Children with special needs to benefit from lap pads

Staff report
The Pervasive Parenting Center and Haskell County Oklahoma Home and Community Education group have combined efforts to help families in eastern Oklahoma. The two organizations recently worked together to create lap pads for children in the area with special sensory processing needs.
When the PPC began looking for a way to help families they work with who have children with Sensory Processing Disorder, they began looking at ways to purchase lap pads. These pads are weighted and are used to put across the laps of children seeking pressure to cope with sensory issues.
“Children with SPD, especially those on the autism spectrum, crave pressure to help with their sensory needs,” said Kodey Toney, director of the PPC. “It can be used as a tool to calm children at times when they are on the brink of a sensory overload or a meltdown. They have also been used to help children with ADHD.”
The lap pads can be expensive, so as the board was looking for ways to raise funds to purchase the pads, someone suggested making them.
“I don’t remember who had the initial idea,” said Toney, “but we brainstormed and one suggestion was to find local quilters to help with the project.”
PPC board chair Sandie Rutherford of Stigler contacted the OSU Extension Office in Haskell County and connected with OHCE. They agreed to provide the sewing services as well as material. PPC kicked in for the cost of the plastic pellets used to add weight to the pads, and the group went about creating more than 75 pads.
The pads have been distributed to local schools and families throughout the area to help both in the classroom and at home. They are provided free to local families.
“We are truly grateful for the OHCE group, OSU Extension Office, and everyone involved in the production of these pads,” said Toney. “We are always looking for ways to help families of children with disabilities. We have already seen a tremendous response from families who have received the pads.”
Questions: Kodey Toney @ 918-647-1255, 918- 658-5076 or ktoney@pervasiveparentingcenter.org.

Submitted photo
Kodey Toney, left, and Terry Yarbery, right, with Pervasive Parenting Center, receive lap pads from members of the Oklahoma Home and Community Education group, Josephine McMahan and Trudy Bowen, middle from left. The lap pads are being distributed throughout eastern Oklahoma to help children coping with Sensory Processing Disorder.