Sensory Activities
Our sensory system allows us to understand the world around us or “aims to stimulate children's senses in multiple ways in order to engage them and support their learning and development.”
- HEAVY WORK: Scooter boards, elastic bands, vacuum, mop, trampoline, bean bags, exercise ball, rearrange furniture in room, weighted vest/backpack
- VESTIBULAR: teeter totter, playground, swings, trampoline, sit and spin, scooter board, rolling, somersaults,
- TACTILE: slime, orbeez, sensory, floam, playdoh, water, ice/snow play, finger paint, vibration
HOW DOES IT IMPACT SCHOOL FUNCTION
It affects the student’s ability to take in information, respond to requests, participate in social situations, write, participate in sports, and maintain a calm and ready-to-work state.
Calming and Alerting Sensory Motor Activities:
Alerting activities: (fast, unpredictable movement is alerting)
- Dancing to music, Dance, and freeze,
- Silly animal walks like crab walk, seal walk, bear walk (this can also be calming for students)
- Jumping jacks
- Leap frog over each other.
- Scooter board activities: Laying or sitting on a scooter, child pushes/pulls self with arms and/or legs; pull student on scooter board using a Hula Hoop or jump rope.
- Sitting and bouncing on a therapy ball
- Whirling around the room with scarves.
- Log rolls, rolling over and over, keeping arms above head
- Jumping on a trampoline
Calming/organizing /deep pressure activities: (slow rhythmic movement is calming)
- Slow linear swinging
- Slow rocking in a rocking chair
- Deep pressure: Roll a ball over a child sitting in a bean bag and squish the bean bag around child
- Chair/wall push-ups
- Heavy work activities: pulling/pushing a loaded box or trash can on wheels
- Sweeping or mopping the floor
- Wash tables and chalkboards
- Yoga
- Playing with thera-putty, play-doh, foam, etc.
Tactile activities:
- Play with Thera-putty, play-doh, foam
- Blowing bubbles/popping them.
- Shaving cream playing.
- Finding items in rice, beans, etc.
- Color with crayons on sandpaper.
- Play with bubble wrap.
- Fidgets
Oral Motor activities:
- Blowing bubbles.
- Play with a whistle or other blow toys.
- Blow into a straw and push cotton balls across the table.
- Chewing gum.
- Drink water from fancy straws
- Eating beef jerky
Vestibular Activities
Vestibular System: The vestibular system is important for the development of normal movement reactions, motion tolerance, attention, and regulation
Importance:
- Allows us to coordinate our eye movements with our head movements. This occurs in activities such as copying from a blackboard, turning our heads to watch a moving object, and looking across a page to read.
- It also helps us to develop and maintain our muscle tone, which allows us to hold our body in position, to maintain positions, and to hold our heads up.
- It helps us regulate our bodies.
Activities:
- Somersaults
- Log rolling on the floor or along the wall
- Playing on a sit-and-spin
- Swinging
- Spinning on a swing
- Going down a slide
- Spinning in an office chair
- Being pulled on a scooter board
- Rocking in a rocking chair
- Rolling over a therapy ball (on the stomach and on the back)
- Sledding
- Hammock (Can use a large blanket held on each end by an adult. Swing the child in side to side or from front to back.)
- Hanging upside down on a monkey bar
- Spinning in BOTH directions
- Upside down bowling-with your back to the pins, bend over and roll the ball between your legs
|
|