Answers to Questions Teachers Ask about Sensory Integration: Forms, Checklists, and Practical Tools for Teachers and Parents [Paperback]

Jane Koomar (Author), Carol Kranowitz (Author), Stacey Szklut (Author), Lynn Balzer-Martin (Author), Elizabeth Haber (Author), Deanna Iris Sava (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2001

In this elegant approach to the often-elusive subject of sensory integration, Carol Kranowitz, M.A. (author of the best-selling book The Out-of-Sync Child) and expert occupational therapists Stacey Szklut, MS, OTR/L, Lynn Balzer-Martin, PhD, OTR, Jane Koomar, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, Elizabeth Haber, MS, OTR/L, and Deanna Iris Sava, MS, OTR/L, have assembled an extensive and easy-to-use set of checklists and other tools that will be invaluable to every teacher (and parent) who has children with sensory processing challenges.

You’ll find tried-and-true instructions for developing fine-motor, “organizing,” and motor-planning skills, and for providing an appropriate “Sensory Diet” that will benefit all your students. Checklists help you identify students who have difficulty processing sensory information. With up to 20% of the students in any given classroom affected by Sensory Processing Disorder, Answers to Questions is an invaluable resource for teachers of preschool through high school.

Winner of Learning magazine's Teachers' Choice Award, this book and the tools within it will help teachers learn how to:

• Recognize Sensory Processing Disorder
  
• Understand how Sensory Processing Disorder may interfere with a child’s motor coordination, muscle tone, fine motor skills, visual perception, and relationships with others
  
• Discern a child’s unique pattern of out-of-sync behavior
  
• Help a child recover after a meltdown
  
• Develop strategies to prevent future meltdowns
  
• Approach a child who is simultaneously oversensitive to one kind of stimulation and  undersensitive to another kind
  
• Help children identify their own needs for the right amount of sensory stimulation
  
• Collaborate with parents, occupational therapists, and other professionals on a child’s behalf
  
• Provide a safe, appropriate, “sensory diet” in the classroom that will benefit all students
  
• Structure a calm and organized classroom
  
• Manage his or her own behavior when a child “pushes those buttons”
  

Finally, this book will help teachers to always remember that these are good children who are trying their best in a confusing world!

Contents include:

• What Is Sensory Integration?
• What Is Occupational Therapy?
• How to Get the Most Out of Answers to Questions Teachers Ask
• Comparison of Typical Sensory Processing & Sensory Processing Disorder
• Organizing Sensory Input and Activities for the Classroom
• Classroom Accommodation Checklist
• Infants and Toddlers Checklist (Birth to Age Two)
• Preschool Checklist (Age Three to Four)
• School-Age Checklist (Age Five to Twelve)
• Adult/Adolescent Checklist (Age Twelve and Up)
• Balzer-Martin Preschool Screening—Teachers Checklist
• Characteristics of Tactile Dysfunction
• Characteristics of Vestibular Dysfunction
• Characteristics of Proprioceptive Dysfunction
• Characteristics of Visual Dysfunction
• Characteristics of Auditory Dysfunction
• Heavy Work Activities List for Teachers
• And more!

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Carol Kranowitz, MA, has been a preschool teacher for more than twenty-five years. She has developed an innovative program to screen young children for Sensory Processing Disorder, and writes and speaks regularly about the subject. She has an M.A. in Education and Human Development. She is the author of the best-selling books The Out of Sync Child, The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun, The Goodenoughs Get in Sync, Growing an In-Sync Child, and other excellent resources.

Jane Koomar, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, is owner and executive director of Occupational Therapy Associates - Watertown, in Watertown, MA. There they train university students and therapists in occupational therapy, and treat about 250 clients a week. They diagnose and provide intervention for children, adolescents, and adults with learning disabilities, ADD, fine and gross motor disorders, and autism spectrum disorders. She and her colleagues have also established The Spiral Foundation in 2002, to support continuing research on Sensory Integration Disorder.

Stacey Szklut, MS, OTR/L, Lynn Balzer-Martin, PhD, OTR, Elizabeth Haber, MS, OTR/L, and Deanna Iris Sava, MS, OTR/L are all expert occupational therapists.

Product Details

• Paperback: 63 pages
• Publisher: Future Horizons (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932565469
• ISBN-13: 978-1932565461
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,516 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #59 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Special Needs

More About the Author

Now comes a new book that I'm very excited about. Co-authored with my dear friend Joye Newman, a perceptual-motor therapist, the book is "GROWING AN IN-SYNC CHILD: SIMPLE, FUN ACTIVITIES TO HELP EVERY CHILD DEVELOP, LEARN AND GROW." Perigee published it in May 2010. Unlike my previous books focusing on SPD, this one that Joye and I wrote together is for ALL children, with or without learning problems. Our message is clear: Children must get off the couch and on the move! We offer 60 enjoyable movement experiences to give kids of all ages and stages a head start and a leg up. We are delighted that "Growing an In-Sync Child" already has a growing audience. Please visit our website, www.in-sync-child.com and contact us if you would like us to do a presentation on our "In-Sync" program for your parent group or PTA.

Writing has always been a pleasure as well as a necessity to help me make sense of the world. When I write it, I get it. A subject that made no sense to me at all when I began teaching at St. Columba's Nursery School in Washington, DC, was the behavior of some little kids who seemed "out of sync" with the world. They captured my attention and my heart. Driven to learn about what made them tick -- or what made them NOT tick -- I studied Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) so I could become a better teacher. I found that SPD is a developmental problem that interferes with children's ability to function smoothly in daily life. When recognized and treated, kids (and adults) with SPD can become more "in sync."

Parents, pediatricians, teachers and other caregivers, too, need to understand how SPD plays out at home and school, so I wrote "The Out-of-Sync Child" and "The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun," both published by Perigee. Sensory World published more books, including "The Goodenoughs Get in Sync" for children, and "Preschool Sensory Scan for Educators" (or, "Preschool SENSE"), written for early childhood teachers and occupational therapists working together. You can see the whole list of my publications at www.sensoryworld.com or www.out-of-sync-child.com When I'm not writing about the kind of sensory-motor and perceptual-motor experiences that parents and teachers can provide to help children with SPD, I'm talking about it at venues all over the world.

I grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, graduated from Barnard College in New York, and earned an M.A. in Education & Human Development from George Washington University in Washington, DC. I have two splendid sons, two phenomenal daughters-in-law, and five marvelous grandchildren. My partner, Mark Zweig, and I live in Bethesda, Maryland. I play the cello, bike and hike, read real books (i.e., printed on paper), and answer every e-mail. Check it out: [e-mail]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just OK, August 30, 2009

By 

M.S. in Child Development (Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Answers to Questions Teachers Ask about Sensory Integration: Forms, Checklists, and Practical Tools for Teachers and Parents (Paperback)

I am a Pediatric Developmental Therapist and a mom. One of my children has Sensory Integration issues and I was looking for a way to help explain those issues to his preschool teacher. I feel this book is most appropriate for teachers who are looking to identify kids who they think have sensory problems. Over half the book is checklists for teachers. I wanted more explanation on what SID is and how to help children. Isn't that basically what we need? For people to understand what SID is and how to help the children impacted by it to function, learn and grow to the best of their ability. I also felt there was a lack of suggestions on how to get "optimal learning" from kids with SID. Most of the suggestions were geared towards older kids - "help the janitor," "carry copy paper from the storage closet to the office." Most 4 year-olds I know have a hard time doing those activities without supervision. There was some explanation about SID and some in-classroom exercises. It was just OK.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Teachers loved it!, November 25, 2007

By 

Lynn Light (Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Answers to Questions Teachers Ask about Sensory Integration: Forms, Checklists, and Practical Tools for Teachers and Parents (Paperback)

As an occupational therapist, it was a wonderful resource to share with the teachers and directors that I work with in schools. They talked about how they developed a better understanding of "odd" behaviors that they saw in class. They also liked the checklists.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Tool for Teachers, July 4, 2010

By 

Sue S. (Pacific Northweast) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Answers to Questions Teachers Ask about Sensory Integration: Forms, Checklists, and Practical Tools for Teachers and Parents (Paperback)

Gave this book to my son's teacher. She was thrilled. It's full of tools to help her help her SPD (sensory processing disorder) students. With all that she is required to fit into a school day, she can't afford to lose time on a daily basis having to deal with my child or any other, reaching meltdown (sensory overload). With the checklists, both parents and teacher can be aware of a student's sensory problem areas, so they can be addressed. It's amazing that a student's being able to chew on something like a special necklace, or allowing them to do a few pushups can help their brain organize so they can be able to think, or listen, or comprehend, at the level of a "sensory normal" person. The acommodations are often inexpensive and not disruptive to the rest of the class; and they make all the difference to a student with SPD.