When you have a child who has sensory aversion things, feeding ability things, body awareness things, and other various things….

You end up celebrating a whole lot of things.  Odd things.  Things I never would have guessed would make me laugh and cry at the same time.

Off and on for over a year, we have tried to expose Kiran to vibrating toys.  They are very scary for a child who is unsure about his body and environment.  They make a funny noise, they feel odd … for over a year, off and on, Kiran would just go into fight or flight mode when he heard the SOUND of a vibrating toy.

We kept trying.  For many reasons but one big one being – if we could get him to interact with vibrating toys and eventually allow vibrating tools inside his mouth, this could potentially hugely progress his oral awareness and eating skills.

Today, his OT and SLP decided to focus on exposing him to vibration again, with this end feeding goal in mind.  And – something changed for him today.  He was actually willing to reach out and touch the toys, put them on his legs, touch them again…guys – HE WAS INTERACTING WITH VIBRATING TOYS!

See?  It’s goofy the things we get excited about!

With his success at therapy in mind, I decided to pull out the vibrating toothbrush I bought ages ago, in order to be able to expose him at home.  The thing he had never once even been willing to touch before today.  And – within five minutes of me just turning it on, putting it in front of him, and letting him be in charge – he had that thing in his MOUTH!  Granted, he wasn’t sure he liked it – but he tried it THREE TIMES before tossing the toothbrush to the side.

This was when I was laughing and crying.

I have no idea what work we have done to get him to this point, where he feels comfortable and confident to explore vibration finally – but this was a huge deal.