published on Wednesday, 15 May 2013 09:46
There have been many studies over the years indicating that many behaviors exhibited by individuals with special needs, specifically autism, may be related to hyper or hypo-reactions to sensory input. These individuals have difficulty registering, modulating and integrating sensory stimuli and could result in self-stimulatory behaviors and irregularities in arousal levels.
Having an occupational therapist (OT) on the care team for such individuals is very common and a very good idea. An OT’s program involves promoting skill development and independence in all daily activities. For an adult, this may mean looking at the areas of self-care, home-making, leisure and work. For children, this may include playing in the park, licking a popsicle, washing hands, going to the bathroom, cutting with scissors, printing at school, running, jumping, sitting at circle time and taking swimming lessons.
OT’s are trained in “task analysis” for the teaching of new skills. This technique is very important when we teach dressing, feeding, and toileting skills. With sensory integration difficulties, OT’s teach these new skills by accommodating for sensory problems or impaired motor planning.
We’re pleased to have teamed up with Dr. Covington, OTD who will presenting some of his lectures and presentations through our Webcast series. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be posting different topics relevant to sensory therapy for self-help skills, communication and behavioral skills.

We hope you find them useful and look forward to your feedback.

Advances in Assistive Communication

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Published on Monday, 06 May 2013 00:22

Advances in Assistive Communication Technology Continue to Raise the Voice of Non-Verbal Speakers

Talk about a new way to communicate - if we take a look back in history at autism and technology, it is astounding to see the major impact in just the past decade that has happened.

Lenovo’s infographic, The Power of Touch, helps us to understand the progress during the last century. It was just over 100 years ago that the term Autism was coined, and it took about 40 years for doctor’s and therapists to start using ‘assistive technology’ with their clients. In the 1950s that ‘assistive technology’ was not anything like we think today in terms of tablets and computers. Flash cards, toys and chalkboards were used to help children with Autism communicate with those around them.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that speech generating devices emerged that voice was given to the words they structured together. Leap forward another 20 years and the first commercial dynamic display speech generator was available, meaning now that autistic kids could explore more complex ideas and express themselves creatively.

As computers and devices become more mainstream and affordable, more families and individuals were able to access them. In just the past few years, the options for assistive communication technology have exploded with the introduction of AAC apps for tablets and other mobile devices. Particularly useful was the adoption of touch screens to computers and devices allowing for users to touch directly on what they want, rather than having to rely on - and understand - the connection between the computer screen, the mouse, and the cursor. A study in 2011 revealed that people with Autism have enhanced visual detection centres, which helps to explain why visual programs are so helpful and effective.

As technology continues to change and grow, the possibilities are endless on the developments of assistive communication. Apps like TalkingTILES that work with touchscreen and internet technology are the next generation of AAC - combining an effective tool for user’s needs and the ability to remotely connect with therapists is just another beginning of progress of creating better solutions for those in need.

The Power of Touchscreen Technology: A Timeline of the History of Technology in the Treatment of Autism.