Check out Part 1

I promised you some of the “meat” I learned from the Seeds of Hope: Promising Interventions for At-Risk Children presentation that Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross made at last fall’s ATTACh conference.

Well the first thing I found truly impressive was Dr. Purvis’ in-depth description and understanding of how neglect, maltreatment, lack of nutrition and lack of stimulation can impact sensory functions. Yes, I’ve heard it all before – that children from orphanages and children who have been abused and neglected are at risk for sensory integration problems. But it’s more than that. As Dr. Purvis so eloquently explained the senses are the pathways by which an infant (or any of us for that matter) takes in the world. If the senses are impaired, then the child can’t correctly perceive his/her world. This impacts children greatly in the area of attachment, because if their brains can’t interpret touch, sound, smells, sight correctly, they misperceive the world. Dr. Purvis’ description of all this and the sensory activities she describes are worth the price of the CDs.

She talks about a little guy whose sense of smell is incredibly astute. My ears perked up because LuLu has an uncanny sense of smell, as well as a compulsion to smell or “sniff on” everything. She said it wasn’t’ surprising for him to have this hypersensitivity given the difficult birth he endured. Someone asked her if she considered adoption itself to be trauma. She said from a sensory standpoint the answer would be yes, and went on to describe how losing the familiarity of voice and other sounds, smell of birthmom and even the taste of foods birth mom ate would be noticed by an infant on a sensory level.

They presented a great deal of detail about sensory integration dysfunction, as it relates to attachment and behaviors often observed in post-institutionalized children (the population on which they’ve done the most research). Vestibular being the “biggie” of all senses, they talked about spinning and swinging activities that activate this part of your sensory motor brain and how it is necessary, but some children can become quickly overwhelmed. The next “biggie” is proprioception, or where your body is in space. They gave an interesting analogy of what it would be like to have proprioception problems. Have you ever picked up a glass at a restaurant or outing that looked just like a heavy leaded glass you have at home. You’re expecting it to be heavy; yet it is actually made of plastic and you may even end up spilling the drink. For children with proprioceptive deficits, they perceive the whole world that way – misinterpreting where their body is or how much force they’ve applied.

A very interesting tidbit for us, given LuLu’s awkward pencil grasp and handwriting issues, was that Dr. Purvis said she often uses handwriting grasp to give her a clue about the ability to integrate both sides of the brain. Here’s why. Most actions of the body are contralateral, meaning that the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and visa versa. But one exception to this is your thumb. Thumbs are controlled on the same side of the brain they’re on. So, in order to be able to grasp a pencil between your index finger and your thumb requires bilateral brain function (using both sides of the brain at once). Hmmm…

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