Sensory Activities for Focus & Calm
The Dalai Lama Centre’s heartmindonline website offers five tips to help parents, teachers, and caregivers assist children with social distancing, when their biological wiring is designed for physical social connection.
The article notes that sensory activities are a gateway to improved self-regulations for many children and youth, especially those with sensory processing challenges, such as developmental or behavioural disorders such as autism and ADHD, or anxiety.
How to get started:
1. Choose a target sense (one that your learner is struggling with or especially enjoys)
2. Pick an activity
3. Assemble materials and set them up
4. Begin to explore the world of the senses
Some of the suggestions with particular relevance for younger children include (Please note: the examples in the original article were designed for school-aged children, so with the ideas selected, we have substituted some activity links with ones that are designed for pre-school-aged children)
Sight
· Make an ocean in a bottle www.leapfrog.com/en-us/learning-path/activities/activity-create-an-ocean
Scent:
· Paint with spices https://www.learnwithplayathome.com/2012/08/painting-with-seasoning-and-spices.html
Hearing:
· Make a rain stick in a clear plastic bottle https://rhythmsofplay.com/diy-rainstick-musical-sensory-bottle/
Touch:
· Set up a sensory walk https://teachingmama.org/sensory-walk-exploring-the-sense-of-touch/
Taste:
· Set up a taste test https://createplaytravel.com/kids/food-taste-test-kids-activity/
Proprioception (the sense of where our body parts are in relation to each other):
· Try these proprioception games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWtmkjd45so
· Stretch like a monkey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xELgfiXSw-s
· Incorporate ‘heavy work’ into your child’s play https://www.understood.org/en/learning-thinking-differences/child-learning-disabilities/sensory-processing-issues/heavy-work-activities
· [Toddler and Preschoolers: https://www.sensorysmarts.com/sensory_diet_activities.html
o Make a ‘burrito’ or ‘sandwich’: Firmly press on your child’s arms, legs and back with pillows, or make a ‘burrito’ by rolling her up in a blanket
o Push and pull: She can push her own stroller, and a stronger child can push a stroller or cart filled with weighted objects such as groceries
o Carry that weight: Your child can wear a backpack or fanny pack filled with toys (not too heavy!)]
Vestibular (the sense of where our body is in space):
· Swing your child in a blanket hammock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EIA14onc30
· [Ten vestibular activities to do with your baby or toddler] https://www.whatson4kids.com.au/why-babies-need-to-rock-and-roll/