By Nancy Mucklow; 165 pages. From the introduction: "It's a book for pre-teens who have had hard times at school. You look like everyone else. And you have talents, just like everyone else. But you know that there is something in the way that makes life harder for you than for other pre-teens you know."
Mucklow, the parent of a pre-teen with sensory issues, couldn't find any sensory-integration resources appropriate for that age group, so she went ahead and wrote one herself. It's an upbeat, friendly guide to helping the senses work together as a team, and strengthening weaker players.
- Give a kid-friendly look at the seven senses and how they might get it wrong.
- Makes specific suggestions for adjusting and accommodating sensory problems.
- Cartoons and graphics make the material less threatening.
- Checklists and questions get kids thinking about what feels right to them.
- The book will also be useful to teens, and adults who don't want a more complex text.
- The "Pre-Teens" in the title will make teens and adults less likely to pick it up
- Addition of "emotional" and "social" senses makes it less useful as a book about sensory integration
- For now, it's available only through the author's site
- Chapter 1: Your Brain-Body
- Chapter 2: Your Seven Senses
- Chapter 3: Your Gravity Sense
- Chapter 4: Your Muscle Sense
- Chapter 5: Your Sense of Touch
- Chapter 6: Your Mouth Senses
- Chapter 7: Your Hearing and Sight Senses
- Chapter 8: Your Emotion Sense
- Chapter 9: Your Social Sense
- Your World
Occupational Therapy Associations
Sensory integration can be a difficult thing to get a handle on, even for adults. For kids who know it as the only way they feel, the fact that others feel differently may be surprising and confusing. In this accessible handbook, Mucklow, a teacher as well as a parent, uses a team concept to explain the way the senses need to work together, and suggests fun activities for bringing all the players up to speed.
The use of gentler terminology like "gravity sense" instead of vestibular and "muscle sense" instead of proprioceptive makes sense for a younger audience, but may be appealing for adults whose eyes glaze over at big words, too. Though the text is directed at kids and there are questions and checklists for them throughout, this is certainly a book that parents could use to pick activities for their children and get a sense of how to talk about SI in a non-threatening way.
I do wish Mucklow hadn't added "for Pre-Teens" to the title. I think it limits a fairly nifty little resource to a small age group. The book seems equally appropriate to teenagers, but that demographic is unlikely to consider anything branded for pre-teens, and adults who might find it appealing may skip it if there are no pre-teens about.
I also wish the author had avoided adding extra senses to the seven that apply to sensory integration. While these may be true to pre-teen experiences, it veers the book from being about sensory integration into a more general guide to pre-teen life. Since problems with sensory integration can cause emotional and social issues, I wish that material had been integrated into the seven sense chapters. Still, it's a fun and useful resource, one to share with your child of any age, and maybe some grown-ups you know, too.
Note: There is a second edition of this book, with a "pre-teen"-less title. Read about it.
