ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a set of effective ‘sensory solutions’ parents can use to help regulate their child’s most challenging behaviors. The focus is on those difficult behaviors that can arise at anytime, anywhere, not just during the QST routine. Parents are guided on how to become ‘stress detectives’ and how to look under behaviors in order to identify the source of the distress causing them. A quick reference guide to some of the most challenging behaviors provides insights into common triggers, along with recommended responses that can help to resolve the underlying distress. Behaviors such as aggression, refusal to cooperate, difficulties with transitions, wandering away and tantrums are among those addressed. The next section is devoted to a set of simple yet very effective QST skills for on-the-spot, sensory-based responses to bring a regulating presence to challenging behaviors anytime, anywhere. The chapter closes by offering a helpful distinction between good or healthy stress and bad stress along with how to best deal with each.
