In Spring and Summer, the outside world is chock full of colors, smells, tastes, sounds, and things to touch. By this time of year, socks and shoes are back on, mittens cover little fingers, and hats muffle noises.

Did you know that together, hands and feet have over 40,000 touch receptors? Pull off those socks and mittens and take advantage of those 40,000 learning possibilities! Here are some ideas:

Note: All of these work equally well for hands or feet. A tablecloth/oilcloth on the floor or bathtub work well for the feet activities, and a highchair tray or wax paper on a table is a perfect place to contain the mess made by experimenting little hands. Be sure to talk about what your little one is “feeling” (slippery, soft, rough, smooth, scratchy, bumpy).

• Squirt shaving cream or whipped cream onto feet, or in little mounds on a high chair tray for exploration.
• Put dried beans or breakfast cereal in a box or plastic tub. Place packing peanuts or crumpled paper in the other box. Let your little one stomp and jump and kick away. (With your help, a non-walker can do this, too.)
•  Make a box of ribbon and fabric scraps of various textures (satin, grosgrain, fleece, burlap, vinyl) for exploration.
• Take those ribbons and scraps of fabric, add some cotton balls, and put them on floor for your little one to crawl or walk across.
• Cook noodles, oatmeal, rice or jello. Name the different textures as you play with them.
• Mix cornstarch and water until you get a goop about the consistency of glue.  Add food coloring if you wish. This is a non-toxic mixture, so no worries if a little bit gets eaten.

This is not the time to try and contain the mess! Frequently, the messier the experience, the more is learned. Think about it – the more touch receptors (and other senses) that are involved, the stronger and more permanent the learning will be.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, whose favourite sensory activity involves sand between her toes.

I love how Wikipedia defines art: “Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions and intellect.”

That definition totally fits with what we know about brain development from birth to 7. During this period, the brain’s entire job is to organize information (deliberately arrange items) it receives from all the senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, vestibular, proprioceptive), and then learn what to do with that info.

Every time a child has a sensory experience and the brain processes (organizes) the input, neural networks are formed. Your child chooses to engage in the arts during play because he or she instinctively knows the arts are the best way to develop the brain.

As a side note, these networks are largely completed by the age of 5, and after the age of 8, neural pathways that aren’t well traveled are pruned away. (Which is why children who learn a second language during the preschool years speak like natives, and most of us who didn’t take Spanish until high school will always sound like, well…embarrassing.)

Okay. Back to the arts. Arts, especially music, help wire the brain for the kind of learning that occurs in school after the age of seven.

The Encyclopedia Britannica says that art is “the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others.” Sharing the arts (group dances, playing instruments in ensemble, working together on a painting) enhances social skills.

The arts also develop essential thinking tools such as perception, attention, symbolic thinking, self-regulation, pattern recognition, reasoning, intuition, memory, differentiation, manipulation, encoding and decoding. Lots of big concepts, but what does this all translate to?

Your child’s painting and dancing and sculpting and especially music making in the preschool years, is the best thing you can do now to help your child later become an avid reader, a lover of math, a self-confident teenager, a curious chemist, a successful entrepreneur, and, of course, an accomplished musician.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who suggests taking inventory of your art baskets and music making and creating supplies this summer, and making sure they well stocked.  

This world would be a pretty dull place without the musicians, gardeners, scientists, actors, teachers, therapists, movie producers, artists, architects, dancers, sculptors, lawyers, archeologists and athletes.

Naturalist Intelligence (Nature Smart):

Nature smart children (as you might guess), feel a special affinity with nature, and love to explore and learn about the environment – from animals to cloud formations.  They prefer to be out of doors, doing activities like boating, hiking and camping. From a very early age they prefer television shows about nature or animals. They probably will beg you for a pet. Or three.

These children are good at organizing and cataloging the information from their natural surroundings, and you might expect them to come home with pockets full of rocks, shells, bugs, and plants, and know what they all are!  Nature smart children have keen senses (sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing) which allow them to be aware of subtle changes and details in their environment.

If you have a nature smart child, they might grow up to be a gardener, biologist, archeologist, chef, farmer, geologist or even an FBI agent in a crime lab.

How to Encourage Your Nature Smart Child:

• outside walks and hikes (take a guided tour of a local arboretum or botanical garden)
• create a nature scrapbook with photos, drawings, pressed flowers, etc.
• vegetable and flower gardening
• take care of animals
• collect and observe nature with a microscope or magnifying glass
• stargazing
• DVD Series like The BBC’s Planet Earth and The Seas of Life or Atlas of the Natural World
• visit the zoo, aquarium or a natural history museum
• building – volcano, terrarium, bird feeder

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (Body Smart):

These children have the ability to skillfully manipulate both physical objects and their bodies. They have a good sense of timing and eye-hand coordination, and developed physical skills become like reflexes. Body smart children excel in activities like sports, dance and acting. They will likely frequently ask you to take them to the playground. They have a lot of energy, and don’t seem to sit still for long.

Body smart children have good fine and gross motor skills, and enjoy building as well as taking things apart and putting them back together. They learn by doing, rather than hearing or seeing. These children enjoy tactile experiences such as sand, water and play dough.

When they grow up, a body smart child might become an actor, sculptor, builder, dancer, pilot, athlete, surgeon, craftsperson, emergency worker or soldier.

How to Encourage Your Body Smart Child:

• obstacle courses
• hands on crafts – clay, finger painting, cutting with scissors, beading, tracing, knitting, sidewalk chalk
• learn sign language
• messy activities – cooking, gardening, building sandcastles, mud pies, water balloon fights
• active games, both competitive and cooperative
• skits and puppet shows
• build small models or larger structures in your backyard
• draw letters, shapes or simple pictures on each others’ backs and guess what it is
• dancing

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who now appreciates even more the wonderful ways were are individually created.

Classic "Airplane Baby"

4 to 6 months
One of the biggest changes that will occur during these months is that the parts of your baby’s brain that coordinate sight and touch are now integrating the incoming sensory information. This enables your baby to figure out where her hands are in space (thanks to the proprioceptive system), and make them do what she wants.

With the beginnings of depth-perception, this sight/touch sensory integration means he can reach for an object and pick it up. By about 6 months, he is also able to rotate his wrists, and thus manipulate objects.

What to watch for:  These are the signs that your baby’s brain is organizing sensory input exactly as it should.

1. Banging objects and toys. (Against the floor, or two objects together.)
2. Spontaneous bringing together in a clapping motion of her hands in front of her body. This is the first sign of coordination between both sides of her body. To assist in this developmental milestone, you can play clapping games with your baby even before she can play them by herself.

Ram Sam Sam is a children’s song that originated in Morocco, and was a favorite clapping game of my children when they were infants and toddlers, especially on the changing table. You can listen to the song here, 2-22 A Ram Sam Sam and download it directly at play.kindermusik.com.

A ram sam sam, a ram sam sam (clap your baby’s hands or feet together as you sing)
Guli guli guli guli guli (roll your baby’s hands or bicycle his legs)
ram sam sam (clap your baby’s hands or feet together as you sing)
A ram sam sam, a ram sam sam (clap your baby’s hands or feet together as you sing)
Guli guli guli guli guli (roll your baby’s hands or bicycle his legs)
ram sam sam (clap your baby’s hands or feet together as you sing)
A ra-vi, a ra-vi (lift your baby’s arms over his head, or fold his legs up toward his head)
Guli guli guli guli guli (roll your baby’s hands or bicycle his legs)
ram sam sam (clap your baby’s hands or feet together as you sing)
A ra-vi, a ra-vi (lift your baby’s arms over his head, or fold his legs up toward his head)
Guli guli guli guli guli (roll your baby’s hands or bicycle his legs)
ram sam sam (clap your baby’s hands or feet together as you sing)

Touch Me
As babies begin to coordinate sight and touch, they delight in “touching” games. Here’s a fun naming game to play. (And yes, babies can begin to learn body part labels, even if they can’t yet speak the words!) I found many versions of the lyrics brought to the US by immigrants from all over Europe. Many people commented that this was a beloved touch game played with grandparents, even at 4 or 5 years of age. Here are a couple  of versions:

Here is where the coachman sits (touch baby’s forehead)
Here is where he cracks his whip (touch bridge of nose)
Eye winker (touch or circle one eye)
Tom tinker (touch or circle the other eye)
Nose breather (touch nose)
Mouth eater (touch mouth)
Chin chopper (touch chin)
Gully, gully, gully (tickle under chin)

Here sits the Lord Mayor (touch baby’s forehead)
Here sits his two men (touch eyes)
Here sits the rooster (touch cheek)
Here sits the hen (touch other cheek)
Here sits the chickens (touch nose)
Here they run in (touch mouth)
Chin-chopper, chin-chopper,
Chin-chopper, chin! (tickle under chin)

Airplane Baby
At about 6 months, a baby on his tummy really feels the pull of gravity, which gives baby a strong desire to lift up his head, neck, upper back, arms and legs all at the same time, resulting in the classic “airplane” position.

Babies at this age want and need to have their vestibular systems stimulated by rocking, swooshing, twirling, swinging and other similar movements.  One word of caution – every person (grownups, too!) has a level of moment they can tolerate, and it’s different for everyone. If your baby begins to cry during a moving game, this means that the play has become too rough or wild for your baby’s vestibular system to handle, and the level of play is actually causing her brain to disorganize.

Hold your baby firmly around her body, tummy down, in a horizontal position. Take off! Fly your baby around the room, swooshing, dipping, spinning, rolling, starting, stopping as it pleases your baby. Be sure to make airplane sounds! If you would like some musical inspiration, download  Run and Jump/Soaring from play.kindermusik.com.

As your baby turns into a toddler and preschooler, lie on your back on the floor and bend your knees with your feet off the floor. Have your child place his tummy against the bottoms of your feet. Hold onto your child’s hands. Lift your child up towards the ceiling as you raise your feet and fly!

-posted by Miss Analiisa, whose 9 year old Rob would love to still play airplane on her feet, but at 86 pounds, would likely crush the lift-off mechanism.

Earlier related blogs:
Organizing your brain. By the age of 7.
Baby’s Busy First Month
Two and Three Months: From head to hands

Nathan thinking that the best way to help his 3 month old brother to have a steady head is to hold him up by the ear...

From Head

If you remember from the last blog on month one of your infant’s life, the head and neck are the first body parts a baby learns to control. This ability aids in visual perception. In order to be able to focus your eyes on an object, you have to be able to hold the image still, even when your head or body or the object is moving.

In addition, to see clearly, the brain has to coordinate gravity and movement sensations from the inner ear (the vestibular system), and sensations from eye and neck muscles. Babies are born with all the necessary pieces of the visual system in place, but can’t use them properly yet. They have to literally learn to see.

At first, infants have to move their whole head to move their eyes. But around 2 to 3 months, infants learn how to shift their gaze from one object to another without having to move their head.  (As a side note, it’s not until between 4 and 6 months that babies can see the colors blue or violet. So when your 3 month old doesn’t jump for joy every time she sees those purple striped nursery walls you so carefully hand-painted, just wait a month or two.)

Just as the sensations of gravity stimulated the part of the brain that activated the neck muscles of the one month old, the same sensations stimulate the brain to contract the muscles in the upper back of a 2 and 3 month old. Your baby is literally commanded by his brain to raise up his head and upper body when laying his tummy.

Since your baby’s brain is stimulating those muscles, tummy time becomes of utmost importance. I remember Rob’s Occupational Therapist saying how important tummy time was for developing muscles in the back and shoulders, and that she was seeing a lot of Kindergarten and early elementary aged children for fine motor skill issues, and the connection between them seemed to be a lack of tummy time as infants.

One word of encouragement – if your baby doesn’t like tummy time, that’s okay.  Keep trying. Frustration is the catalyst for change. Meaning… she’ll to pull her head and neck up with enough practice, because she doesn’t really want to see the carpet; she wants to see what is around her.

To Hands

As an infant begins to see better, he begins to reach for the objects and people in his space. Unfortunately, hand-eye coordination isn’t very well developed at this point, so he appears to be “batting” at objects with open hands.

When he does grasp something you put into his hand, he’ll only uses three fingers and the palm of his hand (not his forefinger and thumb).  The touch sensations have yet to integrate with the sensations in his muscles and joints in his hands, but when that happens, he’ll be able to make that pincer grasp he will eventually need for the glockenspiel mallets in Young Child!

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who is amazed that children can go from floppy to walking in just 12 short months.

A Newborn’s Brain
At birth, an infant possesses all the neurons he or she will ever have (billions of them), and a nearly unlimited potential for connections between those nerve cells. They begin the process of brain development with nerve cells that have very sparse branches. During the first few years of life the dendrites (branches) of the nerve cells proliferate. Making these new neural connections is the basis for learning.

Rob at 2 weeks

Touch
A newborn can experience sensations (like the unpleasantness of a wet diaper), or the touch of his mom, but without these neural connections, he can’t tell very well where on his body the touch is occurring.

At this age, touching an infant is the most important thing you can do to help brain development. Every time an infant has a sensory experience, neural pathways are formed. The greater the number of neural pathways, the greater the brain power.

As any mom can tell you, infants loved to be carried and rocked. It is very soothing and calming to a baby. Why? The gentle movements she feels are actually helping to integrate her brain. The clue that this is happening? She’s happy. Her little brain is beginning to organize all the sensory input and thus learn to adapt to her environment. This makes her calm and happy.

Adaptive Responses
An “adaptive response” is defined as “an appropriate response to an environmental demand”. Here’s how it works in newborn as the brain begins to organize itself. If you put a four week old with her head on your shoulder, she’ll try to lift her head occasionally.

Gravity actually stimulates the part of her brain that activates the neck muscles that raise her head. The same thing happens with adults, but we’ve had so much practice at holding our heads upright that we don’t wobble. (And our muscles are stronger, too.)

By the time a baby is a month old, a baby should be pretty good at sucking. Sucking is an adaptive response to taste and smell, which scientists believe were pretty well organized at birth. A one month old will also be responding to the sound of a voice or bell or movement. These responses were already in the nervous system before he was born, but are actually “turned on” by the sensations of movement, touch and gravity that an infant experiences after birth.

If these adaptive responses don’t occur, the brain can’t integrate sensations properly. If that happens, then more adaptive responses (learning) are difficult later.

Rob’s Story
Here’s an illustration: Rob is our own sensory child. After two years of therapy, we hit a plateau that no amount of different therapies could get us past. When we took him to see a Sensori-Motor Developmentalist, he told us that Rob was missing a reflex that all infants should be born with. When an infant is sleeping on his tummy, one arm will usually be bent at the elbow and raised up next to his head. His head will be turned toward the bent arm.

If you put that arm down next to his body, and put the other hand next to his head (while sleeping), he will automatically turn his head toward the bent arm. In Rob, that wasn’t an automatic reflex. Just try this on yourself (while you are awake!) You’ll find it very uncomfortable NOT to have your head turned toward your upright arm.

For weeks, we moved Rob’s arm’s and legs in a Spiderman-like pattern while he lay on the floor on his tummy, until he could do it himself easily in all sorts of variations. We were essentially creating the neural pathways for this reflex. And guess what? He got “unstuck” and could then continue developing his adaptive responses and learn. And an organized brain leads to happiness. (Remember the infant you rocked?)

­­-posted by Miss Analiisa, who gets tired just thinking about how much work a one month old infant is doing!

Kids and the outdoors go together. The outdoors is a place where all their senses are engaged. They see, smell, feel, touch and experience stuff there. Whether it is the feel of the back yard dirt, rain sprinkling on them, a windy spray at the beach, kids are drawn outside because it is stimulating and that stimulation is what makes kids healthy and happy!

When I felt the call of the outdoors, I began to think of how I could get my family outside more intentionally this season. What would help us escape the pull to stay indoors, consuming indoor entertainment?

Bundle Up
Knowing that most of our readers are moms, I wonder if you face some of the obstacles I do?  While my husband and kids frolic happily outdoors, I often stand with my hands wrapped around my middle, unable to engage in the fun because I’m cold! Especially in the spring because I don’t wear enough.

In order to fully engage and enjoy the outdoors, I have to dress more warmly than just about anyone else.  Swallow my pride and bundle up.  During our trip to Florida over Christmas, I wore a wet suit at the resort.  I endured some funny looks, but while other parents shivered on their lounge chairs in the 69 degree weather, I splashed and played with the kids in the water. When properly dressed, we moms can be in the middle of the fun.

Think Ahead
Some of us are spontaneous.  I’m more of the planner, so I need to think ahead to make outdoor fun happen.  Here are some of my favorite simple ideas to consider.

Flashlight Hikes & Star Gazing: The sun is down before it’s too late for little kids, which makes a pre-bedtime flashlight hike around the neighborhood a wonderful experience.  Turn off the flashlight and look up at the stars.  Spread out a blanket and have bedtime snack outside.  The kids will love it even if there’s a chill in the air.

Fire Pits: My husband is the king of fire pits.  We found our favorite woods that allow fires and toted a couple pieces of wood out there to have a fire and roast hot dogs and marshmallows.  This became a Sunday afternoon tradition.  Poking around the river’s edge, riding bikes on the path, throwing rocks in the water all added to the fun.  Stopping for a Dairy Queen on the way home was a delicious part of the tradition.

Camping Outings: I admire families who have made camping trips a regular part of their experience. We have yet to master that skill.  Our overnights have been mostly limited to church family camp experiences. But even that “cheater camping” has provided many of our children’s favorite memories.  We tell stories of the coldest and hottest nights, the rain storms, the wind, the food disasters, the night hikes, the fireworks….  Camping provides a sustained outdoor experience whose sensory impressions are deep and lasting.

Swimming: Almost all kids LOVE swimming. Just think about it.  It is a total sensory experience—a literal immersion of the senses!  Whether it is a pool, lake, beach or sprinkler, kids and water make for a rich, happy, memorable time.

The Zoo: Going to the zoo is a double impact adventure. Not only are zoos always mostly outdoor experiences, they are engaging, exciting, sensory experiences.  Kids love to hear the monkey’s yell, feel the giraffe’s tongue as it snatches a leaf of lettuce out of their hand, pet a hairy baby goat, and often lick a cool, sweet ice cream cone too.

Yep, the outdoors is vying for my attention this spring—it’s showing off with its flora and fauna, trying to coax me out of the forced air heated box I have lived in most of the last few months.  My kids need less coaxing.  They have already been outside all week, doing handstands on the sidewalks that are dry for the first time in months.  They flew a kite in the grassy field out back today.   The basketball hoop has seen its first attention since the winter months plunged the temperatures below freezing.

Yep, it’s time to get back outside!

-posted by Donna Detweiler, whose stay-warm strategy is “Cuddleduds” lightweight long underwear, wool sweaters, thinsulate gloves and scarves—even in the spring!

I’ve learned so much that I wish I’d known when all my children were really small. I think it’s fascinating, and I think you might, too. So I’m going to write a series of blogs throughout this year that touch on how the senses are integrated from birth to age 7. For most children, this is a naturally occurring process.

I’ll start at age 7, (because I’ll stop at that age). Why? Because until a child is about 7 years of age, the brain’s primary function is to process sensory input. (Understanding what the input is, and what to do with it.) In other words, the brain spends its time organizing what it sees, hears, tastes, touches, smells, and feels though gravity and movement, and muscle and joint sensations. A child takes all that sensory input and is mostly concerned with moving his or her body in relation to that input.

You’ll notice that with preschoolers, they begin to work on social or academic skills, but their primary job remains this “sensorimotor processing”. In other words, they still need to move to learn, and learn to move!

All of these sensory experiences create neural pathways in the brain, and this process is mostly completed by age 7. Which is why at age 7, kids are really school-ready to learn successfully, but only if this sensory integration has gone well, and the brain is efficient at organizing the sensory input.

Did you know that by the age of 7, your brain and each side of your body became specialized? (If sensory integration had been successful, that is.) One example – A child should be right or left handed at this point. This indicates that both halves of the brain are communicating and working well together. If you are right-handed, your left hand will be better at interpreting tactile input, and vice versa. (I could give you two objects you can’t see, and your left hand should figure it out faster than your right.) In other words, the brain has now organized itself, and is now ready and eager to learn in an efficient manner.

Another end product of sensory integration is a child’s ability to organize. Instead of organizing her body in order to get it to move how she wants it to, she can organize letters and numbers. In addition, the ability to concentrate, self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-control all stem from good sensory integration. This child will have the capacity for abstract thought and reasoning, though anyone with a 7 year old will know that this has yet to actually develop!

Next time I’ll tell you how busy your mind and body were getting organized, even before you were born.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, whose primary form of getting organized (now well past the age of 7), consists of detailed list making.

My child is special.  Yes, I know what you’re thinking, ‘your child is special too’, but my child is REALLY special.  Luke is a special needs child.  In short, he was born with brain damage.  He has developmental, fine and gross motor, and significant speech delays.  One thing that Luke is not delayed in is his love for music!

We started Kindermusik with Luke when he was 2.  As we sang during Luke’s first class his teacher, Beth, explained how holding the different sized egg shakers encouraged different motor skills.  I felt a pang of emotion shoot like lightening through me.  “This is perfect for Luke”. 

We played with items with different textures, something Luke’s physical therapist had suggested just weeks earlier.  We drove cars on different body parts, played games, and of course sang and danced!  I knew right away that Kindermusik going to be great for Luke. 

After that first class I buckled Luke in his car seat, drove about a quarter of a mile down the road and began to sob.  I was (and am) SO thankful that Luke has this opportunity to nourish and support him in such a fun way.  I immediately turned my car around and went back to the Kindermusik class. 

Miss Beth saw my tear stained eyes and gave me a big hug before I could even share anything with her.  Once I found some composure I briefly shared Luke’s condition with Beth and told her what her class means to us.  Here she is, just doing her job, like so many other Kindermusik teachers but she is actually helping to HEAL my child…and expand yours!

For most of Luke’s first round of Kindermusik he was typically just along for the ride.  He didn’t have the fine motor skills to play many of the instruments, his sensory issues made it difficult for him to transition from playing to being held quietly during cuddle time, he doesn’t have the ability to talk so singing along was out, he didn’t make any sounds at all for that matter, also, he couldn’t sit still for story or rolling a ball back and forth, and he didn’t mimic so he wasn’t quite developing thru watching either.  I pretty much held his hands, literally, throughout every exercise and activity, manually supporting his hands and fingers in participation. 

Despite all this, Luke LOVED Kindermusik.  He began to get excited when we’d pull into the parking lot for Kindermusik, squealing, smiling, and kicking his legs in excitement!  Then one day, as we left class I put Luke in his car seat.  I sat my keys in his lap while I buckled him in and he took my keys, put them between his legs, and put his arms up and out to his sides.  Luke was mimicking!  Luke was trying to play!  Luke was thinking in his sweet little brain:

“Jingle, jingle, jingle, go the car keys.
 Jingle, jingle, jingle, go the keys. 
Lost them, lost them, where are the car keys?” 

I couldn’t wait to tell Miss Beth…and everyone else for that matter!

Luke is now three and in his second week of his second round of Kindermusik.  Now Luke zips around the room yipping and squealing.  He had class this morning and did 6, count them 6, new things in those precious 45 minutes. 

First, Luke attempted hammering his rhythm sticks!  He switched his grip around until he was able to hit the top of one stick with the other like he was hammering in a nail.  No hand-over-hand, he just did it!  He knew he did it too!  He made sure I saw him and I could see the pride in his smile.  I felt that lightening bolt of emotion shoot through me again. 

Next, he noticed that I had put the top of the tone bar back on upside down.  Noticing this is huge. Next, he tried to problem solve by turning the bar over.  Of course his logic was flawed, but for a little boy without a frontal lobe, attempting to problem solve is huge! 

NEXT, Luke allowed me to hold, embrace, and rock him during the cuddle part of class!  I think he even enjoyed it!  After this we played with balls.  Luke still couldn’t sit still or roll the ball but he did something unexpected, he caught the ball, a few times!!!  I’ve never seen him do this before and, since he has an older brother, balls are big things in our house! 

Also during ball time, he saw a classmate sitting on her ball and bouncing on it…what did Luke do?  He mimicked!  He put that ball under his little tush and tried to sit on it!  He couldn’t balance well enough to do it but he tried…I almost cried! 

Lastly, when class was over, Luke “eagerly awaited” his hand stamp.  His version of eager waiting is standing up an inch from where I’m sitting and pointing with a limp wrist at Miss Beth stamping the other kids.  I escorted him up front and he got his stamp.  That’s not new, what is new is what happened next:  he pulled up his shirt up, along with the sensory leotard top he wears, stuck out his belly, and gently patted his stomach.  HE wanted to have his tummy stamped like some of the other kids and, in his own way, he TOLD me this!  Talk about leaps and bounds!

Another thing we’ve noticed since starting Kindermusik is that if Luke is “playing” a musical instrument with his hands he may, on rare occasion, vocalize.  In a sweet, soft, broken, purposeful whisper we’ve heard him sing:  “ahhhhhhh”,  “oooooooooh”, and “ooouuuuuuu”.  He is always the first to notice that music is playing: in the car, at the mall, on a commercial, anywhere.  He is drawn to it. 

If Kindermusik can have such an impact on my special needs child, just imagine what it is doing for your child!

If you ever get the chance to meet Luke you will know immediately that he’s special.  You may not even notice that he is handicapped because you’ll be so mesmerized by his hugely gregarious smile and his eyes shooting darts of love at you more accurately than one of Cupid’s arrow. 

-posted by Melissa, Momma to Luke, who says that there is indeed something special about Luke, and her family is SO thankful that he has the musical therapy of Kindermusik harmonizing with them to help heal him.

A friend and fellow Kindermusik Educator in Canada (the one our beloved Miss Katie is teaching for while her husband is in grad school), recently sent me this great link to an online clothing store called Soft – clothing for all children.

Here’s a bit more about the company:

Soft was founded in February 2007.  We began a two year market research process and one year sample development and testing phase, and finally launched our first collection in Winter 2009/10! We are a research driven company, therefore we continue to test samples on children with a variety of sensory needs and a range of tactile sensitivity–to ensure that the clothing we manufacture will eliminate the most common complaints we hear from parents and children. No more morning meltdowns, no more spending hundreds on clothes your children refuse to wear.

Mission
Many children are extra-sensitive to the texture and feel of clothing. Soft® is the first line of inclusive clothing designed with the needs of all children in mind, including those with Autism, Sensory Processing Disorder, ADHD, and tactile defensiveness/sensitivity. We use flat seaming and seamless construction for extra comfort, 100% of the softest combed cotton and our specially developed Soft Sensory Blends , wide collars, encased elastic waistbands, printed labels (tagless), custom fits, and much more.

Created by a Mom and Special Education teacher, our goal is to design clothing that can enhance social skills, sensory organization, concentration, by addressing unique sensory needs, but without sacrificing personal style and self expression.

What is so different about Soft?
More than 1 in 150 children have sensory needs that are largely unmet by the children’s apparel market today. Soft is about to revolutionize children’s apparel. We are the first inclusive and universally designed line of clothing geared toward children with sensory or tactile sensitivity, a common symptom of Autism, Aspergers, and Sensory Processing Disorder. Soft is designed and constructed considering the needs of all children, particularly, sensory sensitive dressers.

Soft provides comfort and style for all children. After conducting over two years of in-depth market research, we learned a lot about what parents want and what children like. We have incorporated that feedback to create stylish and comfortable clothes for the people who need it most. We use:

• Flat seaming totally seamless construction throuought (for extra comfort)
• Soft high quality cotton (combed, bio-washed and pre-washed for extra soft and smoothness)
• Wide collars (for a roomy fit)
• Encased elastic (waistbands that don’t pinch)
• Printed labels throughout — printed with water based ink (for a smooth non-plasticy feel that won’t itch)
• Vegetable dyes, natural enzyme washes, and water based digital prints (to protect against allergies)

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who likes their simple and easy refer-a-friend-offer, and can only imagine the relief that Soft Clothing will bring to frustrated parents and children everywhere.