Post #10 Sensory strategies

Many of our children and young people who experience sensory processing differences may be supported with sensory strategies. In this post I outline some of these strategies - this post links with posts on sensory differences and sensory ideas & activities.

First of all it may be helpful to consider each of the sensory systems and the possible hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity some individuals experience - (see post on sensory differences). The following examples illustrate sensory strategies you could try at home:

Visual hypersensitivity - calming	Visual hyposensitivity - alerting
Use sunglasses or tinted lenses, especially in bright lights. Be aware of visually ‘busy’ areas in the home & limit visual items. Try lamps instead of overhead lighting. Keep information on worksheet clear & simple, reduce visual details.	Try visually stimulating apps (see sensory ideas & activities for examples). Touch screens. Visually stimulating items such as spinning toys, patterns, liquid timers, glitter tubes, light up toys.

Auditory hypersensitivity - calming	Auditory hyposensitivity - alerting
Use earplugs or ear defenders. Limit amount of speech & use visual instructions. Try to desensitise by gradual exposure to specific sound which you know your son or daughter finds too loud or intense.	Try playing favourite music through headphones or music visualiser apps (see sensory ideas & activities).

Smell hypersensitivity - calming	Smell hyposensitivity - alerting
Limit use of perfume, body spray. Be aware of scents in soap, detergent, cleaning products. Try to find scented products which your child likes, such as scented wax melts, try scents which are relaxing/calming such as vanilla, rose or lavender. Scented bath-times can be calming.	Remove dangerous items which your child might try to seek out to smell/taste.  Scratch and sniff items. Try scents such as cinnamon, mint, citrus which may be more invigorating/alerting.

Taste hypersensitivity - calming	Taste hyposensitivity - alerting
Consider flavours, sweet/sour/spicy, temperature, texture - which are too intense and which are 'just right' for your child?	Try food which gives sensory feedback e.g., crunchy food, ice-cubes. Sucking through straws. Try using ‘sensory chewies’ as an alternative to chewing sleeves, teeth-grinding. Musical instruments to blow.

Tactile hypersensitivity - calming	Tactile hypersensitivity - alerting
Consider textures, clothing,  fabrics, labels which may be uncomfortable/painful. Try softer fabrics and loose fitting clothes such as ‘joggers’, remove labels, try soft snuggle socks, allow to have bare feet &/or remove shoes. Try massage and/or ‘brushing’ to calm. Stroke with different fabrics/textures to build up tolerance gradually.  Make a 'cosy corner' with soft fabrics, stuffed toys.	Use tactile stimulation items & ‘hand fidgets’. Use sensory toys which give tactile feedback, e.g., vibrating toys. Make a tactile sensory book or board. Deep pressure e.g.,  hugs, massage, roll in a blanket.

Vestibular hypersensitivity to balance & movement - calming	Vestibular hyposensitivity to balance & movement - alerting
Slowly move positions, e.g., sitting to standing. Slow your own movements. Sit on ‘wobble cushion’ or therapy ball.  Try very gentle movements such as rocking chair. Weighted blanket or jacket.	Trampoline/trampette.  Playground equipment such as roundabouts and swings. Deep pressure activities, running, jogging. Heavy work activities, e.g., carrying heavy bags, lifting chairs on/off table, digging in garden.

Proprioceptive (sensation from muscles) hypersensitive - calming	Proprioceptive (sensations from muscles) hyposensitive - alerting
Very gentle back and forth movements to calm, e.g., swing or rocking chair. Stress/squeeze balls to calm. Weighted blanket.	Jumping activities to wake up/alert, e.g., trampoline, trampette, skipping, bouncing balls. Have a place to stamp feet, kick, pace. Chewing crunchy/chewy items.

To consider how you might set up sensory strategies at home, watch the following films. The first film demonstrates proprioceptive activites:

This film demonstrates activities to calm and focus a child:

Some of your children may have a sensory diet at school. Sensory diets are usually planned by occupational therapists, in collaboration with school staff & parents/carers. Strategies are selected depending upon individual differences and needs. For examples of activities see: Sensory diet - autism Guernsey or Sensory diet - examples of activities  Whilst you do not have access to an occupational therapist at this time, nor have the luxury of sensory resources available in some schools, nevertheless you can think about trying some sensory strategies at home. 

Plan a sensory diet for your son or daughter, taking into account their sensory differences (see sensory differences post). Your child may need more input in some areas and less input in others. Plan a balance of activities that alert or calm the sensory input. Plan for activities that will fit in to your daily routine. If your child uses a visual schedule, include sensory activities which alert the senses before your child starts a task that requires focus, or sensory breaks which calm your child following a period of concentration or activity. Here is an example of a sensory diet for a typical school day, I have indicated which activities alert or calm sensations:

Ensuring the sensory diet is based on your child's sensory needs is essential. We can see from this child's sensory diet that they need active, alerting strategies when they get home from school. However, some children need calming strategies after school, for example having a bath. 

You can adapt this idea for your home learning day or even for the Easter break. Remember, a sensory diet is unique to your child and based on his or her sensory differences and needs. Note that some of the suggestions on the 'resources' post would act as alerting or calming activities, for example a PE session to start the day, and ideas in the 'brain breaks' post gives examples of alerting and calming/relaxing activities. When you have identified a diet of strategies for your child, build these into the visual schedule. Or make a 'sensory breaks' poster which your child can refer to during their breaks. Use visual information that is meaningful for your child, so written words, symbols, pictures or objects (see visual schedules for a reminder). It may take a bit of trial and error until you find the right mix of activities for your child - don't worry if it goes wrong to start with! The mix of alerting and calming activities will depend on your child and how they respond.

Your child's school may also be using sensory circuits with your child, either individually or as part of the class/group. Sensory circuits make use of the same types of alerting and calming activities, adding activities for coordination and organisation, within a circuit which is completed daily. Watch this film for an explanation and examples:

Your child might find a sensory circuit fun to do in the garden or indoors. Find ways to adapt activities, depending upon what you have available. For example, climbing over or under chairs, chalk a line outdoors for your child to walk along heel to toe. Just be sure to think about whether each activity is alerting, requires co-ordination & organisation of  movments, or is calming.

Finally for this post, what about sensory overload? Many children with autism experience sensory overload at times. For some children this can occur throughout the day and can be very intense. Sensory overload can cause what we might call meltdowns, which might mean your child loses all self-control and 'explodes'. Alternatively some children 'shut down' or withdraw as a means of reducing sensory input to the brain.

Sensory overload or meltdown tips. Understand that at this point your child is not in control and he or she is not choosing to behave as they do. The brain is overloaded with too much information from multiple senses, not dissimilar to a computer that crashes when there is too much input to process. It can be distressing to see our children when they are overloaded, so what can you do? Here are some tips, pick and choose what works for your child:

• Speak less - it is natural to want to comfort and talk to our children in this situation, but if we do that we are adding to the information that is already overloading their brain. Say nothing, or very little, use a quiet and calm voice. If you need to give a direction (e.g., use your relax toys) keep language to a minimum or show your child a word or picture which may be easier to process when in the overloaded state. 
• If you know your child is sensitive to touch, don't give them a hug while they are overloaded.
• If your child has some 'relax' toys or a 'relax box' (I will add ideas for makiing these to the sensory ideas post), bring the box or relax toy to them, rather than expecting them to go find it.
• Use whatever you have learned relaxes or calms your child - don't feel you are 'giving in' to your child, remember they are in a high state of distress and are not choosing their behaviour.
• Send your child to a place which you know relaxes or calms them - this may be their bedroom, outside in the garden. Again, limit your language or use visual directions.
• Limit sensory input in the environment - some children will do this for themselves, for example they may put a blanket over their head or hide under a duvet. 'Dream tents' over your child's bed can help to cut down sensory input. Alternatively, your child may like to hide under a large cardboard box, this also cuts down on sensory input (note some children will need you to cut peep holes in the box so they can look out if they want to). You could make a den in a corner of a room which your child can hide in when overloaded.
• If your child 'shuts down' and withdraws, again don't be tempted to talk about how they are feeling. Give him or her time and space, as this may be their best way to cut down on sensory input. Be watchful for when they begin to process what is going on around them, perhaps give them their favourite cartoon to watch, place a favourite book nearby or a drink.

When the situation has calmed down, or your child feels more relaxed, you might move them on to an activity (via their schedule) which you know helps them to relax, such as have a bath, or watch YouTube. OR in some cases, you might talk with your son or daughter about what happened or how they feel. Note this is most likely difficult for your child and you  will need to use specific strategies to help your child to communicate about what happened(see future posts).

For further information, see the National Autistic Society's page on sensory differences, which includes tips for what you can do: NAS sensory differences & what you can do Watch out for more suggestions to be added to the 'sensory ideas and activities' post.