Sensory Seeking

Children who are sensory seeking can sometimes be labeled wrongly as a child who suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), this is because children that have a sensory seeking disorder are often hyperactive and impulsive. Children that are sensory seeking have these behaviors as they are constantly seeking ways for them to stimulate their starved nervous system, they can sometimes be referred to as sensory offensive. If they can get enough stimulation they may be able to calm down enough to pay attention. This link http://spdlife.org/symptoms/sensory-seeking.html will take you to a website that goes over sensory seeking and the differences for all of the senses.

This video shows an example of a boy who suffers from autism who is sensory seeking proprioceptive senses by running and jumping.

Therapy Rooms

I thought that this was a good video to watch as it lets you see some of the equipment found in sensory occupational therapy interventions and they way therapy can be used. In therapy rooms there are a variety of swings, balancing equipment, swiss balls, balls with beads in them (like a wheat sack) and material. 

Sensory diets come up a lot when working with children and a sensory diet can easily be explained as people being aware of what sensory inputs they need to stay focussed, energised, and organised. (Biel, 2013).  This is a link to a website which I thought was helpful as it has many free resources. 

Intervention techniques can be varied depending on the sensory needs of the child, over the next few posts I am going to be focusing on some of those intervention and setting up some links for free resources. 

Sensory Room

The link above will take you to Pinterest and it shows some nice ideas for sensory items for at home.

Biel, 2013. http://sensorysmarts.com/about_book.html (accessed 01/07/13)

Intervention Ideas

An intervention that is suitable for children is one that must be understood by the people in that child’s life such as; family, family friends, schoolteachers and the children in the class. An intervention that would work well is to ensure that the child can understand a “just right challenge,” (Zeidler, 2012), if the child is too young for this it may mean the caregiver needs to identify what is just right. 

An intervention that can be used at home or in a school environment is, a space for specific sensory stimulation. Once the child can identify the just right aspects he or she would be able to go to a sensory space and use items that they require for certain stimulation. Some of these items might be weighted blankets, radio (music), bean bags, aromatherapy and play dough. It may also be a good idea to have a tool box that will enable the child to leave at school or take when travelling, it could contain smaller items that are most specific in calming or stimulating to the child. Most therapy that is done by Occupational Therapists looks similar to a play ground and it is based on what the child wants to do that is applicable to their sensory needs. 

The following are links to some websites I have found that either provide ideas for intervention with children or provide resources that can be used as intervention. 

http://www.sensoryinterventions.com/

http://www.ot-mom-learning-activities.com/sensory-integration-activities.html

http://mommypoppins.com/ny-kids/99-sensory-activities-for-any-child

http://suite101.com/article/classroom-interventions-for-students-with-spd-a209947 

http://special-ism.com/category/sensory/sensory-modulation-disorder/sensory-over-responsive/#sthash.Lz3slKKe.dpbs