Tag Archives: aerial hammock

Astronaut Training

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Astronaut Training at Mindful Child

What is Astronaut Training? 

Astronaut Training is a therapy program designed to have a direct impact on the vestibular, visual, and auditory systems. It incorporates the activation of different channels of the vestibular systems.

Wait. What is the Vestibular System?

The vestibular system is a very complex system, supporting many levels of central nervous system function.  It is located in the inner ear and detects balance, changes in position, and movement.  It is a gravitational reference point which anchors head and body position in space.  It also integrates movement with all sensations.

How Does it Work?

This space-based program involves having the child sit in a one-point aerial yoga hammock (or astronaut rotary board, but we prefer hammocks) and spinning him in various positions. By doing this, the therapist learns whether the child is over- or under-sensitive to motion (by examining eye movement after spinning), and then uses spinning to train the eyes/body for a more coordinated response to motion and visual stimulus.

Is it Beneficial?

Astronaut Training helps children improve their ability to self-regulate especially when there is vestibular dysfunction.  It can also enhance spatial awareness and general movement abilities. In a nutshell, it helps with sensory organization for moving, looking and listening.

In Summary…

Aerial Hammock in Therapy

At Mindful Child, we use the aerial hammock as a prop to assist with sensory integration. The aerial hammock is incorporated in the Astronaut Program instead of a rotary board to increase engagement.  The more engaged a child is with an activity, the more likely they are to benefit from it. If you would like more information regarding how we help children with sensory processing e-mail us at info@mindfulchildaerialyoga.com or set up an initial assessment today. 

Essential Oil PlayDough

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Making Essential Oil Infused PlayDough

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups organic flour
  • 1/4 cup salt
  • 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • Organic food coloring
  • Chunky glitter
  • 4-5 drops Young Living essential oils (Peppermint, Grapefruit)
  • 3 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup boiling water
Essential Oil PlayDough at Mindful Child

Squishing, rolling, pulling, creating… children of all ages enjoy playing with playDough. In addition to being fun, PlayDough has multiple developmental benefits. Our homemade dough feels and smells amazing – making it a simple and natural stress relieving mindfulness tool.

What are the benefits?

Proprioceptive Input

Squishing and pulling PlayDough can increase fine motor skills. It strengthens the muscles in the fingers that are needed to climb an aerial hammock or hold a pencil at school. Manipulating PlayDough helps children develop hand-eye coordination. Rolling and pressing PlayDough into cookie cutters provides deep pressure to the joints, which enhances one of our hidden senses called proprioception.

How to Make Amazing Dough.

  • To start, add the flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a large mixing bowl.
  • Stir with an electric mixer.
  • Combine the essential oil of choice with the vegetable oil and mix into the dry ingredients.
  • Bring your water to a boil.  Add any food coloring to the boiling water.
  • While stirring with an electric mixer, slowly add the water to the dry ingredients.
  • Continue to mix until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.
  • Next, shake in a little glitter, but not too much or it won’t stick together.
  • Knead the dough until smooth.  
  • Store your dough in an air-tight container.
PlayDough Hearts at Mindful Child

At Mindful Child, we make mindfulness and social emotional learning fun. We’d love to have your child hang out with us in a camp or class

The Pyramid of Learning

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Pyramid of Learning – Williams & Shellenberger (1996)

What is the Pyramid of Learning?

Williams and Shellenberger developed the pyramid of learning along with the Alert Program, a self regulation program. The pyramid highlights how sensory processing relates to the learning process. It illustrates children’s foundational skills and the hierarchy of skills needed to support academic learning and behavior. The pyramid is important, as it helps breakdown skills into different foundational levels and prioritize what skills to address first in therapy. The process of moving up the pyramid is called a bottom’s up approach. This means that babies and children’s development begins with physical and sensory skills that they must master, step-by-step to move up to higher level skills such as learning, attending, and self-regulating.

The Pyramid of Learning is a way of looking at the whole child. The foundation of the pyramid is a child’s central nervous system, which is closely linked to their sensory systems. Adequate development is built on being able to register and process sensory information from the seven senses (touch, movement, deep pressure, smell, taste, sight, and hearing). If the lower levels of the pyramid for learning are not solid, then your child may have difficulty focusing, completing homework, and learning new information.

Let’s look closer at the levels of the pyramid and the skills that need to be mastered…

Level Two – Sensory

  • Tactile (touch)
  • Vestibular (balance, movement)
  • Proprioception (deep pressure, where body is in space)
  • Olfactory (smell)
  • Visual (vision)
  • Auditory (hearing)
  • Gustatory (taste)

Level Three – Sensory Motor

  • Body scheme (body awareness through movement)
  • Reflex maturity (reflexes, for safety purposes)
  • Ability to screen input (paying attention to sensory experiences that are important)
  • Postural security (confidence in maintaining certain postures to prevent falling)
  • Awareness of two sides of the body (bilateral integration)
  • Motor planning (ability to plan movement)

Level Four – Perceptual Motor

  • Auditory language skills (hearing & speaking)
  • Visual-spatial perception (recognize an object’s physical location as well as the physical relationships between objects.)
  • Attention center functions (maintaining attention)
  • Eye-hand coordination (using what you see to guide the movement of your hands)
  • Ocular motor control (locating & fixating on something in the field of vision)
  • Postural adjustment (adjusting posture to maintain balance)

Level Five – Cognition

  • Academic learning
  • Daily living activities (such as eating, toileting, personal hygiene)
  • Behavior

Mindful Child’s Approach

kids aerial yoga

Sensory processing skills are foundational for learning and regulating behavior. At Mindful Child, our therapists use the aerial hammock as a therapeutic prop to help children develop the skills they need to successfully climb to the top of the pyramid.