Sensory activities

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Home : 2003 : September : 13

Sensory activities
By Barb

Hi,

I also teach students with Autism, at the elementary level though. We do quite a bit of sensory activities and I'll share some with you:
-there are lots of "fidget" toys out there they can play with...koosh balls,
gel balls, rubix cubes, etc. I keep a box with all sorts of these objects that they can get out and fiddle with when they want or need to.
-play doh
-finger paint with texture...oatmeal, sand, rice, etc.
-you can do clay or a cooking activity where they can knead dough/clay.
-any sort of movement activity...exercise, stretching, making letters out of shapes, dance, jump, walk
-you

can incorporate this with the dance idea...get a disco light or a lava lamp and turn off the lights and play some music and htey can see the lights. Careful of strobe lights...esp. if you have seizure prone students.
-play instruments...beat a drum, strum a guitar, tap a keyboard
-one fun thing my kids love and that I can adapt to many activities is this: for example, using felt squares and numbers, I laid out what looked like a telephone key pad on the floor. They had to "Jump their telephone number" They LOVE this! You can put letters or numbers on there and use it for a variety of activities...phone #, # or letter recognition, spell their name, answer a math problem, etc. Its great motor and thinking too!
-get bean bag chairs to chill out in or the therapy balls to sit, roll, or bounce on
-yoga...there is a neat "animal yoga" program available through one of the adaptive PE catalogs...

Try these websites too for more info:
http://www.out-of-sync-child.com/more_resources.html
I've heard Brain Gym is a good too:
http://www.braingym.org/

Also, I've attended a workshop before with Diane Henry, an OT with lots of great ideas. She has a book out, called Tools for Teachers that is just great, with TOns of easy to incorporate sensory and motor activities for all areas. Check out her website:
http://www.henryot.com/index.htm

Good luck!