Your Top Tips for a Sensory Seeking Kid!

[SqueezyDiva]

I can't afford to buy another book about Sensory Processing Disorder so I'm turning to you Mnetters for your tried and tested tips!

How to keep him occupied in a waiting room or other "tight spaces"?
How to regulate him before a social function, a plane trip?

HELP!!!!!

our ot recommended to us to get ds to carry a bag, or sweep with a brush, hoover etc, cant remember why but it seems to help!! i also have a mp3 playr he loves listening to as he can block everything else out, hes 3 so it only has nursery rhymes and tv themes on it but he loves it!
hope that helps

So much depends upon your child's likes and dislikes.. every sensory issue is not the same.. for my son tapes and cds worked a treat.. as did certain small objects to hold and "twiddle".. but I did think this site might help you .. http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/

I hope that link works..

www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/

maybe that will work?

We usually have spinning things, like cars with movable wheels or the latest thing is a kitchen clokc as DS2 likes the clicking noise it makes when he turns it round.

As Dodgypins says, so much depends on the individual child.

A small backpack with a few toys to fiddle with helped my ds. He likes ones that light up, but for general fiddling he loves a small keyring with virtual bubblewrap on it.
This one is very similar to it but I think ours was a bit cheaper.

The only downside to fiddle toys (as I have learned to my cost) is that they can also be thrown to good effect.

Ds loves his mini-trampoline/trampette and a good bounce on that seems to help him to calm down before we go out anywhere.

Ds would have hated listening to music when he was younger but might possibly enjoy it now he's a little older (6yrs).

The OT's advice in general for children like ds is to give them activities that they have to work against IYSWIM. I vaguely remember reading about weighted vests or jackets that can help with this. They're the kind of thing that my ds would probably like but equally there are probably lots of other children who would hate them. Swimming is also a good one (though probably best not to combine it with the weighted vest! )

Another thing to try before going out is to wrap them up in a heavy duvet and squeeze them. Ds loves being squashed between cushions.

A backpack filled with bottles of water etc to weigh it down has the same effect as weighted vests etc. Also if he stands in front of a wall and pushes against it. If i think of anything different to whats already been said, will let you know.

thanks guys. some great tips here. i'll try a few and feedback on what has worked.

my ds is extremely sensory-seeking and can is hard to bring back down when he has gone into overload.

His sensory diet is not really making a massive difference partly because it is sooooo inconvenient. However, he has improved.

He also resists anything that makes him stand out as different from other children (yeah,because gurning, bellowing and jumping around like a lunatic are unobtusive)

thanks so much. keep em comin if you have other ideas.

Tclanger, do you do the same things, same time every day or do you vary the sensory diet?

My living room does not looklike a gym. I started avoiding the more house-smashing activities after a while. Maybe I need to go back to the full-on, life-dominating, house-destrroying actvities.