Sensory Squids

wyrdwulf: So this is my sensory kit in its proto form. I chose...

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 21:54:38 -0400

So this is my sensory kit in its proto form. I chose a soft, fuzzy pencil case which cost me about a dollar. I had to make sure it had a pleasant texture on the outside, or, for me, all of the contents inside would be moot.

Inside I have an olfactory object- some essential oil made of pine and balsam fir, called A Walk in the Woods. I love the forest and for me it’s an incredibly soothing stim to have that kind of sensory experience, so I will carry it with me wherever I go.

I have a gustatory object- a teabag of my favourite tea. Something is very soothing about drinking English breakfast(well it’s my second favourite. Dimbula is my favourite but I didn’t have any).

The rest of the objects are tactile stims- a wooden comb I brush my hair with, a beanbag I made of white turtle beans and a drawstring bag made of velvet, and some lipchap. One of my hugest stims is applying obscene amounts of lipchap- but it has to be burt’s bees regular peppermint. I can’t do petroleum products.

Reblogging for awesome ideas.

My purse always contains a tangle toy and a spikeletz bracelet.

Screen dimming software for Migraines

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 02:32:16 -0500

youneedacat:

jihoa:

This is the best little bit of software I possess and it was free. It doesn’t just dim the screen much further than your screen will allow, it changes the colours so that their warmer and various things. Basically less of the stuff that triggers your migraines! And…dundunderr it means I can still use my laptop when I have a migraine, just! It’s called F.lux

http://stereopsis.com/flux/

If this really works want to try it.

I use this to help me follow circadian rhythms - it redshifts the whole screen when it’s late at night. I’m not sure that I agree that it dims the screen all that much - if it does, I haven’t figured out how to do it. But it really does red-shift the screen so it can be useful for people who are sensitive to color during migraines.

Cleaning chew toys

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:35:48 -0500

If it’s not obvious from the stuff I’ve been reviewing, I really love chew toys. If I don’t have stuff to mouth or chew on, I tend to bite my lips and cheeks to shreds.

Unfortunately, chew toys have numerous disadvantages, including the fact that they can get pretty gross. Keeping them on a string around your neck (yay, Teething Bling!) helps, but you do still have to clean it from time to time, and that can mean gross SOAPY AWFUL TASTE on your chew toy!

Enter Mi-T-Mist Mouthpiece Cleaner! Designed for cleaning mouthpieces of wind and brass instruments used by multiple students, this is basically Purell for stuff you put in your mouth (by the way, NEVER use Purell on stuff you intend to put in your mouth - they add the world’s most disgusting bitter taste to it to prevent people from drinking it for the ethanol). It contains propanol, a kind of alcohol, to sanitize objects.

How it works: The instructions say to spray the mist onto the mouthpiece (or chew toy) and allow to evaporate. However, if there is actual tangible or visible dirt on your chew toy, you can also use it to clean that stuff off, since the propanol acts as a solvent as well. Just spray on and then rinse the toy under water, or scrub at it a bit with a tissue.

How it tastes: The spray has a very mild minty taste. It also has a mild alcoholic taste that will go away if you allow the toy to completely dry before putting it back in your mouth. If you are bothered by the mint, rinse the toy well under water after using the spray.

Other alternatives: There are a lot of brands of mouthpiece cleaner out there; this simply happens to be the one I tried. And if you’re over the drinking age in your country and you’re into DIY, try just filling a cosmetic spray bottle with vodka or other non-sugary hard alcohol! It will work pretty much exactly the same way. Take it from me, there is nothing quite like taking a chew toy designed for a baby, spraying it with tequila, popping it in your mouth, and then asking any real or imaginary gawkers if they have some sort of problem with that.

Many thanks to my local Floortime Center for this hint!

Comment to the CPSC

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:25:55 -0500

I have a billion new toys to review, but work demands have made that impossible lately. In the meantime, please take some time to submit a public comment to the Consumer Products Safety Commission on an issue dear to my heart: magnetic ball sets.

I use sets of magnetic balls - like BuckyBalls - to help my sensory issues, but unfortunately they’re not safe for children or people with disabilities (like pica) that might cause them to eat magnets. Instead of just passing regulation to restrict sales of these magnets to children and educate people more about dangers, the CPSC has proposed to ban them entirely. This means that a lot of people like me will not be able to get a sensory toy that works for them.

The comments period is open until Monday, November 19 (but note that the web site will be down for almost all of Saturday and Sunday morning). Unfortunately, they’ve been getting a LOT of comments from well-meaning people who are in favor of the ban, apparently thinking that these magnets are used only for entertainment and/or that the regulation would only ban sales to children.

You can submit your comment by going to the regulations.gov website, reading the proposed guidelines, and clicking “Comment Now.” Here’s what I said:

As an individual living with trichotillomania (compulsive hair-pulling) and dermatillomania (compulsive skin picking), I oppose this regulation. The Commission should instead rely on safety warnings and public awareness to reduce injuries.

Trichotillomania and dermatillomania are characterized by uncontrollable urges to pull out hair or pick at skin. The consequences may include low self-esteem, social anxiety, disfigurement, and even dangerous infections caused by open wounds. They are not simply bad habits but rather potentially lifelong challenges.

Although medications and therapy can provide some help, I, like many people suffering from trichotillomania and dermatillomania find that the best way to stop picking skin or pulling hair is to obtain alternative sensory input. (See, e.g., Help Yourself: A Self-Help Program to Managing Trichotillomania,http://www.trich.org/dnld/HelpYourself.pdf). Finding the perfect kind of sensory input can be difficult: what may work for one person may not work at all for another.

After intensive search for the perfect sensory toy, I find that strong magnet sets are number one in terms of enabling me to avoid hair-pulling and skin-picking. I keep them on my desk at my child-free workplace and use them to avoid skin-picking and hair-pulling while at work. Through in-person and online support groups, I have met many others who feel similarly.

It is crucial that the CPSC undertake a serious cost-benefit analysis before banning strong magnets. Magnets have caused approximately 22 injuries (and no deaths) over the course of three years. Although any injury is a tragedy, there are almost certainly more than 22 adults who have avoided self-injury thanks to these tools. Injuries can be further reduced through public awareness campaigns such as those for poisonous household products, balloons, and plastic bags - all of which are far more dangerous to children than magnets.

Thank you for your consideration.

If I have time this weekend, I may submit an additional comment talking about why they’re wrong on the law. But probably won’t have time to do that well.

Fidget Toy Review: Glux

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:37:40 -0400

diaryofaskinpicker:

I left the house one day without any fidget toys, so I decided to find a new one. Fortunately, I ran into a small toy store and found something that looked promising. It was called Glux. It was essentially some weird putty that changes colors when you held it in your hands. I think it’s based on the warmth of your hands.

Anyway, the packaging said it could also bounce and shatter. Sounded intriguing. So I bought one. It cost about $6.

Firstly, it was pretty fun. I wasted a lot of time playing with it. It was like pulling taffy. It came in a plastic case so you could protect it when traveling. Unfortunately, it’s a dirt magnet.

Later that day when I dropped it on the carpet, it was completely covered in fuzz and dirt. I guess my carpet sheds a lot and was a little gritty. I tried washing it and picking it out by hand, but it was no use. The Glux was a goner.

If you can keep it clean and not drop it, it’s a pretty good toy, but I can’t fully recommend it because it gets too dirty and there’s no way to clean it.

Sounds like Silly Putty! I had something very much like this, but yes, it does get dusty.

Another Buckyballs sale

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:32:28 -0400

Buckyballs are awesome but among the pricier sensory toys out there. Which is sad! Because some of my followers have asked about how to get toys like this for cheaper, I felt it might be worth it to announce that they’re having a 60% off sale through September 16. This means that the standard $25 set of Buckyballs is now under $10.

The sale is through the Buckyballs online store. The sale price is not automatic - when you add something to your cart, you have to go to the “Order Summary” box on the right side of the screen near the top, look under the word “TOTAL,” and click on the tiny grey text that says “have a promo code?” That should give you a text entry box. Type in “SaveOnBalls.”

“Fidget Man,” who has ADD, makes and sells...

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 10:12:00 -0400

“Fidget Man,” who has ADD, makes and sells palm-sized fidgets out of keychains and bike chain links, like the one above, for about $15 each. They’re intended to be flipped and twisted around in one hand, and make a soft clinking sound. If you click through to the site, you can see a Quicktime video of the fidget being played with.

Looks like a clever fidget, and a good way to support a neuroatypical small business owner!

Keep in mind that these contain rubber bands which might have latex. Since these are all hand made, you may be able to ask for a latex-free version, or you can buy one and remove or replace the rubber bits (it’s unclear to me whether they serve some structural purpose).

Let's see how this goes

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 11:08:39 -0400

I just ordered a bunch of Rollys.

Do you have any recommendations for something like Buckyballs but cheaper?

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 00:11:00 -0400

There is a competitor, Zen Magnets. Although regular Zen magnets seem to cost about as much as Buckyballs, Zen Magnets also makes Neoballs, which cost as little as $25, and they’re doing a promotion on purchases of two or more sets. They claim to be in “Beta,” though, and I’m not sure what that means in this context.

Both Buckyballs and Zen Magnets also offer smaller sets.

Overall it seems that these magnets may just be expensive to make.

Spikeletz!

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 22:50:00 -0400

Spikeletz, which are apparently a hot trend in the pre-teen community, are silicone rubber bracelets with countless little flexible spikes:

I discovered them in a toy store when I was buying a present for my niece, and bought a couple.

These are AWESOME fidgets. They kind of tickle me if I actually wear them on my wrists, but they’re SQUISHY and soft and tactile-ly interesting. The rubber spikes taper quickly to a hair-like width, so they give a tickling feeling if you touch them lightly and a nubbly feeling if you press on them. The rubber has a sort of velvety texture. Squishing the whole bracelet around in your hand also makes a satisfying rubbery sound.

Most of these are neon-colored and are therefore not that great for super-conservative environments, but as you can see above there is a black-and-white version that might potentially “pass” for an adult fashion statement.

If you can handle wearing them around your wrist, they’ll probably fit just fine, as they’re on elastic bands and appear to be sized for more or less adult wrists (I’m guessing they’re marketed toward teens and tweens).

If you can’t find them in a nearby toy store, they appear to be available online through the manufacturer’s website at Optari.com, for about $5 each.

Buckyball Colors

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:36:00 -0400

Hi new followers from Sensoryseaturtle (which, by the way, is one of my favorite blogs on tumblr)!

Since you’re all here, I might as well finally post a review of at least part of my most recent Buckyballs order: Buckyball colors. Here they are combined with my usual silver ones:

Two sets combined is just enough for an icosahedron, a 64-ball cube, and an 8-ball cube! Sadly, though, it’s impossible to make an icosahedron out of two colors and make all adjacent sides be different colors from each other. This should have been obvious due to the five-triangle points, but I still tried.

The Buckyball colors are actually not quite the same from a sensory perspective as silver Buckyballs. The coating that gives them their color slightly weakens the magnetic attraction and makes the balls a bit less slippery, which makes them sort of “crunch” against each other when you’re squishing them around in your hands. This can be good or bad, depending on what sensations you like! I sort of like the crunchy sensation but other times I prefer the silver ones.

I really like Buckyball products as “at work” toys because they are very satisfying while remaining professional-looking. They’re a bit pricey though, and are NOT for children or adults who tend to put things in their mouths a lot, as swallowed magnets of this level of strength can send you to the ER. I keep them in my office where they’re safely out of reach of kids and pets.

I also got an order of Buckycubes (basically, square mini-magnets that actually act TOTALLY DIFFERENTLY from Buckyballs) and Buckybigs (eight really large magnetic spheres), but I’ll leave that for later.

Sensory Sea-Turtle: Necessary Clarification

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:36:00 -0400

Sensory Sea-Turtle: Necessary Clarification:

fyeahsensoryseaturtle:

fyeahmajorscollection:

fyeahsensoryseaturtle:

I just received a message that raised some points and some things that probably needed to be readdressed. I’ve discussed most of this earlier on in the life of this site, and I forget that most of the people on here can’t realistically read through the whole archive. So here’s a better explanation…

Hello there.

I will agree that many tip-offs can lead to being diagnosed with an overall underlying problem.

My main point was that having ‘sensory-related mild discomforts’, with, as you described in your diagram, no lasting stressful impressions on the body and psyche, do not a disorder make.

The way I’ve personally learned about it, one of the main problems with SPD is that the body fails to ‘get used to’ stimuli that a neurotypical brain learns to filter out, classify as unimportant…

All of this is well researched and very well worded.
I truly mean no harm, and if more of my 5% peers speak up and want me to take down the site, I would be more than willing to listen to them.

My intentions with this have been more along the lines of commiseration and other people that understand what people like myself and the people that read this blog feel and go through on a day-to-day basis. It’s not my intent to diagnose people, but if people, by reading this site, feel that enough of these apply to them and seek out an occupational therapist because of it, then that’s up to them.
It’s my own opinion that I think there would be more diagnosed cases of SPD with more awareness, but if others feel that the current statistics are accurate that’s fine.

I’ve explained this enough, but my family and I were at wits end with what was going on with me for years and years and years before a random internet search led my mom to a small checklist of symptoms; most of which applied to me. Through that we were able to finally voice to my school what I was going through, which led to a recommendation for the only OT in the province who knows much, if anything, about SPD. It’s this lack of awareness about it that I feel alters the official statistics surrounding the issue.

Again, none of this was my intention and if others feel this way I would be glad to take it down.

This will be my last post for the next little while I can’t think properly, and I’m starting to shut down. Good night for now!

fyeahmajorscollection:

fyeahsensoryseaturtle:

I just received a message that raised some points and some things that probably needed to be readdressed. I’ve discussed most of this earlier on in the life of this site, and I forget that most of the people on here can’t realistically read through the whole archive. So here’s a better explanation…

Hello there.

I will agree that many tip-offs can lead to being diagnosed with an overall underlying problem.

My main point was that having ‘sensory-related mild discomforts’, with, as you described in your diagram, no lasting stressful impressions on the body and psyche, do not a disorder make.

The way I’ve personally learned about it, one of the main problems with SPD is that the body fails to ‘get used to’ stimuli that a neurotypical brain learns to filter out, classify as unimportant. Like the school bell ringing, the first time this may scare someone not used to it, but in people without sensory problems, after a while it simply becomes part of the background signals no different from seeing someone wave at you or noticing you need to go to the bathroom.

Also SPD seems to manifest in a breadth of problematic types of sensory input. What you mention are for most people very basic foods we’d stuff into our faces without even noticing when we’re watching tv.
Most food aversions may either be:
- just never learned to get used to the flavour or texture
- bad experiences with the food, the brain learns aversions for food after having gotten ill soon after consuming something very quickly (example: by father resents OJ after drinking spoiled OJ straight from the bottle as a child)
- psychological preoccupations (eating disorders, spending too much time analysing a mussle in your mouth and getting grossed out instead of swallowing it down, being a strongly emotional vegetarian refusing ‘living animals’)
- individual differences in taste acquisition and experience, and different sensitivities of the protective gagging reflex (some people are just more sensitive to bitter tastes or similar ‘warnings’)

All of these may result in a few foods and flavours people just ‘don’t like’. I hate the texture of mushrooms, and I can barely swallow witlof because it’s so bitter. However, I can determine that these discomforts stem from something other than SPD, and I don’t exactly freak out if someone makes me eat my veggies.

This vast array of explanations and wide range of how affected people may be, both in breadth and intensity, makes it quite iffy to respond to someone asking about a single quirk that they surely have SPD. Unless there’s enough other evidence backing up that there’s an underlying neurophysiological messup causing the normal habituation, stress-control and filtering systems to fail, it’s like saying someone has a clinical depression because they like to sleep in long.

To me, it’s not entertaining the possibility that’s the problem, it’s rather the misinformation and the very weak differential diagnosing that to me fails to do the people finding this a problem in their lives justice.

If sleeping in late is depression, surely people who have depression are complaining about nothing, aren’t they?

I hope you can understand how ‘lowering the bar’ to include everyone can make it much harder for people who suffer from the 5% worst of the spectrum to be truly understood and taken seriously. I think you’re not doing anyone a favour at all by reducing a real problem to quirks everybody has and can/should just deal with.

[NOTE: I originally didn’t see the postthat set this off; this has been edited in light of that]

Okay. I usually hate doing this sort of call-out stuff, but this really got to me. Do you have SPD or a related disability? Did anyone on this blog actually say “I have mild discomfort in response to annoyances that seem to be on about the same level as anyone else’s, therefore I have SPD”? Because if not please stop talking about how anyone’s “reducing a real problem to quirks.”

Because you know what else really, REALLY hurts people with sensory disorders and other disabilities? All the time? Being told that their issue with something that they absolutely can’t tolerate is just a mild discomfort that they should be able to deal with.

Yes, everyone likes comfy clothes. But not everyone finds “uncomfortable” clothes physically painful to the point where they can’t function normally while wearing them.

Everyone has foods they don’t like. Not everyone involuntarily vomits whenever they attempt to eat a tomato.

Everyone finds repetitive noises distracting when they are stressed or the noises are loud or they are reminded of them and can’t tune them out. But, unlike the clock-hater you’re complaining about, not everyone is so bothered that they can’t sleep when there’s a clock anywhere on the entire floor, like the person you’re complaining about. If you dislike ticking clocks but can “deal with it”? Congratulations, you have a much milder problem with ticking clocks than that person has.

I don’t have SPD but do have sensory issues as a result of a disability. I am actually one of those people who will vomit if I even try to eat certain foods. And when I go to a restaurant with someone I don’t know well? And they see me picking around at my food and think I’m just whiny and make fun of me and tell me “everyone has food they don’t like, but it’s impolite to outright refuse to eat it”? That hurts me way more than some random person saying they have SPD when they aren’t quite in the “worst 5%.”

If someone complains about a sensory issue that is 1) actually well outside the norm, and 2) something they haven’t been able to explain and really appears to bother them? And says that they think it’s sensory processing disorder? Calling them a “special snowflake” is incredibly awful.

Just as it would be awful to respond to someone who posts to a depression blog that they haven’t been able to get out of bed and are crying a lot by saying they’re a “special snowflake,” that everyone has that problem, that they should deal with it and stop whining, and that they’re harming people with “real depression” by even suggesting that they might have it. That’s about the worst possible way to respond to someone who suspects they might have a mental illness.

Just because the symptoms they list aren’t quite as exhaustive and well-described as you like, doesn’t mean that they don’t have a real problem. If they didn’t think they had a real problem, they wouldn’t be seeking out information about whether their problem is potentially diagnosable.

As for other things on the blog, keep in mind that it’s a space for people with SPD and not everything that people say has to include conclusive proof that an issue rises to the level of a disability. ”I hate tomatoes” is a lot easier to fit into a stupid internet meme than “I hate tomatoes for non-standard reasons and to a degree indicative of a sensory processing issue, as is evidenced by the following incidents in which I had an extreme negative response to a tomato.” It’s an SPD blog, we know from context that that’s what someone means when they say they hate tomatoes.

End rant.

Scalp picking trick

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 12:55:00 -0400

This is more of a sensory deterrent than a sensory aide, but for all the other scalp pickers out there here’s practically the only thing that will really keep me from picking a particular spot (many of us have long-term scabs and sores that we won’t allow to heal):

Buy a tube of black or brown lipstick - I have some that I bought one Halloween at the drug store. If you have red or very light hair, pick a lighter or shimmery color that will blend in a bit with your hair if it ever gets stuck on it, but will still be visible on your fingers.

Part your hair around the spot so that it’s exposed, put some Vaseline or Neosporin on it (this is optional but will speed healing and possibly prevent itching and other sensory cues that make you want to pick), then put the lipstick on it. Now, whenever you touch that spot, the lipstick will come off on your fingers! It helps to deter you from “checking” the spot (which in my experience is almost always a prelude to picking at it), and will help even if you frequently pick without realizing you’re picking. And, unlike a lot of the goops they tell you to put on your head, lipstick is a bit firmer and is therefore easier to apply without smearing all over the place. Also, it lasts all day so you can put it on when you’re feeling highly motivated not to pick, and it will stay there as a message to your future self. Use your sensory toys to keep from feeling frustrated that you can’t pick there.

This might also work if you’re the type of hair-puller who tends to grab hair right at the root.

I have a spot that I CONSTANTLY pick at if I don’t do this, to the point where I was totally bald there and the skin had gotten all weird. I started with the lipstick and all the hair grew back and it had more or less healed. Then I stopped, thinking I’d fixed that spot, and it got worse again, so I started again and am now trying to expand and start putting it on my other spots.

Edit re: is picking bad if you don’t do it in front of others? For me, the only way to stop from picking in front of others is to avoid picking altogether. Also, it can be bad either way: sufficiently severe picking can lead to visible sores and, worse, potentially hazardous skin infections (esp. If you pick enough to cause bleeding on a regular basis).

Trying to find the right words: Portability of magnet toys:

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 01:06:11 -0400

Trying to find the right words: Portability of magnet toys::

sensorysquids:

Re: a concern that’s been raised: actually many modern electronics like phones or iPads have solid-state memory like flash memory, which is way less vulnerable to magnets than normal hard drives (you could still screw it up with, say, an MRI or other magnet strong enough to…

I actually usually leave them at the office so that my cat won’t eat them. But when I do carry them it’s in their case (they come with a plastic box), in either an outer pocket of my purse or in another bag (I’m frequently wandering around with both a purse and a larger tote that holds my lunch, iPad, gym clothes, work papers, etc.). You could also easily fit them in a pocket, if you put them in a coin purse or other floppy type case.

Fuzzy fingers are pretty good.

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 00:54:00 -0400

Yes! (FYI to others: these are neat microfiber fuzzies marketed for dusting or cleaning electronics screens: ). Incidentally I got a hairbrush at the drug store that had these sort of microfiber fingers interspersed among the hairbrush pins (the Goody Quikstyle), apparently they’re supposed to help dry your hair while you brush it (I have Major Issues with hair dryers, so anything to make my hair dry faster without pointing an evil hot noisy thing at it, I’ll buy). It’s also awesome to fidget with.

Portability of magnet toys:

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 00:35:23 -0400

Re: a concern that’s been raised: actually many modern electronics like phones or iPads have solid-state memory like flash memory, which is way less vulnerable to magnets than normal hard drives (you could still screw it up with, say, an MRI or other magnet strong enough to really mess with electric currents. But not with most other magnets). I’ve found that accidentally putting my Buckyballs on my iPad while both are on my desk - repeatedly - hasn’t killed it so far. In fact, the iPad and its smart cover use quite strong magnets to stick to each other. Still, don’t put your magnets near credit cards, pacemakers, or desktop hard drives.

Swear I’m not bring paid by the magnetic desk toy industry :) I just really like them.

I use pattern blocks to counter overload, but I can't carry them around with me, and I often get overloaded when I'm out and about. Do you know of anything portable that works as a thing to counteract overload by making patterns?

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 00:02:40 -0400

that’s a good question! I have been on the lookout for some toys like these. Portable puzzles and Rubik’s cubes may be a good choice, especially if three dimensional patterns work well for you. I’m thinking things like the snake puzzle, klix, wood cube puzzles, etc… You can find most of these at places like http://www.officeplayground.com. Anyone else have ideas that have worked for them?

More on Buckyballs

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 23:48:00 -0400

The Feds are Taking Away Buckyballs!

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 15:43:00 -0400

The Feds are Taking Away Buckyballs!:

This isn’t really a political blog, but this is important and topical:

One of the first things I reviewed on this blog were my buckyballs. These small magnets are an AMAZING fidget for us adults who have sensory needs. They are not only extremely useful for keeping my fingers occupied and helping me think, but also they look professional which means that I can use them in the place where I spend nearly every hour of my day: the office.

Although they are dangerous if swallowed and should be kept away from small children, there are some adults for which these things are actually medically helpful. People like me, who have dermatillomania and trichotillomania, need sensory inputs to help us avoid gouging at our skin and pulling hair out of places where we really should have hair. Without that input we are at risk for social and professional problems (due to visible sores or bald patches) and even serious infections. They also help me stay on task at work (I also have attentional difficulties, especially when trying to digest auditory-only information).

As I said in my original post, children and people with pica should not play with buckyballs. But buckyballs need to stay available for those of us who aren’t at risk of swallowing them. While there are other toys available, anyone who’s spent long amounts of time searching for the perfect fidget understands that sensory needs vary from person to person - what is satisfying and useful to one person may not be for another. I have a set of buckyballs already, but at some point I might have to replace or augment them, and it’s very important to me to have that option.

So, if you care, please go to the buckyballs site and sign a petition and/or buy a set to show support. Thanks.

EDIT: I actually had failed to notice there’s no petition on the site (that I can see). But do feel free to circulate this, buy buckyballs to show support, and/or sign a petition if/when one does appear.

The Rolly: an alternative to tooth brushing?

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:21:00 -0400

The Rolly: an alternative to tooth brushing?:

I have a lot of friends who have a hard time brushing their teeth due to sensory or motor issues, so this might be a neat (if somewhat more expensive) alternative:

[picture of the Rolly: a small circular gummy thing with bristles around the edges]

You chew on these little gummy discs as if they were pieces of gum, then spit themn into the trash. Cool!