Ada’s New Workout Clothes
Ada did some pilates with me the other day. She wanted yoga pants like mine, so we headed to Target after school and got her an outfit. She wanted the “sports bra” top, but there wasn’t one her size, but she was happy to have the pink tank. The tight fitting nature of this outfit shows off how lean she has become.
I’m going to travel back in time here. Part of sensory processing disorder is something called proprioceptive dysfunction. Ada has it in spades. She has poor motor planning, body awareness and control. She is so clumsy and what people would call “ungraceful.” She has had OT since she was 11 months to help teach her to do everything. Her entire first year at her Montessori school was spent in the life lesson section so an OT and para could work on overcoming this for simple things. If you presented Ada with a pitcher of water, a stool and a sink, she could not coordinate herself or figure out what to do to pour the water in the sink. She just couldn’t get her body to work right to first put the pitcher down by the sink, climb on the stool, pick the pitcher up and pour out the water. And she’s really clumsy. It took a long time of walking practice before she could go through our very wide doorway from the kitchen to the living room without bumping into the side of it. It took forever before I trusted her enough to go down stairs by herself because she would fall.
What does all that have to do with this? In all the dance classes she has taken, she is really ungraceful, clumsy, and it took about nine weeks before she was able to do a front roll. You would watch her and conclude that dancing is just not one of her talents. The one thing she is missing as I see her legs rotated the wrong way, and her knees bent inwards instead of facing up and her lack of being able to really leap is that she isn’t being corrected. She’s taking these through Parks & Rec, and while they are all taught by dance majors from KU, she just doesn’t have any 1-on-1 attention to get these issues corrected.
I’m not trying to pressure-cook her into a dancer. She loves doing it, so I’m provider her a way to do it. And right now, her clumsiness and lack of general body coordination is fine. She isn’t the only one. However, if she wants to keep doing it, that will change.
I unfortunately cannot afford to pay for private lessons and an OT, which is probably what she needs. That’s why I decided to start doing some simple pilates and stretching at home with her. I’m hoping that if we do it enough, where I can be here to help her position her body and devote 1-on-1 attention, it will help her at dance. She was excited to do it with me. I think I’ll surprise her with her own mat too. I’m not really concerned with flexibility or muscles at the moment. I’m just concerned on helping her figure out her body so she can do a saddle stretch or sit in an easy pose or even lotus.
The headband she’s wearing was a $1 find at the sidewalk sale today. She said she’s wearing it to school tomorrow as well.
Would you like me to ask Gopi about good (and simple) yoga poses for kids?
Yes, please. That would be awesome!
I had to do a lot of deep pressure input on her joints when she was younger, about the time she just started learning to walk. It helped calm and regulate her nervous system. She still requests it on her feet a lot.
It makes me wonder if there are certain positions that would provide the same type of benefits for SPD kids.
Do you mind if I forward Gopi the information about Ada, including the acupressure work you just mentioned?
Not at all, and thank-you!
Done! I thought it might be easier to just send her to this blog post. I’ll let you know what she says.
It sounds like she just needs to work on her balance. There are lots simple easy exercises she could start doing to work on her balance.