I’ve been working on mature reciprocal crawling and improving tactile tolerance with this little guy. I have learned that he is a huge race car fan and I decided to use that to my advantage. With just some painter’s tape and a bath mat, I created an infinity race car track that goes over “gooey water”. We raced (crawled) around the track several times in each direction with our miniature cars. Each time we got to the bridge over the “gooey water” I’d model “crashing” into the water and landing on different body parts, starting with the least sensitive for him (fully clothed back and hips), and working to most sensitive (palms).

After watching me crash several times, he decided to get in on the fun! After about 15 minutes, he was able to put his car on the bath mat using his open palm, and I’m hopeful that his hand actually brushed against the bath mat (though it was hard to tell while I was trying to take pictures!). While he didn’t ever actually place his open palm flat on the bath mat, it’s definite that he made progress toward desensitization, and he’s now wanting to explore this texture.

I hope this spurs your imagination as to what you can do with simple household items!