A sensory diet is a series of planned activities that support your child’s sensory processing needs. Lucy Jane Miller, Ph.D., OTR, describes sensory processing as “the way the nervous system receives sensory messages and turns them into responses.” Children with sensory processing disorders have difficulty organizing their sensory messages and require sensory diet activities to teach their systems how to respond more effectively.
Your Senses
Your body is “constantly managing sensory messages,” says Miller. The sounds, sights, smells, tastes and touches that surround you are processed and filtered by your body and brain. Your are also processing information from two lesser-known senses called proprioceptive and vestibular senses. Miller describes the proprioceptive system as telling you where your body is in relation to other objects and how to move. She defines vestibular input as “the sense that tells us where we are in space.” Children can be overreactive to sensory stimuli or underreactive. Dr. A. Jean Ayres was the first to recognize and document the impact that impaired sensory processing has on behavior, social emotional functioning and motor planning.
Proprioceptive Input
Sensory diet activities that support the proprioceptive system provide input to joints, muscles and connective tissues. Lindsey Biel and Nancy Peske, authors of “Raising a Sensory Smart Child,” state that these activities lead to increased body awareness. Proprioceptive sensory diet experiences include lifting, pulling or pushing heavy objects, rolling up in a blanket, carrying a heavy backpack, jumping, hammering, doing push-ups, throwing a ball, vacuuming, swimming and biking.
Vestibular Input
Biel and Peske describe input into the vestibular system as involving movement. Swinging in a steady, rhythmic manner is calming, while rapid, unpredictable swinging alerts the body. Swinging can be done in different directions such as back to front and side-to-side providing varying linear input. Rotary input is provided by spinning. You can add spinning to swinging by twisting the chains and letting them go. Office chairs and spinning children’s discs are also useful tools.
Tactile Input
Sensory messages from touch include all areas of the skin including the mouth, according to Biel and Peske. Tactile sensory diet activities include playing with water, vibration, temperature, pressure, and various textures of food, clothing and other materials. Biting, chewing and sucking provide both tactile and proprioceptive input. Skin brushing, known as the Wilbarger Protocol, is commonly used for decreasing tactile sensitivity.
Additional Input
Visual, auditory and olfactory sensory diet activities are used for children with sensitivities in these areas. These sensory experiences include using lights, colors, sounds and smells that calm or alert your child, depending on her specific needs. They are also intended to increase her level of tolerance for this type of input.
Warning
Any sensory diet activities including wearing or carrying weighted objects should be discussed with your occupational therapist. Too little weight is ineffective, and too much weight can be harmful and lead to pain. Biel and Peske also emphasize monitoring for signs of sensory overload with any sensory diet activity.
References
- "Raising a Sensory Smart Child"; Lindsey Biel and Nancy Peske; 2005
- "Sensational Kids: Hope and Help for Children with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD); Lucy Jane Miller, Ph.D., OTR; 2006
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