Different sensory needs include auditory (hearing), proprioceptive (muscle&joint), tactile (touch), vestibular (movement & positioning) and visual. A sensory diet can be constructed to proactively meet your child's sensory needs and enable you to help your child get his body under control.
Sensory Diets can be constructed with the help of your occupational therapist. They will utilize different activities such as: deep pressure, massage, heavy work, swinging, bouncing, stretching, squeezing, pulling, exercising, listening to music, doing aromatherapy and many other things to stimulate different senses.
- Listening to different types of music soothing or invigorating or listening to nature sounds such as birds or running water gives Auditory input, which means processing what we hear.
Example: Johnny has sensitive hearing, loud noises make him feel upset so he covers his ears with the backs of his hands and hums loudly. In his case head phones either playing soft music or soundless ones used just to muffle sound could be carried around and worn when the environment becomes too noisy.
- Pushing a wall, lifting furniture or weighted objects, pulling a loaded wagon, crossing your arms or playing tug of war can give you Proprioceptive input, which is the feelings experienced by the muscles and joints (joint compression) and that let you know where your body is and what it is doing.
Example: Johnny is acting very unresponsive, he is laying on the floor and not paying attention to what you are telling him. His body needs to be woken up. Have him carry the kitchen chair across the kitchen then change your mind and have him put it back. Keep changing your mind until he seems more awake.
- Rubbing lotion on the body, getting rolled over with a yoga ball, playing with a tension/fidget ball, molding clay or play dough, playing with an ice cube, using a vibrating toy or toothbrush can all give Tactile input which is the sense of touch.
Example: Johnny is clenching his jaw and making noises. It seems that the only thing he can think about is his jaw. Give him his vibrating toothbrush and have him brush his teeth for two minutes, then give him lotion to rub on his jaw. To be proactive have scheduled times throughout the day to use his lotion make sure his needs are met.
- Swinging, see sawing, and spinning can give Vestibular input which provides the dominant input about our movement and orientation in space.
Example: Johnny is walking around flapping his arms, tell him to come outside and swing with you, have him really use his arms to lean forward and backward with the motion of the swing.
- Visual input is basically what we see. Some people with autism (ASD) may need visuals to help them interpret what they are hearing and some people may become over-stimulated because they feel bombarded by images.
Example: You are trying to tell Johnny it is time to wash up for dinner but he is moving his head back and forth while looking at the dozens of family photographs sitting on the mantle. Try un-decorating your home, leave up only one or two important photos or provide Johnny with a space of his own that has very little on the walls and no clutter that he can go to when the visual become overwhelming.
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