What is a Sensory Diet?
You may have heard the term, “Sensory Diet,” but wasn’t quite sure what it meant. A sensory diet is a structured plan for addressing the sensory needs that are often associated with sensory processing, sensory dysfunction, and other sensory related issues.
When is a Sensory Diet Used?
A sensory diet is meant to help children or adolescents who have trouble with their ability to process information received through their senses (sight, touch, taste, smell, sound, and movement). Children with sensory issues often struggle with doing well in school and participating in events or community activities. If you’re a fellow parent of a child on the autism spectrum, then it’s likely that this is something you know about exceptionally well. Having a sensory diet plan helps our children to perform better at school, join in family activities, and participate in the community.
Who is a Sensory Diet For?
A sensory diet is for children or adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Sensory Processing Disorder, ADHD, other related disabilities associated with sensory disorder, or sensory issues with no known diagnosis. If your child has no official diagnosis, but has struggled with focusing, paying attention, nutrition, communicating, sleep, or socializing, then creating a sensory diet plan could be a great tool for improving all of these types of issues. Sensory diets can be used successfully at home, at school and in the community.
Practical Sensory Diet Activities for Proprioceptive Input, Vestibular Input, Tactile Input, and Visual Input
First, it’s important to remember to meet with and discuss newly tried strategies and approaches with your family doctor, the IEP/504 team, and others who work collaboratively with your child and family. However, you can begin to make even the smallest changes at home that could potentially improve your child’s day by developing and implementing activities on your own. First, start by identifying your child’s sensory issues or input needs. This is something that you could discuss as a family at home. Think about and document the sensory related issues or challenges your child experiences on a daily basis and then brainstorm about strategies that may help him or her with their struggles.
Here are some practical sensory diet activities your family might consider:
Proprioceptive Input
Proprioceptive input comes from our joints and muscles working together to give us awareness of our body in space. This includes having the ability to walk, run, jump, climb, stand or sit straight with a well-coordinated bodily effort.
Toddlers and Preschoolers
- Using a floor seat will help with developing or improving good posture (it will also help with learning to sit independently).
- Playing with push and pull toys that assist with standing and walking will help strengthen muscle tone and improve balance.
- Play the “Shimmy and Shake Game!” Point to a body part (hand, leg, etc.) and ask your child to shimmy or shake it! Be sure to model the act for children who need guidance. This will help them to be aware of their body parts and movement.
- Create with play dough or silly putty.
- Play in a sensory bin in a sensory table.
- Swinging in any type of Swing or Sensory Swing .
- Sitting (or running into) in a Bean bag chair.
- Using a Balance Ball.
- Rolling on a Therapy Ball.
- Swimming.
- Wearing a weighted vest or weight blankets.
School-Aged Children
- Pulling and lifting the trash bag out of the can and carrying outside to the bin is a great exercise (and chore) for carrying weight.
- Ask your child to help with carrying grocery bags from the cart to the car and then the car to the house. Lifting bags with a decent weight (but not too heavy) will help to improve muscle tone.
- Cleaning the kitchen table – asking your child to clean the table will require them to apply pressure to the sponge, cloth or paper towel as they wipe the table clean.
- Pushing or carrying a laundry basket.
- Pulling a kids wagon with or without things in it.
- Pushing a stroller.
- Pushing or pulling a toy shopping cart.
- Riding a scooter, bike or roller blades.
- Jumping on a trampoline (indoor and outdoor).
Adolescents and Teens
- Walking on a treadmill is a great exercise. Be sure to set speed and momentum at a comfortable rate at first and then increase in time.
- Lifting light weights (starting with 1 – 5 lbs) depending on strength and ability) will help strengthen muscle tone and hand/arm coordination.
- Find a chair that while sitting, aligns your son or daughter’s knees with their hips (if the knees are slightly higher – it’s even better). Then ask him or her to sit down and stand up. Have them do this “squat” like exercise as many times as they feel comfortable.
- Shoveling snow.
- Raking leaves.
- Carrying or lifting books.
- Safe wrestling (sports or play).
- Pushing someone on a swing.
- Wall push ups.
- Wearing ankle weights.
- Carry a bucket with sand or water.
- Stack chairs.
- Using a Pogo Hopper, Hop Ball, or Pogo Stick.
Vestibular Input
Many children who require vestibular input are constantly on the move. Their bodies have a relentless desire to move about their space. It is a response to movement, direction, change in head position, and speed of movement.
Toddlers and Preschoolers
- Swinging (side to side, front to back or in circular motions). Wagon rides are also fun.
- Rolling or tumbling on an old mattress, trampoline, or on the grass.
- Bouncing on a yoga ball, jumping rope, or rolling across the living room floor is so much fun!
- Spin in circles contest–in the backyard–where there is plenty of room to see who can spin the longest without falling down!
- Dancing, marching, or twirling.
- Sitting in a rocking chair or rocking horse.
School-Aged Children
- Rocking in a hammock is a relaxing and satisfying movement.
- Playing tag and chasing one another is always fun. You can make signs for everyone playing to wear (one sign for who’s “IT” and as many “RUNNER” signs for everyone playing).
- Hopscotch, tag, or chase.
- Using a scooter board with scooter board activities cards.
- Spinning in a Bilibo Spinner Chair.
- Bouncing or rolling on therapy ball.
- Using a jump rope.
- Pass a ball over head or between legs.
- Playing on Sensory Riverstones.
- Jump on a mini trampoline or an indoor trampoline with enclosure or an outdoor trampoline.
Adolescents and Teens
- Sitting in a rocking chair or indoor swing while watching TV or engaging in family discussions.
- Jumping (on a trampoline or jumping jacks).
- Swimming, running, walking, bike or scooter riding.
- Doing somersaults.
- Create and play with an obstacle course involving crawling under, over, through chairs cushions, or pillows.
- Spinning in an office chair.
- Hang upside down.
Tactile Input
Touch is one of the most powerful senses for many of us. It involves our bodies ability to identify and distinguish between sensations that are painful, pleasurable, different degrees of temperature, pressure, and other sensations (soft, hard, sticky, gooey, bumpy, fluffy, etc.).
Toddlers and Preschoolers
- Create a rice bin of fun! See instructions below or add about 5lbs of rice to a large container/bin. Provide scoops, funnels and small containers for them to fill (Richie loved that I dyed the rice different colors! I also hid smaller toys in the rice bin for him to find)! *You can do the same with corn kernels and dry pasta*.
Supplies
A plastic box with a clipping lid
Dyed rice in the colors of the rainbow
Buttons
Beads
Pipe cleaners
Cardboard
Scissors
Paint Markers
A sandbox tool, kitchen spoon or tongs
Directions
To form the rainbow rice base:
- Layer the rice in the colors of the rainbow in the box; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
- As you have your rainbow base down begin add beads to the rice base.
- Nestle the rainbow puzzle sections into the coordinating color of rice.
- Add a pipe cleaner or two.
- Add a sandbox tool, kitchen spoon or tongs to offer new ways to explore!
- With supervision, invite your child to explore the colors of the rainbow, to thread the beads onto the pipe cleaners and to build the rainbow puzzle.
- When playtime is over, you can snap the lid on the box to store for future play sessions.
- While the children are naturally going to mix the colors together, that is okay! The next time they explore this sensory bin, they can work on their sorting skills!
To make the rainbow puzzle:
- Cut a rainbow shape from the cardboard; I used a half of an oval shape about 6” long and 4” high.
- Cut that cardboard rainbow form into 7 sections. Cut the sections with the shape of the rainbow, so that they will fit back together. This forms a simple puzzle for little hands to explore.
- Color or paint the sections of cut cardboard to represent the colors of the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
- Set aside.
- Playing with shaving cream, silly string and foamy products are always fun. I used to set up a table outside with containers filled with these different types of textures for my son to explore!
- Playing with textured sensory balls offers plenty of tactile stimulation.
- Dig in the dirt or in a sandbox.
School-Aged Children
- Kids love making playdough! It’s easy to make a safe and non-toxic recipe at home. If you have flour, salt, water and natural food coloring, you and your child can start a playdough project together! In this link is a great recipe and easy step-by-step directions you can follow along together and have fun!
- Before helping you put the groceries away, have your child feel the different types of textures in bags of flour, sugar, dried beans, rice, etc. Be sure to explain what each ingredient is for before putting them away.
- Kids love to play with water beads these days. Add a little extra tactile fun by freezing them! Bean bag chairs and fidget toys work well too.
Adolescents and Teens
- Ask your kids to explore showering or bathing with sea or loofah sponges. For relaxation baths, they can try different scented bath beads, pearls, or discs. There are so many bath foams or creams on the market too. Many of these release oils or exfoliating agents.
- Shop together for textured lotions and creams (hand and face scrubs, mud masks, etc.).
- Weighted lap-pads and blankets work well for many teens.
Visual Input
Sight is another powerful sense that connects us to our surroundings. We get so much information at one time just with our ability to see. Tip: Since visual stimuli provides instant gratification and can also cause over-stimulation in children and teens with autism, I would use it as part of a reward system and monitor it carefully if I notice over-stimulation taking place.
Toddlers and Preschoolers
- Most children this age consider everything around them visually stimulating as they explore their surroundings with curiosity and wonderment! Still, there are many toys that focus on development that provide ample visual stimulation.
- Other ideas include rainmakers for providing visual input.
- Play beanbag toss.
- Make your own sensory bottles using water bottles.
School-Aged Children
- Light up spinners.
- Visual timers.
- Bubble tubes.
- Fiber optic light up lamps or wands are calming and fun to watch. *Night lights and ceiling projectors work wonders for visual input, but please beware of the possibility of sleep issues from over-stimulation.*
Adolescents and Teens
- Lava lamps and sand art are visually stimulating cool items teens will enjoy. I have framed vinyl 3D pictures of my son’s favorite movie characters all over the walls of his room and he loves them!
A well-crafted sensory diet plan can be the answer for addressing behavior and academic issues experienced by many children and teens with autism struggling with sensory related challenges. To create your sensory diet plan be sure to:
- Identify your child’s sensory needs and challenges.
- Meet as a family to discuss and brainstorm strategies that will help fulfill those needs.
- Create your plan and integrate them into your daily activities and family routines.
- Share your ideas for a sensory diet plan with your IEP team, therapists, doctors, caregivers and ask them for their input.
Please note that not all strategies will work for all children. However, as parents, we are not alone in our journey to helping our kids. There are many great resources equipped with sample sensory diet templates and other ideas that have worked successfully for other parents. The sensory needs of kids and adolescents change over time so some sensory diet ideas will work well during certain growth stages and others will not. Work through the ideas and see what is best for your children and teens, according to their current developmental stage.
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