picture by Nina Mullins Photography
This is my sweet, active, full of energy little man Gabriel! Gabriel joined our family when he was 20 months old. Since day one Gabriel has been a little hypersensitive and overreacts to EVERYTHING. A couple of years ago he started showing some major indications of sensory processing disorder and ADHD. At his last physical the doctor looked at me and said, "you know he has ADHD, right?" Of course the doctor's observation was not a surprise to me.
I have done my research, attended trainings, talked with therapist, but still not very good at putting it all into action. Gabriel has had a rough week and by this morning I was about to loose it. Before 8:00a.m. he had already been banned from playing with just about everyone. He had been in time out three times and was, at the time, screaming in the bathroom. I could just feel my blood pressure rising.
In a desperate act I took Gabriel outside and told him to run as fast as he could to the trampoline. Then I stood out there with him and give him direction after direction of things to do on the trampoline. He jumped as high as he could, he jumped and touched his toes, he jumped and fell on his bottom, he ran around and around on the trampoline. With each minute that went by you could see him relaxing and he started smiling and laughing. When I could tell he was out of breathe I told him to run as fast as he could to the house and I would chase him. When we got up to the deck he turned to me and wrapped me up in a big hug as if to say THANK YOU. Gabriel was able to sit and watch TV and play with his siblings for a couple of hours after.
Man, I learned a lot today. Too many times I would rather put him in timeout then to stop what I am doing and give him what his body needs. I am learning but I did good today!
Our daughter also struggles with self-regulation issues. We quickly discovered the same thing. The higher the level of physical activity, the better the self-regulation. Hope that it continues to make a difference.
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