How to Help Children with Learning Difficulties

Author: Zheng Xinyong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: This book is adapted from Dr. Ayres's "Sensory Integration and Children" compiled at the University of Southern California. It introduces the principles of sensory integration disorders and their treatments in simple language. The content is designed to be culturally appropriate and includes numerous brain anatomy diagrams and a sensory integration checklist that has been revised for difficulty, discrimination, reliability, and validity. The hope is that teachers or parents can check it to preliminarily understand the severity of sensory integration disorders and the neurological profiles of children with poor adaptation. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Ayres's clinical diagnosis, treatment, and research have clearly shown that occupational therapy can help children with sensory integration disorders improve their academic performance and establish a better self-image. However, she found the greatest challenge lies in parents, teachers, and other professionals' insufficient understanding of sensory integration. During her career in diagnosis and research, Dr. Ayres found it difficult to explain the full scope of sensory integration treatment to parents in a short period. She used the earlier book "Sensory Integration and Children" written for experts to help parents and teachers understand sensory integration disorders and their treatments. However, understanding and applying the principles of the book is not easy. The author hopes to enhance the understanding of the original spirit through culturally adapted rewriting and multiple readings and discussions. Some terms remain quite unfamiliar to general parents, such as the vestibular system, which many parents mistakenly think is the forehead part above the eyes. Therefore, it is recommended to use "inner ear vestibular balance" (system) instead when first using it. Additionally, the original term "proprioception" is unclear to most people, so the author uses "muscle-joint sense" to represent the sensory system that detects movement and position of the body's muscles and bones. It is hoped that over time, everyone will gradually become familiar with these terms and their meanings.