Many sensory strategies are dependent on each individual student. You can try all the sensory strategies you want, but if it doesn't help, it is because it is not a sensory need. Many times, it could either be sensory or just behavior. Sensory is always evolving so what may work one minute might not work another.
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Sensory strategies involve techniques and equipment that help individuals focus and learn by managing sensory inputs. These strategies can target different senses:
1. Visual (seeing)
Sight is processed through the ‘Visual’ sense. Visual sensory stimuli is ‘picked up’
through visual receptors located in the eye and are stimulated by light, colour and
movement.
2. Auditory (hearing)
Sound is processed through the ‘Auditory’ sense. Auditory receptors located in the
inner ear, identify loud, soft, high, low near and far noises in the environment.
3. Tactile (touch)
Touch is processed through the ‘Tactile’ sense. Tactile receptors that ‘pick up’ the
sensation of touch are all over our bodies in our skin. Some areas of our skin have
more tactile senses than other areas e.g. mouth and hands. The tactile senses are
important for identifying touch, pressure, pain, temperature and texture.
4. Gustatory (taste)
Taste is processed through our ‘Gustatory’ senses. Gustatory sensors are located
on our tongues and are linked to our olfactory senses (smell). Sweet, sour, bitter,
salty and spicy flavours are processed through our gustatory senses.
5. Olfactory (smell)
Smell is processed through ‘Olfactory’ sensors located in the nose. The olfactory
senses can distinguish between a range of smells including pungent, flowery,
putrid and musty.
6. Vestibular (movement)
The vestibular system is our movement system. The receptors are located in the
inner ear and detect the speed and direction of movement and the pull of gravity.
7. Proprioceptive (body awareness)
The proprioceptive system is located in our muscles and joints. It provides us with
a sense of body awareness and detects/controls force and pressure. The
proprioceptive system also has an important regulatory role in sensory processing
as proprioceptive input can assist in controlling responses to sensory stimuli.
Proprioceptive input can be very calming for those who are easily overwhelmed by
sensory stimulation. Proprioceptive input can be alerting for those who need
increased sensory stimulation to facilitate attention and learning. Many students
with autism seek proprioceptive input in order to regulate their emotional and
behavioural responses to sensory stimulation.
Strategies According to Sense - Best Practice: Sensory
23 Ways to Create a Sensory Friendly Classroom - The Inspired Treehouse
Neurodiversity | Center for Integrated Professional Development - Illinois State
Just-Right Sensory Play | Illinois Early Intervention Clearinghouse
Effective Deep Pressure Therapy Exercises for Sensory Regulation
Heavy work ideas:
- sweep a floor
- carry copy papers
- stack chairs
- stock and unstock shelves
- sensory path in the hallway
- wall push ups or chair push ups
- self squeezes
- squeezing theraputty or playdough
(Kate McCord-OT)
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Heavy Work Activities
Tool strategies:
- movement breaks
- swinging
- spinning
- jumping
- using fidgets
- visual pictures
- compression vest
- weighted vest
- headphones
(important to balance everything because you don't want to put them in sensory overload and then have an even worse reaction...Jordan McIntyre-OTR)
Here are some ideas if you have a child or student that just can't sit still in their seats.
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Here are a few websites that includes sensory products:
Lakeshore
MindWare/OrientalTrading
Play Therapy Supply
Sensory Supports
Deep pressure and heavy activities for school age children
-Livestrong Contributor-
1. Scooter board to and from a designated location (sit or lie on stomach and propel with arms).
2. Place chairs on desks at end of day or take down at beginning of day.
3. Erase or wash the chalkboard.
4. Carry beanbags on shoulders or head and walk across the room. Wear weighted vests, belts or wrist weights.
5. Help rearrange desks in the classroom.
6. Push the teacher around on a wheeled chair or scooter board.
7. Pull someone while they sit on a scooter board holding onto a hula hoop.
8. Child can pull himself/herself up a ramp while on a scooter board.
9. Help out the janitor with emptying wastebaskets, mop the floor, etc.
10. Fill egg crates (small ones that kids can carry) with books to take to other classrooms. Teachers could ask kids to move these crates back and forth as needed.
11. Help the gym teacher move mats, hang them up, etc.
12. Chewy candy breaks (this addresses the janitor's "no gum rule"). There are lots of chewy candy that take awhile to chomp and don't get stuck on furniture.
13. Sharpen pencils with a manual sharpener.
14. Cut out items for display with oak tag.
15. Have students carry heavy notebooks to the office or from class to class.
16. Wear a weighted backpack when walking from class to class. Parents can put a notebook, book or books (depending on the size of the child) into their backpack each day for the ride or walk to school. One therapist suggested that "you might want to be careful about adding weight to backpacks as it could result in low back pain." It might also be contraindicated with diagnoses such as Spina Bifida. Maybe weight could be added elsewhere such as in fanny packs.
17. Carry books with both hands hugging the book to yourself.
18. Tie a Theraband around the front legs of a chair that a child can kick his/her legs into.
19. Propel scooter board across carpeted floor.
20. Have child pass out papers/objects to class members.
21. Wash desks or chalkboard/dry erase board.
22. Push the lunch cart or carry lunch bin to the cafeteria.
23. Staple paper onto bulletin boards.
24. If there is a garden project at the school, have child dig the dirt.
25. Play with medicine balls (get from gym teacher).
26. Run around the track at school.
27. Bounce up a ramp on a Hippity Hop ball. Put two ramps fastened together at right angles and let the kids hop up one, cross to the platform of the second ramp and hop down. After about 10 to 15 trips, it takes out "aggressiveness."
28. Push a large therapy ball across/around the room (can purchase weighted therapy balls).
29. Push square plastic nesting boxes (the largest one was 18 to 20 inches) from the classroom to the OT room and back. The next child would do the same thing. This particular school had a carpeted hallway which provided extra resistance. One or two of the nested boxes can be removed to decrease the weight or small balls and/or bean bags could be added to the box to increase the weight. I also found that turning the smallest box upside down over the balls and bean bags helped easily distracted students complete the task at hand.
30. Use beanbag chairs in classrooms, allowing kids to use them during silent reading time or to lay over or under them during independent work tasks to get a change in position and the benefit of consistent pressure input. More of a passive mechanism, but definitely helpful for students.
31. Push a wheeled therapy stool while someone is seated on it. If necessary, person on stool can assist by "walking" with their feet.
32. Have kids pull themselves by a long jump rope tied by one end to a doorknob while they are seated on a scooter board with their legs crossed and off the floor. Can also have one child hold the jump rope while the other child is pulling him/herself on the scooter board up to the child holding the rope. A variation is to play "army jungle maneuvers" where the child on the scooter board can deliver secret messages to the other child, and that child (who is holding the rope) has to write a secret answer back to the commander (teacher). This could be incorporated into academics in lots of ways. How about the first child taking a math problem to the second, the second solves the math problem and sends it to the commander (teacher).
33. Bouncing on a large therapy ball while counting down from 100.
34. Prior to seat work, have child pinch, roll, pull theraputty; use hand exercisers, balloons filled with flour. Give the child firm pressure on the shoulders. Play on playground equipment, hanging from a bar, running up steps, etc. Wrap the forearms with ace bandage.
35. Use bubblepack as part of an obstacle course. Children can jump onto it or run across it. They love the noise it makes!
36. In the classroom, use heavy duty tape to fasten a large phone book to the bottom of students chairs then teacher arranges the student's schedules so that the students move to a new area of the room (taking their chair) between subjects. Teach the use of wall push-ups or the idea of "the room feels small this morning, can everyone help me push the walls out" for younger students.
37. Have student move several packs at a time of Xerox paper from the storage area to the school copy center.
38. Use the Ellison cut-out machine. Students can collect orders from teachers (who provide the paper and use these cut-outs for bulletin boards, etc.) and then presses out the number of pieces required under the supervision of an adult. This very heavy work is a great strategy for organizing behavior.
39. Pull therapist's suitcase on wheels or therapy cart.
40. Climbing activities (such as playground equipment).
41. Swing from the trapeze bar.
42. Push against a wall.
43. Fill up big toy trucks with heavy blocks, push with both hands to knock things down.
44. Sports activities involving running and jumping.
45. Two adults can swing child in a sheet. Watch child's face carefully to note when child has had enough.
46. Have the child color a "rainbow" with large paper on the floor in a quadruped position.
47. Play "cars" under the kitchen table (or table in classroom) where the child pushes the car with one hand while creeping and weight bearing on the other hand.
48. "Hot dog" game where child lies across end of a blanket and is rolled (ends up inside the rolled up blanket with head outside)
49. Walk up a ramp or incline
50. Use theraband or tubing attached to a door and pull it then let it snap. Supervision necessary.
51. Wood projects requiring sanding and hammering.
52. Play wrestling: pushing game where two people lock hands facing each other and try to see who can push and make the other person step back first. Use other body parts also, but be sure to have rules (no hitting, no biting, no scratching, one person says stop then both stop).
53. Open doors for people.
54. Quiet squeeze toys such as the cow, fondly named by everyone as "Moo" (squeaky squeeze toys are frowned on by our teachers). Kids can be taught to squeeze Moo or the likes of him on their laps under their desks so as not to disturb the class.
55. Chew on fish tank (aquarium) tubing, Theratubing or refrigerator tubing, if appropriate. One therapist stated that "refrigeration tubing (the kind the water runs through to the ice maker in your freezer) is FDA-approved while aquarium tubing is not. Cut the tubing into 2- to 3-inch strips and put it on the end of the elementary school age child's pencil to be an appropriate "chewy" when food is not allowed."
56. Chair push-ups.
57. Fall into a beanbag chair.
58. Jumping and rolling games.
59. Slowly roll a ball or bolster over the child, applying pressure.
60. Bounce on a Hippity Hop ball.
61. Sandwich games (child is place between beanbags, sofa cushions, mattresses and light pressure is applied to top layer).
62. Play catch with a heavy ball. Bounce and roll a heavy ball.
63. Push weighted carts or boxes across carpeted floor.
64. Animal walks (crab walk, bear walk, army crawl).
65. Play "row, row, row your boat" both sitting on the floor, pushing and pulling each other.
66. Rice play, koosh balls, water play, jello play, theraputty.
67. Mini trampoline.
68. Stack chairs.
69. Two children can play "tug of war" with jump rope or heavy Theraband. (If you use the Theraband, children need supervision so they don't purposely let go of Theraband and "snap" the other child.)
70. Isometric exercise breaks.
71. Push on large therapy ball with someone else giving resistance from the other side.
72. Have child hold therapy ball with arms and legs while lying on his/her back. Try to take the ball away and tell the child to hold on to the ball as hard as he can.
From our amazing OT staff here at Dunlap:
Sensory processing is the brain's ability to orient, regulate, and use multi-sensory information to successfully complete activities and make the appropriate adjustments to assure ongoing success. Sensory processing skills help lay the foundation for a variety of behaviors and skills such as emotional affect, the ability to maintain focus and attention, fine motor and visual motor skills, and the ability to transition between activities.
Certain behaviors may be linked to sensory processing difficulties, but it should be noted that it does not differentiate other reasons for the behaviors that are consistent with ADHD, OCD, ODD, or other behavioral reasons.
Sensory Pattern/Quadrant Summary:
- Seeking/Seeker (under-responsive) -- "obtains"; finds interest and pleasure in sensations
- Avoiding/Avoider (over-responsive)-- "bothered by"; necessity to control or avoid sensation
Our sensory threshold is an indication of how much input it takes to activate our system responses. A low threshold indicates that it does not take much to activate. Sensory sensitivity behaviors are acting in accordance to our threshold, and sensory avoiding behaviors are acting to counteract the threshold.
“Children that present with difficulties processing information from their senses might appear over-responsive and/or under-responsive to certain types of sensory input. Over-responsive means that they are quick to notice information received from their senses or are highly aware. A little might seem like a lot to a child that is over-responsive. Under-responsive means that they do not notice and process information received from the senses as well. They often seek extra sensory input or they might need support from others to register sensory input. It is important to note that children can present differently. Some can be over responsive to touch and avoid wearing tight clothes but they might also be under responsive to movement and appear to be always on the go” (Cork & Kerry Primary Care Pediatric Occupational Therapy Departments).
- School Factor 1: Supports - measures a student's need for external supports to participate in learning; often a high amount of sensory input is needed to get ready for learning.
- School Factor 2: Awareness - measures the student's awareness and attention within the learning environment; often these students are pulled away from learning due to other stimuli in the room.
- School Factor 3: Tolerance - measures the student's tolerance within the learning environment, no longer distractible but avoidant behaviors or hypersensitivity.
- School Factor 4: Availability - measures the student's availability for learning within the environment as it relates to disengagement due to avoidant behavior or failure to detect important stimuli to then learn.
In the school setting we are focused on providing accommodations and adaptations to help children regulate throughout the day so they can receive their education. OT does not specially treat sensory processing symptoms as that does fall under a medical model and is treated in an outpatient setting.
Sensory Diet - Teacher Info.pdf
Sensory Motor Path Posters.pdf
Sensory Series for School - Attention & Challenging Behavior 1. Calming a Restless or Over-Aroused Student 2022.pdf
Sensory Series for School - Attention & Challenging Behavior 2. Poor Focus Inattention 2022.pdf
Sensory Series for School - Attention & Challenging Behavior 4. Poor Transition 2022.pdf
Sensory Strategies - for SCHOOL - Title Page, Intro & Contents 2022.pdf
Sensory Systems - POSTERS.pdf
Sensory Systems 2024.pdf