Calming a kid - Sensory Approach

It is often a headache for parents and teachers, even for therapist when children fail to focus on task, running, screaming and throwing materials around the room, whenever it happens. While we may take it hard, such as scolding and punishment, there are always two sides of the same coin.

In some children, slightest sensory input can be intolerable while some seek continuous sensory stimuli. Both of which can be devastating to manage as the former group will be at a state of high alert with reduced tolerance for frustration, the latter group can interfere with treatment or activities by behaviors in order to feed their lowered level of arousal. Thus, sensory strategies are designed to help a child reach a more optimal state to learn and perform tasks.

We may often assume that we have 5 senses. But in fact, we do have 7 senses in our sensory systems, namely: vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile, visual, auditory, gustatory and olfactory. Ways we may adopt in clinical setting include: olfactory input – using some soothing aroma; vestibular input (movement) – slowly rocking, swinging; proprioceptive input – weight bearing / climbing; and deep pressure tactile input – massage, ball squash, etc. With the integration of these sensory input, some speech-language intervention studies reported an increase in communication intention, time on task, engagement with others, etc.

Indeed, similar to the diversity of flavors and toppings in the ice-cream shop, every child has his/her own individual sensory profile for the optimal learning state. Therapists and parents will have to be observant and willing to explore this aspect for the best outcome.

Reference:

Piller, A. & Barimo, J. (2019). Sensory Strategies to Calm and Engage Children with Autism.