The first exercises we were taught to do with Ryan at home every day were joint compressions and sensory brushing. The first time I saw sensory brushing anywhere else was in the (terribly depressing) movie Tully with Charlize Theron and that’s when I realized it was a thing other people maybe did too. Read more below about sensory brushing and joint compressions. It’s easy to incorporate into your daily routine.

Here’s a video I found on YouTube that shows both, though we used a different brushing technique. (She looks angry but she’s not.)

Sensory Brushing:
Many kiddos with neurological disorders issues have overly sensitive or defensive reaction to touch. Even though we’ve been doing this for 3 years, I just found out there’s an official name for “sensory brushing.” It’s called Wilbarger Protocol for Sensory Integration, or brushing therapy for short. It requires having a plastic surgical brush like this (a surgeon friend gave us a few from his hospital, for free), and brushing your child’s body wherever they are most sensitive. For our kiddo, we would brush his hands and arms every morning in long strokes. His therapist would do his entire upper torso. And in the video above, you see some people do the entire body. This is meant to deliver strong sensory input and teach the child’s boy to self-regulate this input.

Joint Compressions:
These are designed to send proprioceptive information to the brain, helping the body understand its place in space and where certain joints are within the body without visual cues. Proprioception is what allows you to touch your finger to your nose with your eyes closed. You understand where your body parts are. This isn’t necessarily the case in people with neurological disorders. The ability to understand where limbs and body parts are is disrupted because the signals that send the stimuli to the brain do not fire correctly. So repeated joint compressions daily may help the body understand where certain body parts exist and may help the individual learn to move his body independently one day.

Doesn’t hurt to try, right?

PS – I also thought this was an interesting take on “brushing” from a blog run by an “anonymous OT.”

*Please keep in mind I am not a medical expert or trained therapist of any kind. Just a mom who worries too much and reads too much and always thinks she isn’t doing enough. But figures she should share some of what she learns.