SPD Speedway -- A Luke Engineered Game

part of a toy that was received from an auntie for a past birthday

+

the cotton from the top of Daddy's vitamin bottle

+

a straw that fell off a drink box at one point

What do these equal?

If you are our creative sensory-seeking Luke, they are the perfect materials to engineer an SPD Speedway!

Yep, last night when I came out from trying to get Nina down to sleep, I found Luke busily blowing cotton balls down the ramps of a plastic toy he'd "stolen" from the basement clutter the other day when I left the door open as I ran down to do laundry. The fact that Luke had engineered a game for himself did not surprise me.  He has always been quite the little construction king.  His creative use of materials did not shock me that much either.  He always manages to have vision beyond his father's and mine.  What did strike us both was just how perfectly Luke was attending to his own sensory needs at the moment through an activity he created, set up and went about playing all on his own.

A little oral-motor fun with the straw.  Some tactile stimulation with the soft cotton ball and the hard plastic.  Quiet, focused, calming concentration -- with just the right blend of excitement --  as a wind-down activity before bedtime.  Both Daddy and I were so pleased to see all this in Luke's self-engineered SPD Speedway game.  For one of our goals is to raise happy, independent individuals and Luke's play certainly evidenced that he is heading that way!

Yippee!

In what ways are your children learning to attend to their own needs -- sensory or otherwise?  How are you encouraging them to do so?  And, how are they demonstrating increments of success?  Please do share in a comment.  And, also, head on over to our family blog to see Daddy's SPD-related perspective on Luke as well as to Hartley's Life with 3 Boys to visit the SPD Blog Carnival full of links to photos of sensory fun.