February 2024 Parenta magazine_compressed

Joanna Grace
I’m Jo Grace: a Sensory Engagement and Inclusion Specialist and Founder of The Sensory Projects. In this series of 10 articles, I am going
to share some of my passion for understanding the sensory world with you.
This article is a continuation of Joanna’s
last piece in the January edition of the
Parenta magazine, make sure to read it
first here!
Environment
In previous articles of this series, we
looked at how the environment around a
child can affect them at a sensory level. If
you are supporting a child who processes
sensory information differently, then
you are going to want to pay particular
attention to the sensory environment you
offer that child. It is worth a re-read of
those articles as you think about this. But
I think they have
sensory needs
what can I do?
Part 2.5 - provide and adopt
to further extend what was said in them,
you could consider whether this child
might need a little bit of their own space.
Something like a small tent, a stretchy
fabric seat swing that cocoons a child, or
even just a good old cardboard box to
hide in (cardboard is an excellent absorber
of sound so cardboard boxes can be
great little pause places for children
overwhelmed by the cacophony around
them). I am not suggesting segregating
this child from their peers, we want them
to be a part of things, but it is likely that
with the best will in the world, you are not
able to provide a sensory environment
that works for everyone all the time; they
may well be having to cope with certain
aspects of your setting.
Giving them a place where they can
get away from it all for a moment or so
and recharge their batteries is a way of
respecting and supporting the work they
do in being a part of the group. Have you
ever taken time out from a party to sit in a
toilet cubicle and re-group? It wasn’t that
you didn’t want to be at the party, it was
just you needed that moment to gather
yourself back together so that the whole
of you could be there. By providing small
bespoke sensory environments to children
who need them, you give them the chance
to gather themselves together and to be in
your setting as their whole selves.
Resources
Some children with sensory differences
need to fiddle with things, some bite on
things, others rock to and fro, and some
make loud noises or grind their teeth.
Sometimes what they do doesn’t hurt them
or harm others, in which case let them do
it. But sometimes they’re biting on things
that could be dangerous to them (or to
others) or they’re shouting when you need
the setting to be quiet. It is where there
are these mismatches between how they
are providing for their need and the world
around them, that it is worth investigating.
The more you understand about why they
are doing these things, the more able you
will be to provide resources for them. I will
give you some examples from my own
experiences to arouse your curiosity.
A little boy who was constantly biting
his clothing and the skin around his
fingers found the sensation of biting to be
calming. He was right to do this; we have
a hormone that is released when we bite
and chew that calms us. It was intended
in prehistoric times to keep us calm when
food had been found so that we would
eat our fill. His clothes and fingers were
suffering as a result. We found him some
jewellery and he happily switched to biting
that.
Another little boy was constantly biting his
fingers and we tried jewellery, but it didn’t
work. We realised that it wasn’t the calm
of biting he was seeking, it was the pain
of being bitten. We applied our curiosity to
wondering why and recognised that pain
is one way of becoming aware of your
own body. We offered him the chance to
play on a small trampette and noticed that
when he was on this, he didn’t look to bite
his fingers the way he did when he was
doing other activities. Jumping and feeling
your body rebound sends you strong
messages through your proprioceptive
and vestibular systems about where your
body is in space. We went on to support
this child with weighted shoulder wraps
during storytime and offered him vibrating
toys to hold whilst he engaged in free play
activities.
The two boys were biting but they were
fulfilling different sensory needs through
that biting. Doing the detective work of
being curious was critical to supporting
them.
I thought it might be helpful to your
curiosity if I listed some common sensory
resources I’ve offered children to support
them in meeting different sensory needs:
Ear defenders – for when children are
seeking comfort in response to being
distressed by sound. I’ve seen children do
this:
✨ By making noises themselves
(blocking out the distressing noise)
✨ By hurting themselves
(communicating their distress and
locating their bodies)
✨ By moving faster or jumping (finding
their bodies – knowing where you are
is reassuring and so counters being
unnerved)
✨ By putting their fingers in their ears
and squealing (again blocking out the
noise)
Weighted resources, or compression
wear clothing – I’ve often improvised the
latter out of stretchy material tied in loops
that can be worn around the shoulders or
looped around chair legs for feet to press
against. These all provide information to
children about where their bodies are in
space, and knowing where you are in
space can help you feel more secure.
Children with variances in their
proprioceptive and vestibular systems
often require additional assistance in
spatial orientation. This may become
apparent through their seemingly atypical
movements or a general sense of being a
bit disoriented or vague.
Wands (made of pencils) with colourful
or sparkly fronds taped to the top –
these have delighted many children with
visual processing differences. I noticed
that in the examples I’ve given above,
I began with distressed children, here I
begin with joyful children, and in noticing
the joy they get from visual stimulation,
simply offer them more. Not everything
about sensory differences has to be sad
and stressful. Autistic people see the
world in high definition, often people
with visual processing differences can
experience delight through their sensing
of visual stimuli. These twiddle wands
are a wonderful way of creating joy and
celebrating sensory differences.
In my next two articles, I’m going to
explore how sensory differences can affect
the way children eat. I imagine by now that
the families of the children in your settings
with sensory differences have come to
know and rely on you as they would a
friend. One of the most frightening ways
sensory differences can affect a child is
through their eating, so having a little
insight into this will continue to help you
to provide for those children and support
their families.
As you wait for those articles to come out
please feel free to connect with me on
social media to watch my current sensory
adventures unfurl, all the connection links
can be found on my website
www.TheSensoryProjects.co.uk
Scan here for
more resources
from Joanna:
12 February 2024 | parenta.com
parenta.com | February 2024 13