I am not a thrill-seeker by nature. I have never felt the need to drive like a maniac, go skydiving, ride the worlds greatest, highest, fastest roller coaster over and over, go bungee jumping, climb the highest mountain or dive to the greatest depths of shark infested waters. It just is not how I am wired. This is not to say I am a complete nervous Nellie...it was during one of my infrequent pseudo-daredevil endeavors that I had a little glimpse into the challenges Riley faces as a result of his unpredictable vestibular system.
The vestibular system is what directs the sense of balance and awareness of body placement in space. During a family trip to Hershey Park, I was convinced to ride on one of the many coasters (it didn't roll...it hung from a track up top). The first ride was fun despite hanging from a seat with nothing surrounding me. It was enough of an adventure that my arm was twisted to go again. A member of our party persuaded me to wait a few extra turns to ride in the front row...sure...I was feeling fearless...wasn't I?
To make a short story a little shorter...the whole front row thing? A complete NIGHTMARE!!! My legs were hanging, I was held in by nothing other than a bar and I swore I was going to hit every tree and pole that flew at me. Logically I knew I would be fine, but the sense of total lack of control and pretty much free falling at the whim of some designer of thrill seeking rides did me in. I got off the ride, never to return.
When we first started working with our Early Intervention team when Riley was eighteen months, one of the first things that caught the attention of the various therapists was that Riley was not really affected by his surroundings, positively or negatively, with one exception: the second I put him on a swing, he screamed bloody murder. Once his Sensory Processing issues were identified, the reason became clear: with his vestibular system out of whack, he felt like he was free falling while on the swing. He could not accurately identify where his body was in space or how his body worked with itself.
Armed with this knowledge, many other things in Riley's world began to snap into place. The most obvious struggle was when he was learning to walk. He had the skills and could walk as long as he was holding onto something, but he did not trust himself to let go of the couch. As it turned out, with the vestibular challenge element in place, he did not realize that if he let go of the couch, that he would not fall off the floor. The example given to me was that of a clear table: he could not tell where the table ended and where the floor below started.
With the help of some amazingly talented and caring young women, we learned how to help Riley find the boundaries of his body through deep "input" (lots of massage and deep pressure along with all kinds of other crazy and offbeat therapeutic techniques that, strange as they seemed, worked incredible wonders for our son), lots of time and lots of patience.
Eventually Riley found some stability in his mobility and he learned to work within the confines of his body and his world. The process included many bumps and bruises...a fall down the stairs...a face plant here and there...but we all survived his toddling years and lived to tell about it. There is still some clumsiness, but he works through it...trudging along, day by day. In some ways, perhaps he kind of free falls through his days, but he definitely is learning control.
Until next time....
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