February 2012 Updates: Hahgoot’s News: Sensory Diet can be Fun!

Barak built an unusual IKEA project: a swivelling kids chair!

Both girls love it, the guests love it, and it’s an interesting addition to the living room. Swivelling inside it, with the cover on, is both important for Hahgoot’s sensory diet and a place to melt down and hide when overloaded.

Another OT related toy that was popular with both girls: An old-fashioned bird whistle

Every evening the girls spend time crashing and running wild before the bath – they love it!

Alma exploring the strange looking blob on the bed... Alma does her “rabid dog” impression...

We keep going to Carly every second Saturday. Barak has met her at last. Most sessions he takes Alma out to have a nap while I do the session with Hahgoot (this works best for all of us).

Carly thinks about very creative ways to keep Hahgoot spontaneous, alert and active (not an easy task).

After OT we try to meet up with friends for lunch: Here we are having a fun time with Charlotte Walsh and mother Mandy at a small Concord cafe. The girls enjoyed pasta, gelato and nail polish!

And here we visited the Rotem/Mazrier family at their home in Five Dock, and enjoyed a fabulous lunch that Yaron prepared.

Here you can see a typical evening meltdown in progress. The meltdowns leave both me and Hahgoot exhausted, physically and emotionally. I am very good at diffusing a meltdown and the frequency of the events has decreased, but it is still quite disturbing to our lives.

Hahgoot has a new “Meltdown Recovery” zone, to help her calm down and regroup. This comics strip, which I found at our GP’s clinic, sums up OT well... In our next presentation: Hahgoot’s school experience in Term 1