Workshops

At Kid Sense

Do you have a child you are worried about but not sure how to help? We all know that “Knowledge is power”. Armed with a little knowledge, children with developmental needs can get the help they need sooner, and their carers can actively help them to overcome their little challenges using engaging and useful activities to facilitate maximum skill development.
Kid sense offers a series of workshops held during the school terms.

Workshop descriptions
Pencil skill difficulties?
Coordination difficulties ?
Behaviour difficulties ?
Attention difficulties ?

WORKSHOP TOPICS currently include:

Each workshop is held once a school term at Kid Sense, 90 Unley Road Unley. 7 pm to 8.30 pm, Cost $50 (incl Gst).
Book on-line. Certificated of attendance provided.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

1) Sharpening up on pencil skills

Recognize when a child is struggling with pencil skills (tracing, drawing, colouring and writing) from preschool to high school, and learn some simple strategies to overcome these difficulties.


Pencil skills (including handwriting) are more complex skills than we often realize. The ability to colour within the lines, trace over a shape and draw simple pictures are the building blocks for writing letters and numbers. Mastery of these skills enables children to focus on the content of their writing rather than how they produce it (eg their pencil control, pencil grasp, and speed). However, given society's emphasis on, and haste to commence, ‘academics' earlier now than ever before, we sometimes overlook the vital role these seemingly basic skills play in developing mature writing skills. Yet we expect children to demonstrate their knowledge on paper in order to assess their academic abilities.

Ideal pencil skill development relies upon mastery and integration of a variety of abilities including:
• Postural control - how we position our trunk and limbs when using pencils, to maintain an upright posture at the table.
• Pencil grip – how we hold (and subsequently move) the pencil determines the ease, speed and direction of pencil movements, as well how hard we press with the pencil.
• Visual processing that helps us recognize and form letters, as well as plan where to draw/write on the page or to layout project presentation.
• Knowledge of appropriate letter formation, orientation, sizing and alignment on the page.

Other topics covered in this workshop include:
• Does it really matter if the child doesn't form letters correctly or hold their pencil properly?
• What if the child's writing looks good, but they’re awkward in the way they produce it?
• Are children with poor handwriting better off mastering keyboard skills instead (as is often the suggestion) and does it really help them in the long term?


DO YOU NOTICE ANY OF THESE SIGNS OF PENCIL SKILL DIFFICUTILES ?

If you do, then this workshop will be of interest to you.
Does your child:

• write/colour with slow speed and/or labour intensive
• Tire easily
• Become easily frustrated
• Avoid pencil activities
• Show quality that deteriorates over time
• Fail to stabilise the paper with the non-writing hand
• Reverse letters and/or numbers
• Write with inconsistent letter sizing and/or spacing
• Have difficulty staying on the lines (when using lined paper)
• Mix case usage inappropriately
• Use poor layout and/or spacing on page
• Use an awkward pencil grip and/or holds pencil too close or too far away from the tip
• Complain of a sore hand, stop to shake their hand, or have knuckles that turn white
• Swap hands frequently whilst writing or drawing
• Slump at the table during pencil tasks
• Break pencil leads often or presses excessively hard
• Form letters with incorrect starting point and/or direction of movement
• Have difficulty copying from the blackboard and/or dictation
• Need visual models for letter formation
• Move their pencil from their shoulder or elbow, rather than their hand (wrist or fingers)
• Move their hand across the page with a stop start (jerky) movement
• Hook the wrist towards body when holding pencil
• Watch their hand intensely whilst writing or drawing



2) Developing control in co-ordination

Develop an appreciation of the multiple underlying skills required for co-ordination, and learn some ideas to enhance co-ordination, endurance and physical functioning in everyday tasks, not just sporting activities.

As we kneel to build blocks, get out of the car of or step over other children to find a place at mat time, we are using co-ordination skills. For many of us, catching a ball, riding a bike and climbing the stairs comes easily and without conscious thought. As the term implies, co-ordination involves the simultaneous bringing together of many skills. Individuals with typical co-ordination often don't realize the number of skills that we rely upon to come together all at the same time, to support our co-ordination' including:

• Body awareness (knowing where our body parts are without looking at them)
• Strong muscles to allow us to hold a position (e.g. an upright trunk to kick a ball or holding arms up to shoot a ball into the basket)
• Timing and sequencing of movements (to catch the ball before it hits you in the face)

Co-ordination skills are important in everyday activities and influence our success in play, self-care and academic tasks. Perhaps even more significantly for those effected, poor co-ordination can result in loss of self-esteem and social difficulties in the playground or on the sporting field with peers, or even just negotiating the school classroom without tripping.
Only by improving the underlying and hidden skills that influence our co-ordination can we actually improve it. In doing so, we can avoid the common mistake of practicing the symptom (the end product) of these hidden difficulties (e.g. catching a ball) rather than addressing the cause.

This workshop provides fun and easy activities to try at home, child care, kindergarten or school in place of frustrating and fruitless practice of activities that children find hard.
For more specific information about the outcome of co-ordination skills, consult a physiotherapist.

Booking - Sharpening up on pencil skills


DO YOU NOTICE ANY OF THESE SIGNS OF COORDINATION DIFFICUTILES ?

If you do, then this workshop will be of interest to you.
Is your child:

• Clumsy and accident prone; bump into things, trip and fall over often.
• Cautious in learning new skills or playing new games (e.g. swimming strokes, sticks to familiar games that he/she has mastered).
• Take longer than expected to learn new skills or relies heavily upon visual input.
• Perform tasks or movements in a more difficult or awkward manner than typical (e.g. ball throwing or catching that is poorly timed or have trouble following an obstacle course).
• Unaware of other people/objects in the space around him/her so that they ‘bull-dozer’ through crowds and spaces.
• Have difficulty maintaining an upright posture for long periods - may slump at the table, lean on things and people after only short periods or can’t sit still.
• Seem to have weak muscles and grasp, tire easily or appear lethargic. Take longer to recover from activity than others.
• Prefer quiet, sedentary indoor play over active, outdoor play.
• Walk on their toes.
• Show limited awareness of pain and temperature; doesn’t seem to notice when bruises occur or to notice when bumps/cuts self.
• Have poor balance; e.g. have trouble bike riding, managing uneven surfaces such as escalators or hesitate when using playground equipment.
• Become anxious or distressed when feet leave the ground or when turned upside down. May avoid playground equipment or only like it when they are in control.


3) Making Sense of Sensory Integration

Learn what sensory processing is, how sensory inefficiencies can present in children’s skill development and behaviour, and the impact sensory processing can have upon a child’s ability to successfully participate in everyday activities (including learning and attention).

The ability to process sensory information from the world around us builds the foundation for:
• Co-ordination - we use information from our senses to judge the timing of our movements and the force that we apply.
• Social skills - to effectively interact with others we must read their verbal and non-verbal signals accurately and adjust our responses accordingly.
• Ability to pay attention - as we need to select what is important to pay attention to and what is not in order to learn.

Sensory Integration for most of us occurs easily whilst we are doing everyday activities. It is something that just happens without effort and without being aware of it. For some children and adults, sensory information doesn't get organised quite the way it should. The first sign that something is wrong tends to be ‘bad behavior’ or clumsiness in fine or gross motor skills. It is an easy mistake to focus on the outcome skill difficulties (e.g. poor writing or clumsiness) rather than on the hidden cause (ineffective sensory processing) that allows these skills to be carried out.
Whether in the classroom, home or social environment (eg restaurant), our sensory systems are never turned off. Efficient sensory integration provides the foundations for learning new skills. Children with learning or co-ordination difficulties, ADD/ADHD, developmental delays and Autism Spectrum Disorders often demonstrate difficulty processing sensory information that add to learning and behaviour challenges.

This workshop is the pre-requisite for managing attention difficulties using sensory strategies as explored in the “Getting Control of your Attention engine" workshop.

Booking - Developing control in co-ordination


DO YOU NOTICE ANY OF THESE SIGNS OF BEHAVIOUR DIFFICUTILES ?

If you do, then this workshop will be of interest to you.
Does your child:

• Become overwhelmed with unexpected or loud noises (e.g. vacuum, hair dryer). May hold hands over ears to protect from sound.
• Have difficulty concentrating if there is a lot of noise around; is easily distracted by sights and sounds.
• Become easily overwhelmed with touch from certain types of clothes (e.g. tags, seams in socks). May become distressed during hair cutting or face washing. Constantly complains that clothes are too tight, too itchy or that they hurt.
• Avoid eye contact.
• Walk on their toes; seem to have weak muscles, tire easily or appear lethargic.
• Seem accident prone or clumsy. Hesitate when using playground equipment.
• Touch people and objects to the point of irritating others; show decreased awareness of pain and temperature; doesn’t seem to notice when hands or face are messy.
• Seek out all kinds of movement to the point that it makes completing daily routines difficult and/or take excessive risks that compromise safety.
• Gag on or avoid certain textures that are typically part of children’s diets. Limits self to particular textures (e.g. crunchy versus lumpy).
• Become anxious or distressed when feet leave the ground or when turned upside down. May avoid playground equipment or only enjoys it when they are in control.
• Express feeling like a failure or is unable to calm self when unsuccessful at a task.
• Have poor organization and planning skills; do things in a more awkward way than necessary.
• Have difficulty tolerating change in routine and expectations and/or has difficulty transitioning between tasks.


4) Getting control of your attention engine!

Many factors contribute to attention and concentration difficulties, some related to sensory processing. Learn how to manage a child’s alertness or “engine speed” using sensory strategies applicable to child care/preschool/school and home. This workshop assumes the sensory knowledge gained in Making Sense of Sensory Integration.

How often have you thought “when he pays attention he can do really well” or ”if he would just sit still long enough he could…” . We often make the assumption that kids choose not to pay attention, when in fact attention and concentration are skills that are influenced by a number of factors that we often take for granted including;
• Their reactions to sensory information in the environment
• Motivation and self confidence
• Endurance over the course of the day
• The complexity of the task itself
• Perception of task difficulty

For many of us, attending to task no matter how tedious or challenging, is relatively easy as we know how to talk ourselves into obtaining and sustaining the appropriate state of readiness (alertness) to carry out the task. Each task requires a different level of attention. For example, reading a book requires a very different level of attention to following the ball during a team sport.
For some children though(such as those with language, learning or developmental days), attending is made difficult by one of the following three factors; anxiety, frustration and distractibility. Influenced by these, children can find it difficult or impossible to 1) initially obtain the appropriate attention to task, 2) sustain attention long enough to complete the task, or 3) both. Whilst this can present very similarly to ADD / ADHD, it's origin (and therefore it's management) can be quite different. Where the origin is dysfunction of sensory integration, helping these children develop appropriate sensory strategies can help them develop better attention, and as a result enhanced learning capacity academically, socially and physically. Without it, children can be reluctant to participate in everyday tasks, become inappropriately frustrated very rapidly, refuse to persist in the face of a challenge and resist learning activities.

This workshop assumes knowledge of dysfunction of sensory processing, outlined in Making Sense of Sensory Integration which examines the role sensory processing has learning and behavior.

Booking - Make sense of sensory integration


DO YOU NOTICE ANY OF THESE SIGNS OF ATTENTION DIFFICUTILES ?

If you do, then this workshop will be of interest to you.
Does your child:

• Fidget, rock, cannot sit still
• Appear not to have heard what is said (regardless of the reason)
• Make noises (eg humming) while working
• Miss details when copying
• Seek movement to the point that it interferes with task completion
• Touch people and objects to the point of irritating others
• Find it difficult to adhere to the task long enough to complete it
• Have difficulty screening out relevant from irrelevant sounds/information in the environment
• Require threats to initiate tasks/activities

• Day dream, appear lethargic or lack energy
• Display low frustration tolerance
• Have poor transitions between tasks/activities
• Take a long time to complete tasks
• Hard to motivate, appear disinterested
• Avoid quiet activities
• resist challenging themselves
• Rock in desk / chairs / on floor
• Can't complete tasks in busy/noisy environments
• Fail to notice changes in the environment

Booking - Getting control of your attention engine