Please read my previous post to make sense of this one!!
In my last post I mentioned that a sensory diet was an important intervention strategy for kids having difficulty regulating their arousal levels.
It is termed a sensory diet as the intervention is of the sensory nature (the senses) and a diet because like eating, it needs to happen throughout the day at regular intervals to be most effective.
Disclaimer: I have been terrible at implementing any kind of consistent sensory diet with my child. Doing anything consistent with 3 young boys is a weakness of mine. So I cannot claim great success with this intervention but I have seen some benefits even when it is used inconsistently!
The purpose of a sensory diet is to stimulate the nervous system which regulates (raises or lowers) the arousal levels in a child. It helps stabilise the emotions of the child and in turn hopefully prevent a meltdown. This of course is beneficial to the child and all those around the child.
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| Source: Sensational Kids OT |
Creating a sensory diet is a uniquely personalised intervention. Every child is different. Their needs are different. Some children have naturally high arousal levels and some children have naturally low and sluggish arousal levels. Every child will respond differently to different sensory input. What might work for one child will not necessarily work for another. Please if you think your child would benefit from this type of intervention, then you need to see a good Occupational Therapist. I do not claim to be any expert on this topic. I am only sharing what I have learnt through experiences, conferences and courses over the last 2.5years.
How does it work?
The nervous system is a complicated beast and I don't pretend to understand even the basics of it. See the SPD website for some more in depth information. Kids with ASD or SPD (sensory processing disorder) often have proprioceptive and vestibular disfunction or weaknesses.These have to do with the use and awareness of our muscles and balance and spatial orientation. They are fundamental to childhood development and if not developed properly will effect higher order skills such as fine motor, concentration and even vision.
Activities in a sensory diet can have a two fold effect. Firstly, they will have an immediate effect on arousal levels and help a child regulate these levels throughout the day. A good OT will see the bigger picture and put in place activities which will not only affect the child's day by day functioning but will develop and correct issues with the procprioceptive or vestibular systems and therefore having a longer term effect.
What types of activities could be involved:
- Blowing bubbles, whistles, harmonicas (deep breathing is very significant for regulating levels)
- Crawling like a snake or on all fours
- Jumping on a tramp or off lounges (yep, perfectly acceptable in our house)
- Riding a bike
- Obstacle course type activities - emphasising keeping the child low to the ground
- Listening to music
- Deep pressure like a brush on the skin (there is a particular brush and a particular method for this one)
- Visual toys like liquid timers see here
- Squishy or stretchy toys see here.
- Squashing your child between cushions
- Jumping on your child while they are under a bean bag (carefully!!)
- Weighted blankets or vests
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| Source: http://www.sensorysmartparent.com/blog/ |
I have tried a number of these and they do work -but they only work while your child's arousal levels are not too high. Once they reach overload point, these strategies don't work as their system cannot take anymore input until they start to calm down. So the idea is to do a variety of these things (what the child responds to) throughout the day to prevent them from reaching melting point!!
When E starts to get a bit 'edgy' (each child will have their own set of symptoms which show this), if I take the time to do some of these activities with him, they will often stop his arousal levels from escalating.
Other kids can benefit too!
Lots of these activities can be beneficial to all children, not just children on the spectrum. Kids often have trouble regulating their emotions and arousal levels. So particularly, if you are a teacher, working with children or a parent, doing some of these 'fun' activities with all the kids will probably help all of them calm down, focus and concentrate better for the tasks at hand.
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