How to Help Your Child with Sensory Regulation at Home
Sensory regulation is an important part of growth and development for your child. But what is it, and how can you help your child improve their ability to do it? My name is Emily Wolfram, and I'm an occupational therapist at Metro Therapy in Fridley, Minnesota. Today I'm going to explain three different sensory systems in our bodies that have to do with sensory regulation, and what these systems do. I’ll also give you tips for activities you can do with your child that will give these systems a little workout to improve their overall wellbeing.
First, What Is Sensory Regulation?
These systems we’re going to cover are all related to sensory regulation, which is the ability to receive, process, and adjust to input you receive from your senses (taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound). If your child has trouble with sensory regulation, they can have a hard time handling the activities in daily life. This is why our occupational therapy team works on sensory regulation skills in our clinic; but there are also things you can do at home with your child to help them build these skills.
The Proprioceptive System
Proprioception is the ability to sense movement and space around your body. This is how you are able to walk without looking at your feet or reach for something nearby without looking at it. Your body has sensory receptors in the skin, joints, and muscles that give continuous feedback to the nervous system. This is how your brain can receive and process information about your body and environment to effectively control your muscle movements.
Sometimes, our bodies have a hard time processing that information, which is why we might need more or less of that proprioceptive input to help our bodies feel good. This is typically calming for the sensory system and it helps aid in muscle tone, endurance, and strength.
Tips for Working on Proprioceptive Input at Home
We recommend that children participate in proprioceptive input at home, at least every 90 minutes to receive the maximum benefit for their bodies. Some examples of activities that give children proprioceptive input include:
Building forts with pillows and blankets
Crashing into piles of pillows and blankets
Giving or receiving really big bear hugs
Doing wheelbarrow walks
Going swimming
Doing yoga poses
Helping with chores like vacuuming
Biting into something chewy
2. The Vestibular System
The next system we'll talk about is the vestibular system, which is responsible for your sense of balance and spatial orientation. This is how you can tell if you are standing upright or leaning to one side. The vestibular system is part of your inner ear, which is why ear infections, sudden loud sounds that damage your hearing, or injury to the ear can impact your balance. Your brain uses information gathered from the vestibular system to help coordinate your movements and keep your body balanced.
Vestibular input can be both calming and alerting for your body. Slow and rhythmic, linear movements are very calming. However, going fast or spinning, that can be very alerting and wake up that system.
Tips for Working on the Vestibular System at Home
We recommend that children should get some sort of vestibular input every four to six hours in order to get the max benefit. Some examples of activities you can do with your child at home to provide vestibular input include:
Having a dance party
Swinging in a blanket (with one adult holding it up on either side)
Swinging on the playground or in the backyard
Riding a bike
Doing a simple obstacle course
Doing somersaults or forward rolls
Spinning around
Sledding
Skating
Yoga poses
3. The Tactile System
The last sensory system that I'll talk about is the tactile system, which is simply your sense of touch. This is how you can feel temperature, texture, vibrations, pain, and pressure. Your body has a ton of touch receptors in the skin and nerves that can all sense tactile input.
This can be both alerting and calming. Deep pressure is found to be more calming while light touch or rubbing can be more alerting. Some examples of activities you can do at home with your child to work on tactile input include playing with:
Play-Doh
Slime
Shaving cream
Finger paints
Water
Sand
You can also do things like crawl into a sleeping bag, cook food (with adult supervision), read books, pop bubbles, and give hugs.
Use a Sensory Bin for Tactile Input at Home
An easy way to get some tactile input is to use sensory bins. These can be made using a variety of items such as:
Sand
Ground up cereal
Popcorn kernels
Rice
To make a sensory bin more functional, place tools or utensils into it like tongs, spoons, and cups. These allow your child to also work on functional fine motor skills that are related to cooking, handwriting, and cleaning.
Call Metro Therapy for an Evaluation
If you have any concerns about your child’s sensory regulation skills or think they could benefit from any of these topics that we talked about today, call Metro Therapy at (763) 333-9547 and our team will be happy to help.
