Simple ideas to support sensory needs

Rebecca and the Novita therapy team have some helpful tips and ideas that might assist parents, families, and carers to support the sensory needs of their kids. Often these fun and inexpensive ideas can have long lasting effects that help children to avoid becoming overstimulated. In lots of cases by being proactive and providing the input before it seems to be needed, we can avoid some of the responses that signal overwhelm. 

• Parents might notice that when their child becomes nervous or uncomfortable, they chew on their t-shirt. You could offer the child crunchy snacks or freeze a fruit box so it’s hard to suck through the straw or freeze some halved grapes in ice cubes so the child can chomp on them instead of chewing their t-shirt. There are also chewable pendants, jewellery, pencil tops and tubing available that can be good substitutes to non-edible items. 

• For kids who seem to bite, chew, or play with their mouth when they are nervous or overstimulated, a fun idea to provide oral input is to put a straw in a jug of water and ask your child to blow hard so bubbles come out over the lip of the jug. 

• For kids that have a tactile preference – parents and carers could carry a small piece of material made of a fabric favoured by the child such as satin or flannelette which the child can play with when they are in an unusual place or situation. Toys made of different types of material that engage tactile receptors through their diversity can be helpful. 

• Making play dough at home, playing with shaving cream in the bath, or filling a container with dried pasta or rice and hiding toys in there can be an effective way to provide tactile stimulation. 

• If parents and carers notice that a child is vulnerable to visual input, we can help them at bedtime and at those times when you need to reduce energy by offering books instead of screens. Because books have static pictures and often evoke connection to a safe adult, they have wonderful benefits and promote the development of literacy skills too. Read more about developing a reading routine with your kids. 

• Some kids are energised by visual input, so if a child’s behaviour is lacklustre at mealtimes, contrasting cutlery and crockery might help to engage them in the task at hand. An easy DIY visual toy are ‘sensory bottles’- plastic bottles filled with coloured water or something like beads can also be an easy and accessible tool to engage and settle some kids. 

• Sometimes kids can find noise hard to manage. We might see this in children covering their ears and avoiding noise or making lots of their own noise to control what they are exposed to. Wearing noise cancelling headphones when out and about or listening to music or audiobooks through headphones can be really comforting for kids with auditory sensitivities. 

• Some kids really love the deep pressure provided by big squeezy hugs! We can let kids who respond well to this stimulation snuggle in a bean bag or sleeping bag when they are relaxing or even wear bike pants or leotards to give sustained input. Although there is mixed evidence as to whether firm clothing has a significant effect on the nervous system, lots of kids with a high need for deep pressure really like wearing stretchy, lycra clothes. 

• Engaging kids in household tasks, especially if they have a heavy work component, can be useful for kids who need a lot of movement during the day. For example, carrying a heavy washing basket to the bedroom at the other end of the house – this sort of task can give the child’s body important feedback that helps to settle their nervous system. 

• When heading to school in the car, kids could hold their backpacks in their lap – this can provide a little pressure to sooth the nervous system before the school day begins. 

• Instead of dropping the kids off directly outside the school, drop them off a block away so they need to walk and carry their backpack. By the time they reach school their brain has a good sense of where the body is through the heavy work and feedback that has been provided which may help to improve their frame of mind as they start the day. 

Rebecca says while these ideas are not necessarily solutions to sensory challenges, they can take the edge off situations for kids.

“They can be handy tools. What we want to try and do is keep a child’s baseline of anxiety as low as possible. We want to support them to have a certain level of regulation for as much of the day as possible, because – as we all know – life does throw curve balls,” says Rebecca.

“If we can help kids to maintain a low level of anxiety, then when those unpredictable events happen, they are more likely to manage them effectively.”