Thank you for taking the time to read these resources. You may know that your child has sensory processing difficulties and that they need a variety of sensory activities to help them regulate throughout the day. At this uncertain time, at home, you may be looking for sensory activities to help your child feel calmer or maybe more alert, so that they are well- regulated throughout the day in order to attend, listen and learn more fully. See ‘Sensory brain breaks’ for examples of sensory strategies and activities you could use and engage in, with your child.
Provide your child with predictable sensory information.
Support social engagement, self-regulation and behaviour organisation.
Help sensory modulation e.g. feeling in a ‘just right’ state.
Assist your child to respond in a more organised way to sensory input / stimuli which may come from their environment.
Our aim is to provide you with some sensory activity ideas for you to do at home with your child (and family too), which they may or may not already be familiar with.
Movement and Body Awareness (vestibular and proprioceptive) activities
These include many large physical movements (gross motor activities) which you can use in your timetable ‘movement’ slot each day. They can also be useful to do before doing a sitting down, thinking activity or as a sensory/physical activity if your child has not had a movement break in a while. For examples, please see ‘Movement Breaks’ as well as ‘Heavy Work activities’ & ‘Gross Motor activities’ from last week.
Touch (tactile) activities
Touch is one of the most important senses we have, as it gives us so much information about ourselves and about our environment. Some children are over-responsive to touch, others may be under-responsive and others may have difficulty discriminating between different types of touch. Engaging them in appropriate tactile activities will help them to process these touch sensations more effectively. For children who are over-sensitive (tactile defensive), engaging them in proprioceptive or deep pressure (if tolerated) activities before or alongside the tactile activity, should help with this. Those who lack sensitivity, need a wide variety of tactile experiences to engage with and those who have difficulty discriminating between textures would benefit from activities and games to help them learn how to feel the difference between textures. Try out some tactile activities from the ‘Sensory (tactile) activity cards’ or make some textured playdough with your child (see recipes for crunchy caterpillar, porridge oats or silky soft). Shaving foam can be a great motivator, practice imitating and copying shapes and letters, on a tray, in the bath, on a mirror or windows etc
Smell & Taste (olfactory and gustatory) activities
These ideas can be used to add to (or take away) sensory input throughout the day. They can be alerting and wake us up or be calming or they may not be at all tolerable to some children, each child is different and you will know what your child prefers best. Can you maybe add these to your day at snack time? (taste) …. or when doing some cooking activities with your child (taste and smell) …. or when doing messy play (smell) ?…........or at bath time perhaps ? (smell). As with touch activities, for children who have difficulty tolerating some of these sensations, if you are able to combine proprioceptive or deep pressure activities with them during the activity or do them before the activity, this may help your child. Try out some of the playdough recipes for this (such as Edible Chocolate, Oranges & Lemons, Textured Aromatherapy).
Seeing & Hearing (visual and auditory) activities.
These can also be so useful to adding (or removing) sensory input into your child’s day and can be done actively (with your child joining in) or passively (used in the background to calm or alert). There are many calming Youtube videos with both visual and auditory sensory input in them (see Calming Aquarium, Delta waves, Binaural beats, Guided Meditation, SAND Sensory Therapy). There are sure to be many alerting ones too, so see what works best with your child. Making sensory sound bottles (such as Clink clank, Splashy sound, Thud thud) is a fun activity too. You can make visual ones too, be as creative as you can with your child & listen and learn to their ideas, they may surprise you !.
Have a go at some of these activities, if you think they might help your child, but most of all see how your child is reacting at all times. What may be calming/alerting for one person is not the same for another. By filling in the ‘Sensory Diet Questionnaire’ with (or on behalf of) your child, you can help identify what helps your child to feel most regulated.
At times of high stress, remember that sensory sensitivities can increase.
We have also added some basic information on sensory spaces which can be useful for the child that needs to retreat from sensory stimuli as well as those seeking a little more sensory input.