The Bottom Line
By Bonnie Arnwine; 128 pages. Subtitle: Fun Activities That Won't Destroy Your Home!
If you're looking for a book that's actually about starting sensory integration therapy -- finding a therapist, interpreting test results, understanding what goes on during sessions, coordinating insurance payments -- this isn't it. There are sure some way cool games to play with your child, though. The book's less about starting therapy than bringing all that therapeutic goodness home.
Pros
- More than 100 great ideas for at-home sensory integration activities
- Written by a mom, so there's thought given to clean-up
- Ideas range from simple to more ambitious
- Opening chapter offers quick, succinct overview of sensory integration
- Activities sorted by needs so you can read just the parts that apply to your child
Cons
- The title is misleading, inaccurate, and much less appealing than the actual book
- The cartoon illustrations are less helpful than photos might have been
- Some kids will find a way to destroy your home no matter how neat the activity
Description
- Introduction
The Terms We Use to Describe Sensory Processing Disorder - Chapter 1: Our Senses
- Chapter 2: Tactile - Touch Activities
- Chapter 3: Gross Motor Activities
- Chapter 4: Visual Activities
- Chapter 5: Hearing - Auditory Activities
- Chapter 6: Smell
- Chapter 7: Oral Motor
- Chapter 8: Fine Motor Activities
- Index
Guide Review - Book Review: Starting Sensory Integration Therapy
Can you ever have enough cool activities to do with your child? As long as there are rainy days, bored children, young bodies in need of sensory input and tired parents in need of playtime inspirations, there will be a desperate need for books like Starting Sensory Integration Therapy. It takes its place alongside The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun with more than 100 fun ideas that pack a sensory-integration punch but will also be fun for any child, any parent, anywhere.
You can browse through the ideas by area of sensory need, and pick out the perfect plan for your tactile-defensive scaredy-cat or proprioceptive-seeking daredevil. You can scan the index for ingredients you have around or are not fearful to place in front of your child and seach for activities that way. You can even flip through looking for things that are short and simple and require little set-up. Pick something out, give it a try, see what works and what's more trouble than it's worth. There's even a decent chance that you'll have fun, too.
This is another one of those books that has a small, precise mission and performs it well and thoroughly, in a parent-friendly way. Which makes that wayward title all the more frustrating. Unless I'm missing something here -- and feel free to use the discussion link below to explain it to me -- this book has absolutely nothing to do with starting sensory integration therapy. The content here is so appealing; maybe a more integrated title's in order?
