Mom of a Developmentally Delayed Son...................uses Child Directed Play Therapy!

I'm not sure how other parents who have children with developmental delays go about protecting their child from danger but we have a sliding back door with the following features: toe lock, flip lock, metal bar lock on top, and an alarm that goes off if the door is opened. As it happens over time and with much use, the bar lock on the top of the door broke off the side of the door. Unfortunately, that is the only lock that my son is unable to open. Well, as I turned my back to use the washroom, he found out that he could indeed open the back sliding door. He routinely checks the doors in the house to determine his ability to find new and exciting things to do. No matter how many structured activities I might provide, he is still searching for more. On this day, he found it. A heavy rainfall had left a massive puddle in our backyard along with areas of saturated mud. When I returned from using the washroom, my other children were still eating breakfast as I was hoping they would do. Yet, where was Joshua? I'm sure you can guess by now that he became covered in mud from head to toe and was happy as could be romping around the backyard in and out of the mud. He threw mud on the siding of the house, on the back windows and all of the outdoor toys. I wish I had my camera. The thing is when these things happen I don't think of taking a picture. I'm strategizing a method to clean up without making a bigger mess by tromping it throughout the house to the bathtub. With his sensory needs met, I provided a bit more added therapy. I got out the hose to spray off the mud. One might think this would bother a child, but he loved it and laughed with glee. Some residue of course still stuck to his skin so then it was bathtime. Since Joshua recently flushed the bathtub plug down the toilet, we settled on a shower instead. This activity provided more sensory stimulation and fun for Joshua. I scrubbed and rinsed him off and then he of course needed to get dry. "Need towwwel, need towwel," he cried. You might wonder how I was feeling about all of this. It was after all a major detour from my plans for the day and the very important other things I needed to accomplish such as feeding Joshua's baby brother. I was fine when I saw him smile in the backyard while I was spraying him with the water. That's when I broke out in laugher and started enjoying this with him. When Dan came home it was obvious what I had accomplished. "What did you do today?" "Oh, I gave Joshua a Child Directed Play Therapy Session Dan!," I said in all seriousness as though I were a Developmental Therapist. Dan knows what that means though and right away he said, "what happened???" We enjoy our son, if we didn't we most certainly would go mad. :)