Willbarger or Kawar/Astronaut Spinning Protocol?

Post Reply New Topic

Our new OT wants to start a spinning protocol with my daughter. When I google Willbarger Spinning Protocol (how she referenced the protocol) I get no results. When I google Spinning Protocol I get results for Kawar/Astronaut Spinning Protocol. Has anyone tried this? I would like to find more info on this.

Thanks!

thats funny, when I google spinning protocol, i get THIS post! thats not gonna get us anywhere.

wilbarger is the brushing protocol i believe, so if she was talking about spinning, she probably just put the wrong name on it and was talking about kawar protocol, aka astronaut spinning protocol, created by mary kawar. i think wilbarger is about touch sensitivity whereas kawar is about vestibular dysfunctions (balance, coordination, place in space, etc).

i was curious about this myself, still researching new things to try or even find out if the school is able to do them. i found these sites which may help a bit in learning more about it.

http://www.sensorycenterot.com/services/vestibular.html
http://www.otawatertown.com/pdfs/vis-vestibular.pdf


this isnt very informative, but its a site with products designed by the creator of the protocol (mary kawar) for use in the protocol:
http://astronautboards.com/catalog.0.html

this is something new i hadnt heard of before, but the description of children with vestibular difficulties really fits my son. thanks for bringing this up! its something i have to look into now =)

You can also look for vestibular nystagmus. She said there is a notable difference in this reflex.

I also found an interesting article relating vestibular dysfunction to panic/mood disorders. My daughter has pretty severe anxiety issues.

When my daughter spins she moves her head in a strange way (sort of back and forth-like Stevie Wonder) and she said that is due to the vestibular issues. What is strange is it seems my daughter's will come and go. Sometimes she cannot ride in a car without getting sick, other times she seems ok. I don't see how spinning would make it better so I need to research this as well. Let me know what you find.

I am very interested in this as well. I was just having lunch with my friend the other day who is an OT, and knows my son's history. She brought this "spinning protocol" idea up to me as something to look into.

My son has always had vestibular issues. This is why the therapists think that he did not walk until 21 mos. because he just didn't feel safe. He cruised from 13 mos until 21 mos. During that time, they had me spinning him on a sit and spin toy. I think some autistic kids are doing self therapy when they spin themselves. My son never really spun himself until he was about 4. I don't think he really had the coordination to do it until then.

I have started my son on "The Listening Program"---I think there is something there too with the auditory/vestibular connection. He has only been doing it for a few weeks, and so far, I am not sure I see any difference, but we are supposed to do it for 10 weeks. I am hoping it might help with some of his verbal stimming issues at school.

I have put the spinning protocol down on my list of things to check into.........

Thanks!