Psychological Interventions for Children with Sensory Dysregulation

192 Pages·2016·1.28 MB·English

by  Ruth Goldfinger Golomb

ebook
THE GUILFORD PRESS
Psychological interventions
for children with
sensory dysregulation
The Guilford Child and Adolescent Practitioner Series
Editors: John Piacentini and John T. Walkup
This series offers effective, innovative intervention strategies for today’s
child and adolescent practitioners. Focusing on persistent clinical chal-
lenges that cut across diagnoses and often come up in practice, books in
the series present evidence-based tools for conceptualizing and address-
ing clients’ individualized needs. These concise volumes provide what is
missing from many evaluation and treatment manuals: the nuts-and-bolts
techniques required for everyday clinical work. Each accessible guide-
book includes a treasure trove of suggested interventions, complete with
case examples, practical tips, sample dialogues, and practitioner-friendly
resources, such as reproducible handouts and forms.
Teen Suicide Risk: A Practitioner Guide
to Screening, Assessment, and Management
Cheryl A. King, Cynthia Ewell Foster, and Kelly M. Rogalski
Psychological Interventions
for Children with Sensory Dysregulation
Ruth Goldfinger Golomb and Suzanne Mouton-Odum
Psychological interventions
for children with
sensory dysregulation
Ruth Goldfinger Golomb
Suzanne Mouton-Odum
Series Editors’ Note by
John Piacentini and John T. Walkup
The Guilford Press
New York London
Copyright © 2016 The Guilford Press
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Except as indicated, no part of this book may be reproduced, translated,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
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Printed in the United States of America
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Last digit is print number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
LIMITED DUPLICATION LICENSE
These materials are intended for use only by qualified mental health professionals.
The publisher grants to individual purchasers of this book nonassignable permission
to reproduce all materials for which photocopying permission is specifically granted
in a footnote. This license is limited to you, the individual purchaser, for personal
use or use with individual clients. This license does not grant the right to reproduce
these materials for resale, redistribution, electronic display, or any other purposes
(including but not limited to books, pamphlets, articles, video- or audiotapes, blogs, file-
sharing sites, Internet or intranet sites, and handouts or slides for lectures, workshops,
webinars, or therapy groups, whether or not a fee is charged). Permission to reproduce
these materials for these and any other purposes must be obtained in writing from the
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The authors have checked with sources believed to be reliable in their efforts to provide
information that is complete and generally in accord with the standards of practice that are
accepted at the time of publication. However, in view of the possibility of human error or
changes in behavioral, mental health, or medical sciences, neither the authors, nor the editors
and publisher, nor any other party who has been involved in the preparation or publication
of this work warrants that the information contained herein is in every respect accurate or
complete, and they are not responsible for any errors or omissions or the results obtained from
the use of such information. Readers are encouraged to confirm the information contained in
this book with other sources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Golomb, Ruth Goldfinger, author. | Mouton-Odum, Suzanne, author.
Title: Psychological interventions for children with sensory dysregulation /
Ruth Goldfinger Golomb, Suzanne Mouton-Odum.
Description: New York : The Guilford Press, [2016] | Series: The Guilford
child and adolescent practitioner series | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016001915 | ISBN 9781462527021 (hardcover : acid-free paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Sensory disorders in children—Treatment.
Classification: LCC RJ496.S44 G65 2016 | DDC 618.92/8—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016001915
about the authors
Ruth Goldfinger Golomb, LCPC, is a clinician at the Behavior
Therapy Center of Greater Washington in Silver Spring, Maryland,
where she has worked with children and adults with anxiety and
related disorders since the mid-1980s. She has led many workshops,
seminars, and training programs and has written articles for jour-
nals and newsletters. A member of the Scientific Advisory Board of
the Trichotillomania Learning Center, Ms. Golomb is coauthor of
two books, including A Parent Guide to Hair Pulling Disorder (with
Suzanne Mouton-Odum).
Suzanne Mouton-Odum, PhD, is Clinical Assistant Professor in
the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor
College of Medicine and a psychologist in private practice in Hous-
ton, Texas. She has extensive training in cognitive-behavioral treat-
ment for children, adolescents, and adults with anxiety and related
disorders. Dr. Mouton-Odum is a member of the Scientific Advi-
sory Board of the Trichotillomania Learning Center and past presi-
dent of both the Texas Psychological Foundation and the Houston
Psychological Association. She has published numerous scientific
journal articles, presents at national conferences, and is coauthor of
two books for the general public.
v

series editors’ note
i
n The Guilford Child and Adolescent Practitioner Series,
our goal is to provide practitioners with a library of relatively
short, practical, theory-driven books focused on common clini-
cal problems and key intervention techniques. The books in this
series differ from existing treatment manuals in that they do not
focus on specific disorders, such as obsessive–compulsive disorder
(OCD), major depression, or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disor-
der (ADHD), but rather on clinical issues that cut across specific
syndromes or fall between the so-called diagnostic “cracks.” These
clinical challenges—including the treatment of sleep and somatic
problems, sensory intolerance, unwanted habits, and adolescent
noncompliance, among others—are common in children and ado-
lescents in therapy, and are rarely covered to any useful degree
in disorder-oriented treatment manuals. Yet these problems can
have a profound impact on overall impairment, and even very
well-trained clinicians can be perplexed by these complications
of treatment.
By offering clearly and coherently organized volumes that pro-
vide highly practical, step-by-step guidance, we hope to help busy
practitioners select and implement the assessment and intervention
strategies best suited to their needs. Each book emphasizes the
functional understanding of the antecedent (e.g., triggers) and con-
sequent factors that serve to elicit and maintain the presenting prob-
lem. This theoretical framework provides a clear conceptual link
between the target problem and specific assessment and treatment
vii
viii Series Editors’ Note
techniques. Ample case examples are used to illustrate case con-
ceptualization and treatment selection and implementation. The
technical aspects of the intervention are explained through clini-
cal illustrations, sample dialogue, and handouts, forms, and other
practitioner-friendly material.
Each book in the series provides relevant information about
the topic problem, offering a clear description of how the behav-
ior begins and is maintained, and how the problem may manifest
and change over development and across different settings and
contexts. The theoretical model underlying the problem behav-
ior and intervention strategies are presented along with existing
research support for these strategies. Guidelines for recognizing
and addressing challenges that may arise during treatment are
also detailed. Finally, given the common occurrence of the target
behaviors covered in this series with other clinical problems, strat-
egies for integrating the selected treatment into a more compre-
hensive treatment plan are provided.
This book by Ruth Goldfinger Golomb and Suzanne Mouton-
Odom provides a full course of treatment for sensory dysregula-
tion, also referred to as sensory intolerance or sensory processing
issues. Children with this problem experience sounds, sensations,
and other sensory input as highly unpleasant or even intolerable.
Sensory dysregulation is commonly seen in children with a range
of psychiatric problems, including anxiety, OCD, ADHD, opposi-
tional defiant disorder, and autism spectrum disorders, and is often
overlooked or misdiagnosed, which can lead to negative treatment
outcomes and frustration among therapists, families, and patients.
The authors, both of whom are experts in behavioral treat-
ments in general and in treatments for body-focused, repetitive
behaviors such as hair-pulling disorder, skin-picking disorder, and
the tic disorders in particular, draw from a very specific knowl-
edge base regarding bodily sensations and their link to repetitive
behaviors, and provide effective strategies to uncouple the sen-
sations from the impairing repetitive behavior. Their systematic
framework for evaluating and incorporating sensory data into the
diagnostic formulation and treatment plan provides clinicians with
concrete, well-tested strategies to help patients and their families
develop the necessary self-management skills to reduce distress