Mom & Dad made me a sensory diet !!!!

Examples of SI Activities That Are Alerting

Light touch, light tickles with a feather, back scratch, koosh ball.

Fast, irregular movement, bouncing on a therapy ball, playing tag and jumping.

Crunchy foods: pretzels, crackers, popcorn or raw vegetable sticks.

Examples of SI Activities That Are Organizing (can be both alerting and calming)

Pushing and pulling activities: playing with a "stretch armstrong" toy or stiff clay, pushing a loaded cart.

Moving furniture, putting up chairs

Hiking, climbing, tug-of-war.

Carrying and passing out books.

Chewy foods: gum, bagels, fruit bars, dried fruit, etc.

Tactile Stimulating Activities

Indoor Tactile Path

• Create a path through your room, house, or classroom
• Use duct tape or strong making tape to outline the path
• Make sure the path covers carpeted, tile, and wood floors if available
• Have the path go through any indoor areas like: sand box, water play pool, trampoline, small balls boxes, indoor cloth tunnels, play houses, etc.
• Have certain rest stops on the tactile path which are delivery zones with "post-office" boxes each painted a different color
• Use the tactile path for a number of indoor activities

Taking a Dry Swim at Home

• Use an imaginary pool to swim in
• Use different floor textures to swim on if available
• After swimming use a beach towel to dry the child down using deep rubbing down strokes
• As you rub each body part name the part or have the child name the part

Follow the leaders on the Path

• Animal walk, have the child follow you on the indoor path playing an elephant, horse, alligator, dog, cat etc. walking on all fours as you follow the path and having the child make the sounds of the animal if possible
• As you animal walk, now have the animals walk only on three legs rather than the four
• Now be snakes and crawl the path hissing as you go
• Now become logs which are being rolled along the path

Scooting the Path

• Using a scooter board, have the child become the animals while lying forward on the scooter board
• Try having the child be the animal lying on back and using the scooter board to get along the path
• Have the child be a beetle crawling on scooter board along path
• Have the child be a tugboat who is pulled by holding onto a rope you are pulling the child along the path or have the child pull the scooter board with a rope along the path

Large exercise ball activities

• Have child lie face forward on ball and roll body on the ball
• Have child lie on back on ball and roll body on the ball

Taking a ride on the "sheet slide"

• Have child lay face down on the sheet slide and pull the child along the indoor tactile path
• Have child lay on back on sheet slide and pull child along the indoor tactile path

 Body part erasers

• Use carpet squares or carpet samples as a chalk board and using soft chalk (like sidewalk chalk), or oatmeal, sand, aquarium pebbles, write something on the square and then have the child use feet to erase the words written or picture drawn
• Do the same thing but this time have the child use hands as an eraser
• Do the same thing but this time have the child use elbows as an eraser
• Do the same thing but this time have the child use knees as an eraser

 Body Chalk Board

• Using your hand draw a number, letter, shape, or word on the child's back and have the child try to guess what it is
• Do the same thing but now on the stomach
• Do the same thing but now on the bottom of the foot
• Do the same thing but now on the palm of the hand

Body Painting

• Using a variety of brush types pretend to paint different body parts of the child
• Use three, two or one inch house paint brushes
• Use large, medium, and small artist brushes
• Use pastry, cooking, cleaning brushes
• Paint pretend objects on the body, such as freckles on the face, hands, and arms
• Paint glasses on the face
• Paint various types of clothing on the body

Touch and Feel Box

• Cut a hole in a shoe box with a lid on it
• Put various types of textures on the floor of the box like carpet, sand paper, tile, wax paper and have the child feel the textures
• Put various objects in the box and have the child try to guess what the object is

Vestibular Stimulating Activities

Vestibular: is the child's perception of movement due to the inner ear being activated and the position of the head being changed. These vestibular stimulating activities must be done with caution and calmly so as to prevent the child from falling or bumping head. Children who are non-verbal may not be able to tell you if they are hurting so be cautious.

Inner Tube activities

• Use an old tire inner tube, or get the swimming pool inner tubes and have the child sit on tube and bounce
• Having the child sit on the tube, now have child scoot on indoor tactile path to run a race
• Have various objects and obstacles placed on the path to have the child tube over

Rolling Games

• Play "follow the leader" by rolling over the indoor tactile path

• Have child roll along the path faster and faster

Spinner Games

• Use the scooter boards to have the child spin

• Spin the child on a swing
• Spin the child on a sheet on a slick floor

Ball Games

• Have child bounce on the ball
• Have child rock body on ball either facing down on ball or with back on ball

Whirling Games

• Have child pretend being a top and whirl in room
• Have child hold hands out and pretend you are tuning the arms like tightening a key on an alarm clock

Trampoline workout

• Have a small indoor trampoline on which the child can jump on
• Then have child sit on trampoline and bounce on it
• Have the child run in place on the trampoline

Proprioceptive Stimulating Activities

Proprioceptive: Kinesthetic or body awareness which provides information to child from inside the body from the muscles, ligaments, and joints. These are especially helpful for children who have low muscle tone and who are not able to be sure where their body is in space. They are in need of heavy work activities, which involve heavy weight for the body to carry.

Heavy load walks and hiking trips

• Have the child walk the indoor tactile path with a loaded down back path
• Have the child wear a heavy weighted vest on the indoor path
• Have the child wear weights in pockets in the shirt and pants as walking the indoor path
• Have the child creep with the heavy weights on along the path
• Have the child cross an obstacle course with heavy loads on

Cocooning

• Wrap the child up real tight in a sheet, blanket, or beach towel and then hold tight like a caterpillar in a cocoon

Climbing the Mattress Hill

• Place the foot of the child's bed mattress down on the floor  and the head of the mattress on the top of the middle of the child's bed, then  have the child climb the mattress to get up on the top of the mattress hill

Tom Sawyer Travels

• Using a carpet square or carpet sample have the child lie forward on the sample and use arms and legs to raft along a slick floor
• Have child lie backward on carpet and repeat the raft travels
• Have child rafting this time only with arms in both forward and backward position

Delivery Game

• Have child pull a wagon, push wheelbarrow, carry large shopping bag or cardboard box (pretend truck which must be pushed or carried along path) filled with heavy objects of different colors and have child place each matching color object into matching color delivery stations, which are located on the indoor tactile path
• Have child collect objects from each delivery station until the carrier is loaded with heavy objects and brought to the end of the indoor path

Animal walks

• Similar to the tactile walks but have child use only three legs and alternate legs as the walk progresses along the indoor tactile path

Body Wheelbarrow Walk

• Hold child's feet and have child crawl on floor and play the wheelbarrow walk along the indoor tactile path
• Now hold hands and have child walk along path leaning on your body for a reverse wheelbarrow walk

Jump up Game

• Have child squat and wind up child and have child jump up when winding is done like a jack-in-the-box does
• Have the child jump up every time you call child's name
• Have child play frog and from a squat position jump along the tactile path

Get that out of my hands

• Pretend the ball or object given to the child is a "hot potato" which the child must get rid of immediately and keep the pace going fast
• You can use large balls, bean bags etc in this "hot potato" game of catch

Paper Mountain

• Have child crush up one at a time pages of newspaper and throw them into a designated site like an empty wading pool, or in a imaginary circular boundary until there is a huge mound of paper creating a paper mountain
• Now have the child go inside the mountain and explore it
• Have the child climb over the paper mountain
• Have the child crush the paper mountain
• Have the child throw the paper mountain away into a big waste can

Walls Moving In Game

• Have child pretend the room's walls are moving in and have child push against the walls to stop the movement

Rescue Game

• Have child sit on carpet square or sample, wagon, scooter board, inner tube and pretend the child needs to be rescued and pull the child by arm so the vehicle and child can be rescued and pulled out of the indoor path to safety

Body windshield wipers

• Have child lie on floor and use legs as windshield wipers

• Have child lie on floor and use arms as windshield wipers
• Have child sit on floor and use arms and legs as windshield wipers

Body Function Charades

• Have child pretend brushing teeth, washing face, washing hands, washing body

• Have child pretend dressing up with pants, shirts, socks, shoes
• Have child pretend to eat, drink, and clean up the mess

Motor Planning and Equilibrium Stimulating Activities

Motor Planning: Child's ability to organize, plan and then execute new or unpracticed fine motor or gross motor activity

Equilibrium: Child's ability to maintain balance when shifting positions.

Walking the Line

• Have the child walk along a rope place on the tactile path
• Have the child walk along a beam, which is placed, on the floor
• Have child hopping along the rope on the floor
• Have child hop or jump over the rope on the floor 

Roll and Bounce that Ball on the Wall

• Using a large exercise ball, have the child move the ball along the wall by having the child's stomach do the moving
• Have the child now bounce body against the ball so that the body is bouncing against the ball and wall in a back and forth fashion

Follow the leader walks

• Animal walks on the indoor tactile path using alternating legs which ever the leader chooses
• Choo Choo walks with the engine leading the train along the path

Pushing the Object Games

• Using broom push an heavy object along the indoor tactile path
• Use a bat, yardstick, or dowel rod to push beanbags along the path
• Use other heavy objects to be pushed along the path

Other Sensory Activities:

Sucking, a thick shake with a straw, hard candies or a popsicle.

Slow rhythmic movement, rocking or swinging.

Cuddling, or wrapping a blanket around the shoulders.

Pushing against walls with the hands, sides of the body, back and buttocks.

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