Vocabulary word of the day: Proprioception

Michael came with Clara and me to her OT session yesterday. He enjoyed watching Clara and Claudia work. One of the things that Claudia has talked a lot about to me is the fact that Clara needs a lot of proprioceptive input to get her nervous system aroused. As one website defines it:

Proprioceptive input is the performance of tasks that involves heavy resistance and input to the muscles and joints, and is essential in helping our bodies assimilate and process both movement (vestibular) and touch (tactile) information.

So, what we do (and what I need to do more of) is the following:

• deep input
• brushing her skin (the "brushing method" is one way to give little bodies a lot of information--you use a surgical scrub brush and very firmly rub arms and legs and back . . . Clara generally likes it)
• giving a firm rubdown with towel after a bath
• wrapping her up in a blanket or squishing her between two pillows to make a "Clara sandwich"--she LOVES that
• wearing a weighted vest (her former OT made her one--she tolerates it)
• just bombarding her body with lots of touch to help her feel where she is in space and make her neurons more organized and prepped for action
  

• heavy work (this is the OT term for "get those puny muscles moving!")
• pushing a toy grocery cart with stuff in it
• pulling a wagon
• climbing on stuff (whatever stuff you permit)
• pulling ropes, etc.
• jumping on a trampoline
• playing any number of active games
• whatever neurotypical kids naturally spend their days doing!
  

But this is my problem. I have tons of ideas for all of this stuff (not my own ideas--ideas from books, websites, etc.), but when your kid has dyspraxia, and everything is hard to think through--language, fine motor, gross motor, balance, social skills, you name it--it's hard to motivate her. Most of the heavy work activities, well, many of them, require skills that, quite frankly, are well beyond our current status. So essentially, I need to adapt them and think of other possibilities. And herein lies the rub: creativity is exhausting! I know I should be grateful for these opportunities to put my noggin to work.