Awareness of one’s position in time and space Is a vital skill needed for safety in navigating the environment. This concept incorporates the ability to attend to details as you move through space, being mindful of objects found there. Many children who have sensory processing dysfunction have deficits in this skill and tend to fall or experience collisions as they come close to objects. The timing of where to be and when to be there is a challenging skill for these children.
The girl on the swing is rehearsing elements of Temporo-Spatial Orientation as she uses the Little Tykes disk swing to move around in the clinic environment. As she moves to examine the Playschool block task card, she must hold her body still (stabilize her neck, head and trunk) to see what is needed. Then, as she scans the task card from left to right, she must pick up only the block needed.
This two step process is often perplexing for children for SPD In that often they tend to be either “under-aroused” and fail to recruit sufficient energy to hold the body still, or “over-aroused” and moving too quickly to hold still at one fixed place in time and space.
The girl on the swing is rehearsing stabilizing components of Temporo-Spatial Orientation.
Awareness of objects in the environment coupled with the need to stop, stabilize, and hold the body still when approaching objects was the skill being targeted here.
As she nears the target she will have to slow down, and make some self-monitoring corrections, or risk knocking the blocks and table over. She will have to put her feet down and then place the block where it belongs so that her construction will match that of the Playschool task card.
Who knew that moving about in space and time could be such a challenge!
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