In this elegant approach to the often-elusive subject of sensory integration, Carol Kranowitz, M.A. (author of the best-selling book The Out-of-Sync Child) and expert occupational therapists Stacey Szklut, MS, OTR/L, Lynn Balzer-Martin, PhD, OTR, Jane Koomar, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, Elizabeth Haber, MS, OTR/L, and Deanna Iris Sava, MS, OTR/L, have assembled an extensive and easy-to-use set of checklists and other tools that will be invaluable to every teacher (and parent) who has children with sensory processing challenges.
You’ll find tried-and-true instructions for developing fine-motor, “organizing,” and motor-planning skills, and for providing an appropriate “Sensory Diet” that will benefit all your students. Checklists help you identify students who have difficulty processing sensory information. With up to 20% of the students in any given classroom affected by Sensory Processing Disorder, Answers to Questions is an invaluable resource for teachers of preschool through high school.
Winner of Learning magazine's Teachers' Choice Award, this book and the tools within it will help teachers learn how to:
- Recognize Sensory Processing Disorder
- Understand how Sensory Processing Disorder may interfere with a child’s motor coordination, muscle tone, fine motor skills, visual perception, and relationships with others
- Discern a child’s unique pattern of out-of-sync behavior
- Help a child recover after a meltdown
- Develop strategies to prevent future meltdowns
- Approach a child who is simultaneously oversensitive to one kind of stimulation and undersensitive to another kind
- Help children identify their own needs for the right amount of sensory stimulation
- Collaborate with parents, occupational therapists, and other professionals on a child’s behalf
- Provide a safe, appropriate, “sensory diet” in the classroom that will benefit all students
- Structure a calm and organized classroom
- Manage his or her own behavior when a child “pushes those buttons”
Finally, this book will help teachers to always remember that these are good children who are trying their best in a confusing world!
Contents include:
- What Is Sensory Integration?
- What Is Occupational Therapy?
- How to Get the Most Out of Answers to Questions Teachers Ask
- Comparison of Typical Sensory Processing & Sensory Processing Disorder
- Organizing Sensory Input and Activities for the Classroom
- Classroom Accommodation Checklist
- Infants and Toddlers Checklist (Birth to Age Two)
- Preschool Checklist (Age Three to Four)
- School-Age Checklist (Age Five to Twelve)
- Adult/Adolescent Checklist (Age Twelve and Up)
- Balzer-Martin Preschool Screening—Teachers Checklist
- Characteristics of Tactile Dysfunction
- Characteristics of Vestibular Dysfunction
- Characteristics of Proprioceptive Dysfunction
- Characteristics of Visual Dysfunction
- Characteristics of Auditory Dysfunction
- Heavy Work Activities List for Teachers
- And more!
Carol Kranowitz, MA, has been a preschool teacher for more than twenty-five years. She has developed an innovative program to screen young children for Sensory Processing Disorder, and writes and speaks regularly about the subject. She has an M.A. in Education and Human Development. She is the author of the best-selling books The Out of Sync Child, The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun, The Goodenoughs Get in Sync, Growing an In-Sync Child, and other excellent resources.
Jane Koomar, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, is owner and executive director of Occupational Therapy Associates - Watertown, in Watertown, MA. There they train university students and therapists in occupational therapy, and treat about 250 clients a week. They diagnose and provide intervention for children, adolescents, and adults with learning disabilities, ADD, fine and gross motor disorders, and autism spectrum disorders. She and her colleagues have also established The Spiral Foundation in 2002, to support continuing research on Sensory Integration Disorder.
Stacey Szklut, MS, OTR/L, Lynn Balzer-Martin, PhD, OTR, Elizabeth Haber, MS, OTR/L, and Deanna Iris Sava, MS, OTR/L are all expert occupational therapists.
