Blog With 7 Senses

As most of you know, I have been working diligently on a children's picture book, This is Gabriel Making Sense of School (due out Spring 2010) that focuses on children with Sensory Processing Disorder succeeding at school.

This subject is very near and dear to my heart.

Not only does Gabriel have SPD, but he still struggles at school needing movement breaks, heavy work and generally keeping his body regulated.

The first step in this process, as everyone out there with a SPD kiddo knows, is educating the school on SPD.

Although I keep reading good things from the SPD Foundation about the chances of getting SPD acknowledged in the DSM (the diagnostic manual that doctors, insurance companies and school districts base benefits off of), my kid is struggling today, and I can't put off getting him help until the medical world gets on board.

The first thing I struggle with when teaching anyone about Sensory Processing Disorder is the simple fact that there are SEVEN SENSORY SYSTEMS.

Not. Five. Nope. There are 7. SE-VEN.

Let's recap:

Sight -- Your eyes help you see

Hearing -- Your ears help you hear sound

Touch -- Your skin and fingers help you feel things around you

Taste -- Your tongue and mouth help you determine taste and texture

Smell -- Your nose helps you smell which is closely connected to your taste system

Vestibular -- located in your inner ear, it is the basis for balance and understanding where your body is in relation to its surroundings

Proprioception -- located in the muscles and joints and controls how much pressures is used (pushing and pulling)

I am guessing many of you knew this--but shockingly most teachers don't! I have pushed this so hard with Gabriel, that every year he starts up the debate with his teacher to prove that there are seven. That's my boy already starting to advocate for himself!

So I am starting a crusade to educate the entire WORLD that we have 7 senses.

Will you help me? Com' on -- Who's with me?

Grab the button I created up there on the left hand side of my blog and put it on your blog. Then encourage your readers to do the same.

Soon we will have dominance throughout the blogging community and will succeed in changing the face of the world.

OK, I'm getting a little carried away...

But, I sure can hope that spreading the word that there are 7 senses will help with the basics. Right? Like when you walk into your child's teacher the first day, you can skip the part where you have to explain, repeatedly, that there are seven senses....

Don't worry, you're not going to have to educate the masses empty handed for long. When my book comes out it will help you educate your child's teachers, peers and others not only about what is going on with your child, but also how they can help; including the fact that there are 7 senses.

So grab the button now!

When you take the button--leave a comment that you are doing so. It will encourage others to do the same, and then I can come to your blog and visit it. :) Like my little babies leaving the nest.

Now chant with me:

Se-ven Sen-ses, Se-ven Sen-ses, Se-ven Sen-ses!
H

INSTRUCTIONS in case you don't already know...for Blogger only...

1. See the code under the button? Click in that box and select all, you can do this by simply pressing Ctrl A. Then copy it by using Ctrl C (or you can use the right click on your mouse to do both operations).

2. Go to your blog dashboard and click "Layout".

3. Under Layout, click on "Add a Gadget"

4. Select HTML/Java Code

5. Paste the code from my blog, into that window with the right mouse function or Ctrl V

6. Give it a title like, "Hey there are seven senses!"

7. Click save

8. Click "View Blog"

9. Da Da! There it is!