Things That Work #3: Gum

An Occupational Therapist can tell you all about the neurological regulating effects of the "suck-swallow-breathe" synchrony, and about the power of "oral stims", for helping even ordinary folks calm and focus themselves.

Mary Sheedy Kurcinka, author of the fabulous Raising Your Spirited Child books maintains that passing out the gum is the best and fastest way to take the temperature of a heated situation down by a few oh-so-critical notches.

Other parents have found it aids focus during homework and other sustained-attention tasks.

Let's just say that it works.

Set aside your prejudices about the vulgarity of chewing gum, and about whether an oral self-calming mechanism is "infantile" or "a crutch" in any way. Think of it as a "brain hack"... a piece of circuitry that's installed in almost all of us, and that you can use to reach into the brain and bring it into a better and more productive state.

I know parents who (as mentioned above) use it for homework. I know parents who use it for difficult transition times (e.g. home to school) for a high-needs kid. T.K. gets to chew it when he's having one of his beaker-emptying breaks, with me or at the school. He likes two or even three pieces sometimes, to intensify the sensation, and with it the calming effect. He's quite good about getting rid of it in the garbage when the break is over, but I even know some teachers who permit it in class, as long as students do it quietly and appropriately.

Go ahead, try it. I don't know anyone it doesn't work for.