Self-Regulation Interventions and Strategies: Keeping the Body, Mind & Emotions on Task in Children With Autism, Adhd or Sensory Disorders by Teresa Garland Mot Otr

Author:Teresa Garland Mot Otr
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 1936128772
Publisher: PESI Publishing & Media
Published: 2014-04-01T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 4

Eating, Sleeping, Bowel and Bladder

In this chapter we look at the physical regulation of eating, sleeping and bowel and bladder control. Each of these functions is controlled by autonomic processes and should work properly.

However, problems with sensory systems, hormones and willful or stubborn behaviors can confound function and make self-regulation difficult.

PICKY EATING

There are many reasons a child may elect not to eat, and it can take detective work to tease out the underlying issues of a picky eater. A good investigation tool is the Oral Sensory Processing portion of the Sensory Profile (parent/caregiver version). This parent questionnaire asks about the child’s eating preferences with regard to tastes, textures, and smells. Additionally, teachers and therapists can conduct a parent interview that covers the topics below. Here’s a look at some common problems.

Sensory aspects: The child may be oversensitive to smells and tastes and resistant to eating foods with strong odors or flavors. The textures of certain foods may feel slimy or gritty and unpleasant in her mouth. The sight of certain foods such as oatmeal or scrambled eggs may make her nauseous. The sounds of eating and conversing at the table may be grating to her ears and make her too irritable to eat.

Conversely, she may be undersensitive to taste and reject food because it tastes bland to her.

Oral motor skills: A child may have poor oral motor skills such as inadequate lip closure, poor movement of her cheek muscles, an inability to move her tongue around in the mouth sufficiently to handle certain foods or a lack of jaw-power to grind meat.

Inflexibility: She may be unwilling to try anything new. Seen in the extreme in a particular child with autism, she eats only four foods in total, refusing to deviate from that set. When other foods are presented, she throws the food, pushes it off her plate or tantrums.

Food intolerances and allergies: Unknown to her parents, she may have food sensitivities that cause gut inflammation and other symptoms. She may not notice that these foods cause problems until much later, when inflammation occurs. By then the inflamed areas may become irritated by otherwise non-problem foods and she may associate the symptoms with the non-problem food rather than the true source of the inflammation.

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