Helping Hyperactive Kids ? A Sensory Integration Approach: Techniques and Tips for Parents and Professionals

Sensory integration has provided help to children with behavior, learning, and motor skills problems for over 40 years. A treatment based on play, it helps children absorb, process, and respond to information in an appropriate manner. This book provides a complete overview and explanation of the therapy, as well as practical sensory integration–based techniques that can be used by teachers and parents to help the hyperactive child. This non-medical approach can be used in conjunction with, or as a substitute for, traditional drug treatments.

"A basic introduction to the approach of sensory integration is presented in this collaborative effort, Helping Hyperactive Kids, by Lynn J. Horowitz and Cecile Rost. Written for the layperson as well as the professional, the book gives a better understanding and insight into the behavioral patterns and factors that might cause the hyperactive behavior of the child. The book includes a study of how the brain works, and helps the reader in their understanding the main sensory systems, of balance, touch, hearing, sight, feeling, taste, and smell.

The purpose and process of sensory integration therapy are developed and include the environment and atmosphere needed to make the treatment a success, play as therapy, and the structure of the treatment.

The tips for dealing with the hyperactive child are especially designed to help the parent. They include tips on communicating, organizing, and nurturing calmness. The tips also provide suggestions for giving directions, for adapting toys and games and for negotiating in the classroom. Well-documented with complete endnotes, a sequential format, a complete table of contents, a helpful index, and detailed case studies make this book a useful reference tool. A full chapter is dedicated to a questionnaire for parents. This checklist will help the parent determine if a sensory processing problem is occurring in their child.

Helping Hyperactive Kids is clearly written for the parent looking for a non-drug, child-friendly intervention program for the hyperactive child. This is a hands-on guide with activities, tips and techniques for the child with learning disabilities. " - Richard R. Blake for Reader Views

"This book is very well written. It is meant for parents and teachers and is done in an easy to read and succinct manner. It touches on every aspect of sensory integration. You will find information here on smell, taste, touch, vision, the effect of the environment in general, and more. It won me over with the sentence "All children need discipline." It has been my experience that many parents whose children receive a diagnosis of anything that affects behavior, simply throw up their hands in resignation and say “There is nothing I can do, he/she has ______. This benefits no one, least of all the child. I always wonder if these parents have ever considered that their child will one day be an adult, with these same issues and their lives will be more difficult than it has to be. It is hard work to raise any child, more difficult when the child needs a little extra help. The information in this book will help the parents identify possible problems and give suggestions on how to begin to help their child.

There is a lot of very useful information here, as well as explanations. It is not a book that says do this, because I say so, it is one that says do this, and here is why. It tells you how to do it, when to do it and gently guides you through the difficulties that you will face while you do it.

I work in a special needs school. None of my own children had issues of this kind. I see sensory issues on a daily basis, often exhibited in the most extreme ways. I have attended in-services on sensory integration, and work with it every day.

Helping Hyperactive Kids- A Sensory Integration Approach is a book is meant to address these issues in typical children, but I feel that it is also a valuable resource for me, and the team that I work with. I have already benefited from the information provided." - Kathleen McStay Wagner, LibraryThing Early Reviewer