In the summer, children have myriad opportunities to get that proprioceptive input we discussed earlier.  Running around the neighborhood,  climbing trees (do children still do this?),  skate boarding and building sand castles.  These all give that “heavy work” that helps stimulate the joints and keeps the child organized. 

For those of us fortunate enough to have snow, winter takes proprioception to a whole new level.  Remember pushing those giant snow balls and then attempting to lift them to make a snow man?  Walking and climbing through the snow and drifts ... and in the case of DC, attempting to climb over snow banks when the occasionally shoveled sidewalk met the intersection ... provide HEAVY WORK.  And then there is the shoveling (have children of this generation  ever  helped with this?)  While the job may be hired out, hopefully the kids still wield shovels to dig out tunnels and forts. 

Snow affords much more that just HEAVY WORK, however.  As many of you might know, besides heavy, it is slippery.  This requires an acute ability to balance.  Those of you who venture out the day after a storm usually encounter at least one sidewalk in which the salt and sand have not completely done the job.  Fortunately for you, if you did not land in the ER with a broken wrist, you had a well functioning vestibular/kinesthetic system which afforded you the ability to quickly make the movements necessary to keep from falling.

Another vocabulary lesson:

Kinetics:  The science that deals with the motion of masses in relation to the forces acting upon them.

Kinesthesia:  The sensation of position, movement, tension of parts of the body, perceived , through nerve end organs in muscles, tendons and joints.

(Source:  Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, 1966)

Kinesthesia is the siamese twin to proprioception.  As we move, we constantly have an idea of how our body parts are positioned, and how much we are moving.

Complicated concept simplified:

Examples:

Toddler sits in height chair and reaches for a cup of milk (not a sippy cup).  The child miscalculates because the sense of movement is not refined yet and you guessed it, spills the milk.

You are leaving a friend’s house late at night in the dark.  You think you’ve made it  down to the landing but there is one more step.  Hopefully your proprioceptive/kinesthetic system is still performing well that late at night ...

“Vestibular”  did not make it into my 1966 edition of the Webster dictionary (except to describe a hall way) because it was a much neglected system until recently.

Back in the 70’s and 80’s, we, sensory integration therapists,  would tentatively mention the vestibular system during neurology rounds and the neurologists would roll there eyes and say “There you go again about the vestibular system.”  Indeed, the only neurologist with a significant body of research on the subject  was Dr. DeQuiros, in South America.  Since this time,  a large body of research has recognized the importance of the vestibular system as having a pervasive influence over  not just balance but many aspects of motor control and beyond.

Today we’ll focus on the motor control part.  The vestibular system helps detect motion; whether the body is  twirling around or speeding down a hill.  In cooperation with our friends, Proprioception and Kinesthesia,  the vestibular system also lets us know whether our head is tilted to the right, left or upside down. 

So the gymnast, diver and arial ski athlete all have incredibly well developed vestibular systems.  They can figure out how to move their bodies without getting confused when upside down.

Most people are most familiar with the vestibular system when they get dizzy or sea sick.

Some people have hypersensitive vestibular systems and get car sick easily and forget about sailing.  I, for one,  am very sensitive to vestibular input. Sadly, I could never read in the car and it was an act of parental sacrifice to take my little ones on the merry-go-round because I knew I would feel nauseous for the rest of the day.  

Then there are the individuals who crave vestibular input.  These are the folks who dash to the amusement park and can’t get enough spinning rides.  They tend to love movement in all  forms.  My sister sails, and recounts episodes  in which all the guests voted to pull into the harbor due to high seas, while she reveled in the crashing waves surrounding the boat.

Back to winter.   You have probably guessed by now all the great activities we have thanks to the snow.  Sledding provides a big kick of speed motion, which stimulates a very organizing aspect of the vestibular system.  There is a hill in our town which is quite steep and frequently children build “little” jumps for added effect.  The subsequent crash upon landing adds a big dose of proprioceptive input.  Those round disks (back in the day, we called them Flying Saucers) add a little rotation.  Sledding challenges the balance system as the child needs to maintain an upright position on the sled when sitting.  If the child lies down,  all that great antigravity work of prone positioning kicks in.

While there are all kinds of sleds on the market, from very expensive to less expensive inflatables, one can take any flat plastic surface, and turn it into a sled.  I was happy to see over the weekend, college students still “borrow”  cafeteria trays, as we did long ago, to slide down hills after the storm.

For those lucky enough to have access to skiing, all sensory motor systems are put into hyper drive.  More speed, more balance demands,  some vestibular when the chair lift sways in the wind ... lots of heavy work getting up from those falls and carrying the equipment at the end of the day.

EVERYONE has access to skating of one form or another if the weather stays cold enough.  I don’t mean the rink and fancy skates.  Just walking on a frozen pond* challenges balance.  The gliding or sliding is fun and also fires up the great triad:  Proprioception, Kinesthesia  and Vestibular.  If you do have access to skates, official ponds or rinks,  these are great ways to exercise, have fun and give the system dynamic balance challenges running sports simply don’t offer. 

Each community usually has a swap or used skate shop where much less expensive skates can be purchased.  This is especially great because the skates have already been broken in.

I used my mother’s skates for many years.  Sadly, one day I was in the middle of a frozen lake and the  fifty year old leather literally crumbled and I had to hobble the quarter mile back to my boots.  Now I have expensive new skates which I cannot use because the breaking in has been too painful for me.

*Make sure the ice is safe before going on any frozen surface ... drowning from ice breaks is a very serious and frequent occurrence.

Back to snow activities:  Great play goes beyond the sledding hill.  Building forts and tunnels,  angels in the snow, snow ball fights and simply rolling around in the snow can be fun and gives a wallop of healthy input to the sensory system.  Pulling a toddler in a little sled provides new moving sensations to the child.

Along with our motor triad, the tactile system gets a real jolt as well.  Cold temperatures,  hard ice,  soft snow,  multiple layers of clothing; these all place demands on the touch system as well.  Let’s leave that for our next discussion.  In the mean time, stay safe and enjoy the snow. 

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