By Angie Voss
- For a child who struggles with tactile defensiveness (does not like to be touched or bumped), have the child stand at the front or the rear of the line. This will decrease the chances of being bumped by 50%.
- Prior to having the class stand in line, engage in a movement break or heavy/hard work break…such as stretching exercises, animal walking, jumping jacks, wall push ups or chair push ups, etc.
- Right before leaving the classroom while standing in line…have thechildren sing a fun song where clapping, stomping, etc is involved…this will help get the wiggles out and will provide a nice dose of sensory input prior to the walk down the hall. Try to keep the song and movements the same each day, so this can be a very familiar routine for the children and promote self-regulation.
- While walking and standing in line encourage deep breathing, having the teacher leading the activity.
- Since it is typically required for children to be kept quiet in line, refrain from having the children keep their mouths closed (such as “zipping thelips closed” or “puffing out the cheeks”) as this hinders normalized breathing. This in turn can backfire on the nervous system and self-regulation and is especially difficult for children who struggle with motorplanning and body awareness.
- Allow for chewing gum during the time spent in line. Also allow for the use of fidget toys or Theraband® while walking to help children keep their hands to themselves.
- Refrain from having children walk with hands behind their backs, crossing over in front of them, or in their pockets. This can create a true balance and motor planning issue for some children, which in turn will cause more loss of balance and more bumping in to one another.
- Do not rush the children into line, as this will create a sense of dysregulation and sensory overload for many children. It is so important to manage your time wisely so these sensory techniques can be put in place prior to standing and walking in line. It can make all of the difference in the world.
Transition Times
• Morning arrival into the classroom
• Gathering for circle or meeting time
• Cleaning up
• Lining up to go to different places
• Settling down for rest (Kindergarten)
• Changing groups or activities
• Getting student’s attention
• Waiting
• Ending the school day
Transition Ideas
- Silent Math -During the times your entire class is lined up and waiting, have one child start by using fingers and hand signals to give math problems. (Example: Hold up one finger (1), then make a plus sign (+), then two fingers (1+2). Lastly, put one hand above the other facing in opposite directions for the equal sign(=).) If a student wants to answer, he/she must raise their hand to be called on. They must give the answer using fingers and hand signals.
- Lining Up Ideas – Have students line in alphabetical order, in sequence of their birthdays, have the students spell or define vocabulary words while lining up, spell a spelling word, by height, by colors, or patterns, etc.
- Marvelous Microphone – Pre-make out of a cardboard roll, aluminum foil,
black tissue paper and glue. This could used as an attention grabber or
used when students would like to speak during circle/meeting time.
• Sensory Starters – Before kicking off a lesson give students a clue of
what they’ll be learning about by creatively appealing to one or several of
the senses – smell, hear, taste, touch, and sight.
• Picture Talk- Collect a series of different pictures or postcards that are
related to a learning unit – ex: places, animals, people from other cultures,
homes, seasons, etc. Use the pictures as a tool to create math word
problems, as writing prompts, to ask open-ended questions, or as a visual
memory game, etc.
• Pass the Parcel – Cover a small box in brown paper. It is played like hot
potato. It could be used as a lesson summarizer - when the music or
counting stops that student has to say a fact that they learned about in
the learning unit, ask a question about the unit, or answer a question.
• Create a classroom “Happy Box” – decorate several shoe boxes with
contact paper/wrapping paper/or fabric. Fill it with a variety of themed
materials. These materials should correlate with your specific learning unit.
Rotate the materials out for each unit and add to items every few weeks.
This could be a filler for students who finish an activity early.
Quieting Tricks
• Magic Wand – sprinkle quiet fairy dust on students
• Rain Stick –soothing effect
• Follow the Flashlight – visual tracking skills (pre-place unit themed note cards around the room. Use the flashlight to search for questions, words, or clues)
• Traffic Light - Each color means a different level of classroom volume and motion
• Give Me Five - eyes on teacher, ears listening, mouth quiet, arms by your side, and feet still.
Tips and Tricks
• Be prepared, transitions should be thought out and made part of the lesson.
• Establish and maintain daily routine.
• Tell students your expectations.
• Try to eliminate as much wait time as possible.
• Make sure enjoyable activities follow a less motivating one.
• Don’t give too many verbal directions at one time.
• Give students a task to complete while they wait. For example counting, spelling, or guessing activities while waiting in line.
• Be sure to have back up plans in sticky situations.
Taken from: http://www.teachingwithpurpose.com/Classroom_Transitions_Susan_Douglas.pdf
Working With the Child Who Has Sensory Integration Disorder
Sensory integration refers to the way people, with their individual differences, respond to and process sensations. It also includes their ability to plan their actions (motor planning). When there is a problem in sensory processing and motor planning, we use the term sensory integration disorder. Sensory-processing differences and motor-planning differences have important influences on children’s social and cognitive functioning.Reacting to Sensations
In broad terms, it’s very useful to think of the various ways in which infants and young children take in different sensations and plan their actions. Consider the way a particular child responds to sensations such as sound or touch. For example, some children are oversensitive to certain types of touch or particular sounds, while other children are undersensitive or underreactive to such sensations. A child who is oversensitive might react with panic or fear if someone bumps into her in pre-school. The loud hum of a busy classroom might overwhelm an oversensitive child.
The child who is undersensitive may have a hard time responding to the teacher’s voice because it hardly registers. He may bang into things and fall down, hardly even noticing it, because he is so underreactive to pain or touch. Children who crave sensation tend to operate in a more daredevil fashion, banging into people, disrupting other children. They seem to be impervious to physical sensation.
As can be well imagined, these contrasting types of children will respond very differently to a school environment and will provide different challenges for the teacher.
Motor Planning
The ability to plan actions, which we call motor planning, is seen in the fine-motor area when a child is copying shapes, numbers, or letters. Some children can easily master a ten-step pattern, while others can only follow a one- or two-step pattern and then get distracted and need help.
Motor planning is apparent in the gross-motor area when a child is doing a complicated dance step, standing in line, following certain rules, learning new games, or engaging in athletics. We see wide variations in how children plan these actions. Some children are very comfortable climbing and swinging, while others are uncomfortable, almost fearful, about moving in space. There are others still who may want to jump from high places and seem to want to take too much risk. This has to do with different sensitivities to movement in space.
In addition to the possibility of problems with sensation or action, these areas may not be well integrated. In other words, they may not work together as a smoothly functioning team.
Causes and Concerns
Sometimes teachers and parents attribute these differences to emotional problems in a child. While it can become or create an emotional problem, initially there may just be a physical difference, originating in the central nervous system.
The way children cope with these differences depends on how well they’ve mastered what we call their functional-emotional developmental capacities (outlined in previous articles). These include the ability to:
- attend
- engage
- exchange emotional gestures
- join in problem solving with others
- create ideas and use ideas logically
- reason things out
At the same time, differences in sensory processing and motor planning contribute to how well a child masters the six abilities we’ve described. So, for example, a child who craves sensation may be so busy acting impulsively that she doesn’t learn to reason well. These factors interrelate.
The better the environment we create—with nurturing interactions that facilitate basic capacities for attending, engaging, communicating, and thinking—the better a child with sensory differences will do. And the better we’ll do in promoting higher levels of thinking.
Preparing the Environment:
The Overreactive Child
What educators and parents need to know is that each type of child requires a different kind of environment. For example, the child who’s overreactive to sensation and panics easily needs a lot more soothing and regulating, slower transitions, and a great deal more patience. We can’t hurry this child. We can’t put him in noisy, busy environments where he’ll get overloaded and anxious. He may develop nightmares or become aggressive, withdraw, or become overly cautious.
Having soothing and regulating environments that very gradually increase sensation is the key to success both at school and at home. You might guide that child into a corner of the room with one other child and, with an aide there, encourage participation in an activity.
The Underreactive Child
An underreactive child tends to be self-absorbed. If he’s a creative underreactive child, he may be engaging in pretend play on his own. That child needs to be drawn in. He needs very energized interactions, both at school and at home.
The Sensory-Craving Child
The sensory-craving child, who is in everyone’s business and is banging into everything, needs a lot of structure and containment. The environment should be respectful, regulated, and soothing. This child will need assistance in translating actions into words. It’s helpful to focus on imaginative play and building strong relationships. These children will not do well in a school or family where relationships are fleeting, or where parents or teachers are too busy to give them a lot of time.
When we provide appropriate environments, children with any of these differences do wonderfully. Also, where there are a lot of these differences in children, additional staff is helpful so that care can be individualized. Remember, our goal is to get all children to the point where we can turn such challenges into opportunities for developing good reasoning abilities and high levels of empathy and warmth.
RESOURCES:
The Child With Special Needs, by Stanley I. Greenspan, M.D., and Serena Wieder, Ph.D. (Perseus Books, 1998; $32)
Taken from: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/working-child-who-has-sensory-integration-disorder
http://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/155_SI.pdf (Sensory Integration in the Classroom)
Sensory Integration in the Classroom
Feelings, Nothing More than Feelings: Sensory Integration in the Classroom
by Ann Stensaas, M.S., OTR/L
Our senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch) tell us about our environment. Our senses receive information from both inside and outside of our bodies. Sensory integration (SI for short) refers to how our senses work together to organize and process incoming information from the world around us. The central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) controls our sensory system. When our sensory system works together, it allows us to interact with the environment in purposeful and meaningful ways. In addition to the five senses, we also have two special senses, proprioception and vestibular. The proprioceptive sense gives us information about where our body parts are and what they are doing. The vestibular sense gives us information about our position in space and the movement of our head in relation to gravity.
Sensory integration plays an important role in the social, emotional, and cognitive development of a child. Sensory integration theory indicates that sensory processing difficulties can get in the way of a child’s ability to learn basic skills. Teachers routinely observe this in the classroom among children who “fall behind” because of their inefficient sensory systems. You may have observed a child who has difficulty staying alert to participate or a child who is in constant motion and unable to settle down to complete an assignment. These children may not know how to cope with the different sensory information they are receiving.
A “sensory smart” classroom provides children with many opportunities for heavy work, movement, and other calming or alerting sensory activities to improve their ability to attend and focus during school-related tasks. If you feel that one of your students may have a sensory processing disorder, you should refer the child to an occupational therapist for an evaluation. An occupational therapist can recommend sensory strategies and assist teachers in making
changes to the classroom environment to support a child with sensory issues in achieving his/her academic goals. Sensory Integration “Sensory Smart” Classroom © 2008
Heavy Work/Organizing Activities - Use these strategies as preparatory activities for desk time or at transition times throughout the day.
- Allow for “movement breaks” and schedule structured movement activities for the entire class, such as stretching and yoga positions, to reenergize your students throughout the day.
- Provide your “on the go” students with a weighted neck/shoulder wrap or weighted lap pad to help them stay in their seats and finish their work.
- Give your students who seek out “heavy work” special jobs pushing or lifting weighted items in the classroom (e.g., chairs) or erasing the chalkboard or dry erase board.
- Organize interactive indoor/outdoor activities during recess (Red Rover, Red Rover; hopscotch; leapfrog; parachuteactivities; ball games).
- Introduce chewy and resistive snacks (gum, granola bars, and bagels) or mouth fidgets for your students who need oral sensory input to organize themselves. Consult with a child’s parents to determine if he/she has any food allergies prior to giving food to the child.
- Alternative Seating Positions - Have your students sit on a therapy ball/ball chair if they need to move, or if they need space by themselves, have them lie on a beanbag chair or on their tummy.
- Have your students use a wrist weight, or adaptive grips to provide more feedback and awareness to their hands during writing activities.
- Design a quiet area with comfortable cushions and beanbag chairs, headphones with classical music, and a study table for students.
- Minimize visual distractions by organizing materials in bins or cabinets. A natural environment with sunlight, green plants, and fish tanks, also promotes a calm learning environment.
- Add equipment to your classroom that will provide both calming and alerting sensory inputs, including a rocking chair, net or hammock swing, and small exercise trampoline.
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