My 13 year old son has been diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder. If you have not heard of SPD, it is a term that refers to the way the nervous system receives messages from the senses and turns them into appropriate motor and behavioral responses. A person with SPD finds it difficult to process and act upon information received through the senses, which creates challenges in performing countless everyday tasks. Motor clumsiness, behavioral problems, anxiety, depression, school failure, and other impacts may result if the disorder is not treated effectively. One study (Ahn, Miller, Milberger, McIntosh, 2004) shows that at least 1 in 20 children’s daily lives is affected by SPD.
There are so many activities that can be done with SPD kids to help them to regulate their nervous system, many can be done with items you already have at home such as: making a sensory box & filling it with sand and other tactile objects, laying or sitting on a balance ball (the kind you use for exercise), even Play Dough can be used as a tool for “play therapy” or OT for these children. The great part about play therapy is that it is playing for kids, so they don’t even realize it’s actually helping them on a whole different level! There are also many wonderful products out to assist children with SPD. One such product is a weighted vest or blanket. The blankets are great for helping kids with SPD calm down and go to sleep. The weighted vests are wonderful for shorter periods of time, such as school use for calming and improving focus.
The nice people at Therapy Shoppe were gracious enough to give me a weighted vest for review. I have to say, since Noah has started wearing his vest, he is so much more calm and able to self-regulate, which is a HUGE deal. I can definitely see a big difference from when he’s not wearing the vest and we’ve used it quite a bit. The Therapy Shoppe weighted vest is also one of the most reasonably prices vests I’ve seen, starting at just $52.99 and it is well made. The vest comes in a denim outer material and is lined with a cotton/poly blend with weights in velcro pockets and a velcro closure. As you can see in my pictures, it looks like a part of Noah’s outfit and can even be work underneath shirts.
Noah wearing the vest under his shirt.
This is the vest on Noah by itself.
I’ve seen other weighted vests prices upwards of $100 so the Therapy Shoppe weighted vests is a great deal! I highly recommend this vest and if you check out their website, you can browse their catalog which is chock full of other great therapy products!
Disclaimer: I was given a weighted vest from Therapy Shoppe for review purposes. All opinions are my own and not influenced by receipt of the product.
