Kibbles Rockin' Clubhouse

My youngest daughter has a form of Autism known as Sensory Integration Disorder, or Sensory Processing Disorder.  If you've read me for ANY length of time, you'll know all about it - it's a frequent discussion topic for me.  She's graduated out of therapy, but we still work on therapeutic activities on a daily basis. 

When the lovely ladies over at The Parent Bloggers Network put out a call for bloggers who fit the parameters for this dvd, I quickly emailed my interest.  And then I forgot about it.  When it arrived, I was, ahh, somewhat skeptical as to if it was even effective.  The opening song made me crazy - but my daughter loved it.  A scene involving different ways to say "hello!" - it felt juvenile and contrived, and yet, she loved it.  The main character , Handy Sam, was kind and friendly, with enough enthusiasm to be real and not so much that I wanted to drop kick him.

Ahem.  Not that I'd ever do that.

We've had trouble with eye contact.  It's probably the hardest thing that my daughter struggles with, and I really appreciated that the appropriate method of using eye contact and addressing people was stressed. I've noticed a big difference in the odds of her actually doing these things, and I can lay that directly to this dvd and to the refrain of one of the songs, "When you see someone for the first time, smile at them and say, "Hi!"  She sang along with the movie, she sang it in the van, she sang it in the bathtub and on the playground.  When she struggles with this, I repeat the refrain, and it triggers her to respond correctly.  In my book, I had to go no further to call this dvd successful and effective. 

I liked the fact that they use an activity schedule - a kind of chart on the wall.  My daughter loves to know what's going on and thrives on a schedule, and it was gratifying to see that others find that important.

The section on reading body cues and faces was a bit over her head.  She really didn't understand what an angry face was - although she could correctly show me one, she had difficulty picking one out.  She's four, so this might be a section more suited to an older child. 

Probably the most useful part for us was the section on controlling your temper and not acting out.  Although the children in the movie were too calm - "I can't have the chocolate cookie? Ok, I don't mind having a fruit cup!" - that would never go over in my house.  But it's a goal worth striving for. We repeated the song for that section as well - "I can use my mouth" - over and over.

The interview with the speech pathologist gave me a good background as to the reason that the video was created in a certain way.  Using visuals, such as an activity schedule, typical peer modeling, and repetition were all used to create a movie that is both pleasing, stimulating and calming to a child with an ASD.  I really liked the reassurances that a typical ASD kid can't always reason and sometimes can have an adverse reaction; for example, fit throwing.  I know those things in my head, but in my heart, sometimes it's difficult to remember.

Kibbles Rockin' Clubhouse is available on Amazon.  The DVD is from Noteabilities (http://www.noteabilities.com/) which has more information about the company and the other videos it produces.  The Parent Bloggers Network is also giving away a set of the two ASD dvds - the second review will be up here on Wed - to one lucky reader! Entrants may leave a comment on either the launch post or the round-up post (on 4/28.)

Highly, highly recommended.