From Sensory Avoidant to Sensory Tolerant: How TouchPoints Can Help
Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are all too familiar with sensory integration difficulties. Sensitivity to lights, noises, touch, and changes in temperature is enough to cause avoidance, anxiety, and extreme meltdowns. In treatment, occupational therapists (OTs) and physical therapists (PTs) typically try to provide sensory information to organize the central nervous system to produce a more organized response to sensory stimuli. (See https://www.autism.com/symptoms_sensory_overview#sthash.FfJDBLI3.dpbs).
However, children with access to OT and PT services may only receive one hour per week of treatment and many techniques attempted outside of the therapy office fail to override the nervous system reactivity in a significant way. Some techniques require the child to actively choose to start a behavior or place burden on teachers to initiate, which risks the intervention being too late to prevent a meltdown. The result is that children with ASD have extreme difficulty functioning in typical classrooms or in situations where the sensory stimuli is not controlled. They are often flooded with anxiety in everyday situations that others’ find tolerable, resulting in an inability to focus, learn, or experience joy. Often times calming before sleep is a nightly difficulty that leaves parents feeling exhausted and hopeless.
The TouchPoints offer a passive, non-invasive solution that may be more powerful that other methods in preventing nervous system hyperarousal in real-time. TouchPoints can be used in the classroom, at home, or during therapy sessions to attempt to reduce sensory hyperarousal for improved outcomes in children with ASD.
For more information on sensory integration difficulties, go to http://www.siglobalnetwork.org/ or http://www.sensoryintegration.org.uk/
For more information on autism spectrum disorders, go to https://www.autismcenter.org/ or www.autismspeaks.org or www.nationalautismsociety.org, or http://www.autism.org.uk/
If you know someone who could benefit from the Touchpoints, please share! And please apply for our scholarship!
Hi! Just curious when scholarship folks will be notified. Our daughter is begging for these. She suffers from severe anxiety. She has had counseling and is familiar with EMDR. She showed success with that buzzing therapy but do to lack of funds, we have stopped therapy. These would be a blessing for her.
Heidi and Terri,
Buzzies do work for adults. In fact, most of our users are adults. They work on a variety of issues. The Buzzies were designed to interfere with the body’s stress response. As stress is inflammatory and can exacerbate medical conditions, many of our users with medical issues use the Buzzies and report they experience less pain, more calm, better sleep, and improved performance. However, Buzzies are not intended to treat medical conditions and are not a substitute for medical advice.
Thank you!
HI Gemma,
You can order off our website at www.buzzies.com and click on Purchase. We do ship overseas.
Buzzies give the user a gentle stimulation or vibration. This bi-lateral stimulation affects the brain and alters the body’s fight or flight mechanism. Once you pair the Buzzies, you can choose from one of the pre-settings for Calm, Focus, Improve Performance, manage Anger, reduce Cravings, Sleep, or create a custom setting. Once you hit start, the Buzzies will begin “buzzing” or vibrating bilaterally. It’s this bi-lateral stimulation (called BLAST) that alters the body’s fight, flight, or freeze (F3) response that reduces your stress and anxiety level. For more research information feel free to look at the Research link on our website www.buzzies.com.
Thank you!
Hi Jeff,
Please see our getting started guide for info on how to use the Buzzies and adjust watchbands.
https://thetouchpointsolution.com/pages/get_started
Thank you!
Hi Niki! Buzies work by giving the user a gentle stimulation or vibration. This bi-lateral stimulation affects the brain and alters the body’s fight or flight mechanism. Once you pair the Buzzies, you can choose from one of the pre-settings for Calm, Focus, Improve Performance, manage Anger, reduce Cravings, Sleep, or create a custom setting. Once you hit start, the Buzzies will begin “buzzing” or vibrating bilaterally. It’s this bi-lateral stimulation (called BLAST) that alters the body’s fight, flight, or freeze (F3) response that reduces your stress and anxiety level. For more research information feel free to look at the Research link on our website www.buzzies.com.
Please see our blog post at https://thetouchpointsolution.com/blogs/buzzies-blog/where-to-wear-and-how-to-use-your-buzzies
Thank you!