Tuesday, December 20, 2016

5 Ways to Avoid Sensory Overload in Kids


Wikipedia defines it as: 
Sensory overload occurs when one or more of the body's senses experiences over-stimulation from the environment. There are many environmental elements that impact an individual. Examples of these elements are urbanization, crowding, noise, mass media, technology, and the explosive growth of information. 
There are a wide variety of symptoms that have been found to be associated with sensory overload. These symptoms can occur in both children and adults. Some of these symptoms are:
Irritability, "shutting down", or refusing to participate in activities and/or interacting with others, getting overexcited, having difficulty focusing on an activity, constantly changing activities, never completing a task, having trouble with social interactions, extremely high or extremely low activity levels, difficulty concentrating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_overload

Recently I've attended a birthday party for a 3 year old. Most of the children that were invited were of the same age, ranging from one to three years old, apart from a handful of older boys.

The parents have hired a range of activities and entertainment; there was a clown with games and balloons, a mascot, the baby corner, giant soft Lego blocks, and if that wasn't enough they've brought more toys for children to be busy with; trucks, balls, cars.
Watching the entertainers from the side I've noticed they had the most challenging time of engaging with the children. There were so many things fighting for their attention.
I could see a few oldest boys here and there, running from one activity to the next, not giving any one of them any significant attention. Running to the clown, “Make me more balloons!” Before the balloons were even finished they were already kicking the ball on the field nearby, the next moment they were tossing the rings in the games corner, then building and knocking down the Lego tower. Several girls were trying to build a Lego fort and just when they would be finished the boys would knock it down.

The mascot showed up, trying to interact with the birthday boy, but he was simply not interested. Pulling his two large trucks, digging into the presents while being smothered by friends and relatives. The mascot finally resigned to playing with the youngest invitees in the baby corner, to the parents apparent displeasure.
Slowly but surely, the time expired for the entertainers team, and the clown and the mascot said their good byes and left. The only thing that was left was the baby corner and the giant Lego blocks.
Then something miraculous happened! All the children gravitated towards the baby corner and started orderly and peacefully playing with the blocks and Lego pieces. They've stopped running around wildly, they were sincerely interested and actually had great fun with one another and the blocks.

On a mat 3mx3m all the children collaborated and had fun. I was amazed at first, couldn't believe the big boys were happy playing in a 'baby corner', but they were. Watching them for a few moments I realized what has just occurred. No, it wasn't a miracle! No, it wasn't a magic trick! Most definitely wasn't any type of Harry Potter magic either!

Those children were overstimulated! Parents in their desire to provide for their children, in their concern that children won't have enough fun, in their attempt to make their birthdays and childhood memorable, overstimulated them. One activity at the time is plenty enough for the children to be happily occupied for a while. Multitasking is a myth (if you are to do something right)! That's why I've always made a point with my own kids to only have one toy out at the time. Once they're finished playing with that one they're required to clean it up, put it away before engaging in the next activity.

Overstimulating our kids is turning them into ADHD. Children's brains/minds can take so much info, at a lightening speed, but not all at once. Their minds are just soaking it all up. Yes, they are well able to take it all in, but what happens when so many things are fun for them and they want to try them all at the same time? How do they choose? It comes to the point that they conclude that NONE of it is fun! Not because they would not enjoy it if given just that one activity, but in a midst of so many they get more easily bored since they've not experienced any of them as they should. All the while they are engaged in one activity they are thinking, looking, wishing for the next one, not able to give it their full attention.
Solution? 
1. Limit kids activities to one at a time. One toy out at the time. 

2. When organizing a party limit the number of activities or create the activity stations with a 'collect-your-points-at-each-station' incentives.

3.When out and about try to occasionally point to fun facts about just one item, such as in a zoo, stop by one of the animal's cages and share fun, quirky facts about just that one animal (ask them later which animal they've liked the most or stood out to them the most)

4. Do 'did you know' impromptu moments with your child while sharing interesting facts, you are sure they don't know.

5. If they're watching a cartoon, have them put the toys away. Focus on the cartoon. Talk about it when it is done. 



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Do you have any tips on how to avoid the sensory overload in children you'd like to share? Let us know in the comments section below. If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook, join our FB group My Happy Baby. Thank you!


8 stvari koje trebate znati o roditeljstvu

Kao roditelji skloni smo osjećaju "krivnje". Većinu vremena, djeca uvelike pomažu tom osjećaju, osobito dok nam pokazuje svoje nezadovoljstvo kada neudovoljimo njihovom zahtjevu za nešto- bilo što, u biti!

Nedavno sam imala priliku osvrnuti se na moje dosadašnje roditeljstvo, moj roditeljski stil, roditeljske vještine koje sam naučila, neke roditeljske savjete na koje sam naišla, itd. (moja djeca su dobi od 13.god. do 22.god). Budući da sam prošla dugi niz godina roditeljstva, te sve faze djetetova razvoja, mogu slobodno reći da sam imala dosta roditeljskih uspona i padova.

Tijekom ovog osvrta na moj roditeljski stil, primjetila sam mnoge nedostatke. Jasno mi je da sam napravila neke pogreške s mojom djecom, neke od njih sam, na žalost, ponavljala s vremena na vrijeme. Osjećala sam se tako jadno, tako obeshrabreno i tako poraženo. Počela sam sa: "Trebala sam..." i "Da sam samo...” pomislima. Ali u tom momentu, jedna nova razina razumijevanja roditeljstva je polako došla u moj fokus i dala mi novi smisao.



Dolje su moje spoznaje iz ovog roditeljskog samo-'istraživanja':

1. Svi roditelji su ljudi: Roditelji kao grešna ljudska bića, prave pogreške (čak i strojevi nas nekad iznevjere). Puni smo grešaka i nitko nije savršen. Ne postoji savršeni roditelj. Svi griješimo. Što se prije suočimo sa tom činjenicom lakše će nam biti prihvatiti sve uspone i padove.

2. Ljudi su različiti: Svi smo mi drugačiji, a sva naša djeca različita i posebna na svoj jedinstveni način. Najvažnije je to uzeti u obzir za svako dijete, te tretirati ga kao posebnog jedinstvenog pojedinca s njegovim / njezinim vlastitim vrlinama i manama.


3. Temeljito razumijevanje djece je neophodno: Ako dijete ima određene poteškoće, u učenju ili bilo koju drugu nelagodu, a vi si uzmete vremena kako bi naučili sve što možete prvo o tom izazovu, a onda kako pomoći svojem lijepom dragulju, pa onda (što je najvažnije) naučite njega/nju kako da se nosi sa time i prevlada te izazove onda ste fantastično odradili svoj posao i uspješan ste roditelj!


4. Morate i dalje učiti: Nitko nije rođen s diplomom pedagogije ili psihologije, dok smo živi učimo. Ako ste voljni istraživati, pohađati tečajeve roditeljstva, čitati o roditeljstvu, tražiti savjete, onda činite sve što možete. (NAPOMENA: Nitko ne zna sve i ponekad trebate potražiti savjet stručnjaka, tako da možete biti divan i uspješan roditelj!)...

5. Roditeljstvo je kontinuirano učenje. Čak i kada imamo osjećaj da znamo sve, nešto će nam prije ili kasnije zadati izazov (sigurna sam da se ne želite naći u takvoj situaciji). Priđite izazovima tako što ih objeručke prihvatite i naučite sve što možete o njemu. Nemojte smatrati da je to poraz vašem dosadašnjem stilu roditeljstva, nego unaprjeđenje, poboljšanje.

6. Dajte sve od sebe da pokažete ljubav svojoj djeci: Pravila sam greške u odgoju, ali uvijek sam učinila sve što je u mojoj moći, da svom snagom i svim srcem, volim i zaštitim svoju djecu, da ih njegujem, da im pomognem, da ih razumijem. Ljubeći svoju djecu i stavljajući ih na prvo mjesto ne možete pogriješiti u svom roditeljstvu.


7. Ne uspoređujte svoje dijete s bilo kojim drugim djetetom: Uspoređujući svoju djecu s drugom djecom (pa čak i sa braćom i sestrama) je jedna od najvećih grešaka! Sva djeca rastu i razvijaju se drugačije i po različitim parametrima. Ako vjerujemo da se ljudska bića mogu svrstati u određene skupine i napisati vodič o tipovima ljudi, onda živimo s pogrešnim pretpostavkama. Svako dijete, svaka osoba je drugačija i ima njegov / njezin vlastiti raspored, vremenski slijed, karakteristike, vrline i mane. Baš kao što svaka pahuljica ima svoj individualni dizajn, tako i svako dijete, svaki čovjek ima svoj!


8. Prihvatite svoju djecu onakvima kakvi jesu: Roditelji često misle da je akademska sklonost ili sportska vještina ili bilo koje druge vještine njihove djece prizanje njihovog intelekta i snage koja je direktan nusprodukt, te osigurava priznanje, intelekta, vještine i/ili roditeljskog postignuća. Ništa nije dalje od istine! Roditelji ovim stavom stavljaju enormni pritisak na svoju djecu i sebe. Najbolji način odgoja djece je da ih prihvatite onakvima kavi jesu, a to će vam osigurati titulu Super roditelja!

Ako vam se svidio ovaj blog vidimo se preko na http://sandrasacademy.squarespace.com/ gdje možete dobiti svoj besplatni primjerak popisa prekretnica za moju bebu.


Imate li bilo koji od roditeljskih savjeta koje biste željeli podijeliti sa nama? Javite nam u komentarima ispod. Ako ste uživali u ovom post-u, bila bih vam jako zahvalna ako biste pomogli drugima da čuju više o ovoj temi, slanjem prijateljima, ili da ga podijelite na Twitter-u ili Facebook-u. Hvala!