Sensory Integration Plus
A Family’s Story of Love and Learning
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“You’re pregnant” are words parents long to hear. Even with a great pregnancy, parents can be overwhelmed with caring for their children. This is more apparent when a child has behaviors that families do not understand. If the family faces issues with the pregnancy, birth trauma, or the dreaded fact that something is not right with the child, then “How can I care for this child?” races through their minds. We naturally parent children the way we were taught, either by our own parents or maybe through a few classes attended. Rarely are parents given the skills to handle children who do not fit the “normal” way of developing. My husband and I faced this in our own journey with our boys. We want to share the lessons we learned along the way in order to help others. We learned about sensory integration as a way to help our boys calm their bodies. This helped us to not to label the things they did as behavioral problems but as the way they regulated their bodies. The most important lesson for us was the way our family grew in spiritual connection. We hope our stories help others along their journeys.
Sensory integration, or processing, is simply how we use information through our senses to connect with what we have already learned about the world around us. We take in information through our five senses: taste, vision, hearing, touch, and smell, along with two hidden senses. We use movement through our vestibular sense (in the inner ear) and our proprioceptive sense (in our muscles and joints) to help us move about and calm our bodies. The sensory system was not understood well when I was born in the 1960s. Today, most of the general population has not heard of these concepts, only those who have or know children who are struggling to learn to regulate their bodies.
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About the Book
Wendy Vann’s job as a counselor could not prepare her for raising two sons with special needs.
Mykel did not like to be held, would not sleep at night, cried often, and couldn’t be comforted. He also had projectile vomiting, allergies to milk, asthma, and never slowed down.
Jesse was even more active than his brother, and his list of problems included frantic feeding, tremors, difficulty nursing, and constant ear infections.
In this book, Vann shares how she came to view her children’s problems as assets. She also explores how she struggled with decisions over medicating her children versus using more natural methods.
Throughout, she focuses on sensory integration, or processing, which is how we use information through our senses to connect with what we have already learned about the world around us. Children with special needs often process this information much different than others.
Whether you have a loved one with Autism, Sensory Processing, Tourette Syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Dyslexia or some other problem, you’ll be inspired by Vann’s journey—and walk away with practical information to improve behavior and enhance success with Sensory Integration Plus.
About the Author
Wendy Vann, MS, LPC, is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Oklahoma and a National Board-Certified Counselor. She is married to David, with two children, Mykel and Jesse. She lives in southeast Oklahoma and enjoys gardening, travel, scrapbooking, going to the beach, and spending time with her family.