May present with one or more of the following:

• Running hands along the walls

• Need to touch everything, including people

• May explore non-food items orally

• Frequently messy, due to enjoying messy play (the kid who loves mud, picking grass, etc.)

• Engages in rough play

Ways to address it:

• Tactile bins (can be modified to provide academic opportunities)

• Finger painting

• Foam soap

• Fidgets

• Provide natural opportunities throughout the day to touch various textures (wet, dry, messy, warm, cold)

May present with one or more of the following:

• Touches different textures with only fingertips (extra cautious)

• Tags need to be cut off clothing

• Avoid certain textured clothes (the kid always in sweats)

• Dislikes hair brushing/cutting, nail cutting

• Eats same items/textures repetitively

• Overreact to unexpected touch

• Anxious in large crowds (fight or flight)

Ways to address it:

• Use of liquid glue with visual cue of dots rather than glue stick

• Wet wipe or paper towel available during and after messy tasks

• Option to use paintbrush during messy tasks

May present with one or more of the following:

• Always on the go

• Difficulty remaining seated

• Child who spins

• The "chair tipper" or rocker

• Looks out of peripheral (side of eyes) vision

Ways to address it:

• Provide opportunities for: swinging, bouncing, jumping, rocking, sliding, spinning

• Adapted seating

  • • Wobble seat, rocking chair, sitting on a yoga ball, disco seat cushion

• Frequent movement breaks with opportunity for head to move in different planes:

  • • Yoga

    • Cherry pickers

    • Cross crawls

• Opportunities to go on: swings, go down slide in different positions (on tummy or backwards **monitor for safety), somersaults, spinning (i.e. "Ring around the Rosie")

May present with one or more of the following:

• Overly cautious about movement, does not like feet removed from floor (gravitational insecurity)

• Loses place when copying from the board (difficulty focusing from far point to near point)

Ways to address it:

• Use of a slant board or 3-ring binder to prop their reading/writing materials up (reduces the head's positional changes and can reduce difficulty with visual tracking)

• Provide near point copies of any work written on board or other vertical surface

May present with one or more of the following:

• Inconsistent pressure when writing and/or coloring

• Poor awareness of surroundings (frequently bumps into people and/or objects without seeming to realize they were there)

• Slaps feet on ground when walking

• Slams door, seemingly by accident

Ways to address it:

• Provide opportunities for "heavy work":

  • • pushing/pulling a wagon or themselves on a scooterboard

    • hanging from monkey bars

    • animal walks

    • yoga

    • crawling through tunnels

    • jumping jacks or jumping on trampoline

    • wall push ups