Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional HELP: constant singing talking moving

My son is nine, and he is also always talking/humming.. At 4, he had quiet time between 1 and 2 when his brother was napping. I don't remember how we convinced him to stay quiet - maybe used a chart.. Now, our saving grace is a drum set! Whenever he is fidgety he will either play/fight with his brother :), or play his drums. We have pads to make them quieter.. Maybe a piano (keyboard with volume control) or acoustic guitar would work, too..

E Mama! Where were you 12 years ago! I really needed to hear this from someone who wasn't judging me, or acting like it was an easy thing to do, or who really understood how much it was my DS's nature.

BTW - I am also constantly humming (when I'm not posting here - LOL!) during the workday. People smile and say that they know I'm coming. It is a little like echo location in Bats for me. Plus it gets me in that 'get up and get it done' mood even when I don't feel like it. Yeah, I bring in a lot of baked goods, 'cause I'm so grateful for the IRL people who interact with me all day long.

Wink,
Grinity

It felt incredibly selfish and ogre-like to do that to my DD when she was little-- but honestly, my sanity couldn't take what she was capable of dishing out without those little breaks in the noise.

So I think I did the right thing for us both-- even if it felt like a desperate survival strategy at the time.

Books. DD loved to spend quiet time with BOOKS. She also had a leap pad and headphones at about 2yo, and that was a real life-saver, too.

Grinity,
I am smiling. I hear you : ). I had an experience with a wise pre-school teacher who pointed this out to me very bluntly. We were having a meeting and my kiddo kept interrupting and she flat out told me, "You need to put an end to this now." I was a little surprised. Shouldn't four year olds interrupt? Well yeah, but the adult needs to let them know it is not okay. So, I did and we have a lot less interrupting- 4 years later!

Regarding HowlerKarma's comments: I agree we feel guilty doing it ,but don't we look back and realize that there was wisdom in these choices? If our kids are driving us crazy and we have to set a limit well then we are probably doing the right thing, even if our kiddo's nature wants something else.

So, here is a cheer for all the mamas of high energy kids who set limits for their own sanity and for their kids' well being (said with love).

I couldn't agree more. Whenever I felt that stressed by the need for constant interaction, I'd imagine that no friend, boyfriend/girlfriend, spouse, or employer would be able to deal with endless need for interaction and stimulation if I couldn't! If I found the level of necessary interaction intolerable, imagine what someone who wasn't required, as part of a family, to deal with my child? These were opportunities, for me, to teach that people need space. And respect for privacy. And not everything one thinks needs to be said. And there are limits to the closeness one can have, even with one's family and most cherished loved ones. And there are fabulous things to be discovered in reading quietly, playing alone, imagination within one's own head, etc. I taught my child basic meditation as a toddler. I taught self-entertainment, and activities that could be done independently. It's ok to teach a child that everyone else has desires and needs too. I even think it's seriously beneficial to the child's later social and personal development.

Wow, OT's are diagnosing kids with low tone on the basis of a lack of strength? That's really odd, and very troubling.

Poor muscle tone and poor muscle strength are completely separate issues, even though there are certainly conditions where both are present. Tone relates more to the ability to sustain muscle contraction appropriately, to resist passive stretching to an appropriate degree, and to rapidly respond to proprioceptive input regarding changes in muscle length so that muscular co-contraction can be modulated appropriately for proper movement and postural control. Strength relates more to the degree of maximum contraction or force that can be generated by a given muscle.

You can be very strong but with muscles that fatigue quickly during activity, and that fail to contract in response to passive stretching, and that do not react quickly and smoothly to modulate movement from having a nervous system that fails to signal the muscles to respond appropriately to sensory input. You can also lack strength but have perfectly normal or even excessive tone.

Treatment strategies for hypotonia with muscular weakness, which include techniques and exercises aimed at increasing muscle strength in addition to regulating the responsiveness of the muscles, differ significantly from those for hypotonia without accompanying muscular weakness, which primarily target trying to improve the responsiveness of the nervous system to proprioceptive inputs. Strategies for muscle weakness without hypotonia are another animal entirely.

I agree. My son has hypotonia, and his OT and neurologist both suggested that he build up muscle strength, to help compensate for his low tone. Strength and tone are not the same thing.

Aculady -- what type of therapies can be used to improve muscle tone? Most of the OT I have done with my son is for improving motor skills and co-ordination. I didn't think there was much to be done to improve hypotonia itself, but would love to hear otherwise.

Also, about fidgeting, my low-tone son does wiggle around alot, and I see it as related to the hypotonia. He is often readjusting his posture, leaning on things, and pushing his feet against walls, etc. He also talks alot, but that's a different story!!

Opps, the above was a quote from Kaibab -sorry I did that wrong.

Yes! I think we can call this "home training". Based on my daily experience many people don't get home training, lol.
More boundary training would be nice.- Okay I am probably getting off topic. I appreciate hearing the experiences.

Verona,

Activities that help children improve proprioceptive processing and sensory integration can help with some forms of low tone.

Here is a link that has some good activities that help improve proprioceptive processing for younger children. The proprioception activities are about halfway down the page.

Dynamic movement orthoses, Therasuits, Kinesio tape, and other techniques for increasing proprioceptive input can be used over time to help improve low tone.

Generally, repetitive stimulation that helps increase the level of proprioceptive input can help train the brain to perceive and respond to small changes in muscle length and eventually help decrease the degree of the low tone, if it is due to a processing problem.

HTH

I believe you misunderstood my post Aculady. I have a teenager with hyptonia and with a lifetime in OT and PT we understand the difference between strength and tone. What I was saying is that in my experience a very large percentage of kids with fairly mild motor delays are said by OTs to have hypotonia. I'd say probably 90% of people I've met who has a kid in OT or PT for any motor delays is told the kid has low tone. They may well have a very minor degree of low tone so that may be accurate or maybe it is inaccurate but it is very widespread. At any rate, it is of course a totally different situation from children who have more severe hypotonia and may be unable to learn to walk or be years behind in motor skills. Unfortunately many kids even with very significant challenges will not be able to get a more precise diagnosis than the rather vague descriptor of hypotonia.

So, that makes it tricky when we are talking about hypotonia are we talking a kid with fairly mild problems who may struggle a bit and benefit from OT or are we talking about a totally floppy kid. For the totally floppy crowd it is hard to imagine a lot of fidgeting.

For the poster who asked about treatments, improving strength has been very helpful to our child. It is a long slow process that requires a commitment. The most important thing here has been smaller but more frequent doses OT and PT assigned exercises with ongoing reassessment of the exercise plan. Unfortunately gains that take a long time to happen can be lost if you don't stick with it. The main benefits we've seen from improved strength are overall less fatigue and less difficulty with sitting and standing - so less flopping over and resting the head on the desk, etc. Activities with patterned movements (horseback riding, swimming, dance) were also helpful in part as a bit of a buffer against negative feelings from physical challenges.