Now I'm not so sure...

When I first started working, I used to pull out all the sensory tricks.  

Not so much ever any more.  The truth is that participation in occupation appears to be just

 that. Taking an inaccessible activity and explaining it a way and at a pace that makes it 

accessible.  And letting a child with know that I believe he can make this leap.

When I work with Matthew I draw a line on a white board.  We dump a small jar of pennies

 and penny clips on the table.  Matthew runs his hands through them clearly enjoying the

 look and feel of their shifting surfaces on his skin.   

I gently held Matthew's hand in mine.  We gather the small toys between our palms like

 a rosary and push them into a line, mimicking the line on the white board.  

Together we hold the board and a marker to draw a line that mimics the manipulatives.  

We pause and look at the three and two-dimensional representations of a line.

When I softly release Matthew's hands, he scatters the manipulatives over the surface 

of the board, glittering tesseri on a blank ground.

Continued to “ The Parasympathetic SeeSaw”