Since my two-and-a-half year old is lagging in the speech department we had an evaluation performed through the Early On program. A note for my fellow chiropractors, make sure you are familiar with this program (administered through the school system) so that you can refer children if needed. There are many aspects about this process I could post about. Maybe eventually I will get around to it, but for right now I want to share my experience with the occupational therapist assigned to my son's case. With the training in pediatric care that I've had, Miss Paula and I were speaking the same language. Miss Paula came Thursday for our first session. We started with an in-depth conversation about what my son's personality, routine and diet are like. She was pretty excited about what we had already been doing. Things like lots of fresh fruits and veggies, supplements, chiropractic adjustments, cooking with coconut oil and making sure he has outside time every day. Since my son is "high octane" (lots of energy and the best smile you've ever seen) we focused on things we can do to ground him, hence the brushing. I had heard of the technique, especially for dealing with sensory processing disorders, but had no real idea what it involved.
The brush is a simple surgical-prep brush. As you can see in the picture, I'm pressing pretty firmly. This is a must, because you are wanting to stimulate the deep pressure receptors. Using strong, firm strokes you can either brush one direction or rub back and forth in a smaller area. This is done on the limbs, hands, feet and I include the back. You follow this act with joint compression of the brushed areas. "The most important part," Miss Paula said "is the joint compression you do after the brushing". Now, this made complete sense. When you perform quick and light distraction and compression of the joint you are resetting the proprioceptors of the joint capsule. I will manually do this to his upper limbs and for the lower limbs I either have him jump a few times or pick him up an inch or so and lightly thump him back down on his feet. Also, I press down firmly on his shoulders a few times as I look into his eyes nose to nose and make funny faces.
My son takes in much of his environmental input thru physical means - he is very tactile and always touching or doing something. Brushing, for him, is very grounding and helps focus his energies for a bit. Brushing can be used for hyposensory situations or hypersensory situations in children. However, if you do the brushing without resetting the joint after then you leave the nervous system in limbo. As you can imagine, this is very upsetting for a nervous system that is already in a state of irritation and dysfunction.
Here's the exciting conclusion . Brushing and other occupational therapy techniques and chiropractic adjustments are just different facets of the same purpose . . . to RECONNECT DISCONNECTED KIDS. To improve the communication between the brain and body. This is why children with neurosensory issues have the best results using a multi-faceted approach - each small act (adjustments, brushing, exercise, diet, etc.) contributes to a greater movement toward equilibrium which benefits everyone.
Meeting Miss Paula has been a blessing. My son has been absolutely loving this brushing technique as have I. It's been a great way for him to slow down and really focus on something he enjoys. Also, the connection with each other in those short seconds is priceless.
