A look into Nancy Thomas parenting

Dad,In answer to your question, I don't know. Holding therapy wasn't something that ever came up in working with J. He wanted to attach to us and was capable of attaching as well. So, I don't know if I would have done it. Likely I would have, had I felt it would have done my son more good than harm. Also, like Lucy said, I would have wanted to undergo it myself before hand so I could know if it was harmful. As for strong sitting being abusive, I totally disagree. Like Lucy said, it's basically yoga. We don't even call it strong sitting here anymore, rather we just tell J to go sit and find his calm. It's actually in his IEP as something he needs to do if he gets too out of control. He's done it at home, his Master has him meditate at Tang Soo Do and once, after a particularly engaging assembly, in the OT room at his school for a few minutes before returning to class. As for how long he sits, well thats up to him. If he does it on his own, he sits for as long as he wants too. If I'm sending him it's simple. "16 minutes MY way or 30 minutes YOUR way" He almost always chooses my way now as it actually works to get him calm. His way means he slouches and plays and is defiant about it. 9 out of 10 times he does it his way he's back out of control and back sitting within 5 minutes of getting up. It's not about controlling J, but about J controlling his own body. We used the strong sitting to teach him that. Because of our successes in that area, but son can tell me when his meds are working well or when he needs to see the doctor about his 'jumpies.' HE lets me know when he needs to take an evening supplement Focalin and knows that if he doesn't he will need to work extra hard at whatever activity we are doing. For example, he always takes one on test nights for Tang Soo Do and usually for a couple of nights before that so he can really focus on fine tuning his forms before testing. But the night we went to that mall to have our pics with Santa, he opted out of one and said he would just have to work extra hard. And he did. While he never actually strong sat during the hour long wait in line, he did breathing exercises several times and asked for several deep pressure hugs to calm him down.Hope this answers your questions. :)edited to add:On the holding therapy note, that's not saying we didn't hold J. We did. I did lots of time in the rocking chair with him singing and cuddling and talking softly about how much we love him. Heck, don't tell his friends, but we still do that occasionally. In our case though, J was a cuddler and sought out physical touch from the get go. It was never forced. Even if he didn't want to do it, once I pulled him on my lap he would start to cuddle into me. Part of that was also his sensory disorder. He's a sensory seeker and deep hugs were heaven to him, so he was always in my lap or holding my hand or something. He was 4 when he came but developmentally about age 2. In fact, he reminds me a lot of how M is now at 21mo. Two peas in a pod, I guess. LOL