Sensory Diet for Children

1. What is a sensory diet?
2. How can I get one for my child?
3. Who can help?

We can answer all these questions in this article.

A sensory diet is simply a planned set of activities that can be incorporated into a child’s day to help them achieve a feeling of “just right”.

For most children with sensory processing delays, they have a hard time getting their bodies to feel calm and organized. They may be looking for extra input – excessive climbing, jumping, crashing – and as a result have a hard time playing and learning. They may be resisting certain input – resisting grooming tasks, finger painting, eating an appropriate variety of foods – and as a result, also have a hard time playing and learning. Just to make it interesting, frequently children even jump from one extreme to other – seeking out movement input but in the next moment showing sensitivity to touch input.

Which leads us to the first part of an good sensory diet – it is specific to the child’s needs. When creating a sensory diet, we need to investigate when and where a child is struggling with their daily tasks and incorporate appropriate sensory strategies to meet those specific needs.

The second important part of a sensory diet is that is  planned and scheduled. It is important to look at the child’s routines and implement activities according when the child is observed to struggle most. While it’s important to know and understand different ways to provide sensory input, knowing WHEN to provide that input is just as important. Overall, the goal of engaging the child in sensory activities on a frequent, regular basis is to help him/her remain engaged, focused, and in control more often.

EXAMPLE: Let’s take Hope for example. Hope is a 3 year old girl demonstrating signs of tactile defensiveness as well as some vestibular sensory seeking behaviors. Hope struggles with increasing the variety of foods she eats as she mainly eats dry cereal, chicken nuggets, crackers, and milk. She also struggles with engaging in seated tasks like coloring, playing
simple card games with the family, and staying near her parents in public. Hope
spends her days at childcare 5 days a week. After examining Hope’s routines and
finding the times she struggles most, the parents, preschool teacher, and Hope’s
OT had a group meeting and came up with the following sensory diet.

• 6:30 am – Wake up
• 6:30 – 6:45 – Hope plays in the living room and usually does well entertaining herself
  as she seems to calm at this time of day.
• 6:45 – 7:00 – Breakfast. Prior to sitting down, the family will get Hope dressed
  and provide her with
  • Lotion rub , massage with vibrating massager on her arms and legs, or complete pillow squishes
  • While eating breakfast, Hope will be encouraged to put her new weighted lap pad on her lap or across her shoulders.
• 7:00- 7:30 – More play time before leaving for preschool. Hope tends to get into
  trouble this time of day as she gets into places she’s not supposed to. Try heavy
  work tasks to help with organization.
  • Push weighted laundry basket around upstairs bedrooms while parents finish getting ready
  • Roll 8 lb medicine ball around bedroom
  • Help water indoor plants with gallon jug
• 7:30- 8:00 – transition to Preschool
• 8:00 – 8:15 – Greeting time at preschool. Hope struggles keep hands to self and
  staying her carpet square during first part of her day at preschool.
  • Give Hope a heavy work job to complete immediately each morning.
    • Help put books (heavy textbooks, not childnre’s books) away onto shelves as part
      of helping get the room ready for the day
    • Carrying a bucket of toys from one class to another
    • Wash window / chalk board / dry erase, encouraging her to use strong, forceful movements when cleaning.
• 8:15 – 9:00 – Recess or Gym. Encourage opportunities for Hope to do the following:
  • Swing on swingset
  • Hang on monkey bars
  • Jumping on trampoline
• 9:00 – 9:15 – Morning snack
  • Expose Hope to foods with multiple textures – things the other children are eating.
  • Provide Hope with very chewy, crunchy foods to help give her good proprioceptive input into her jaw.
    • Granola
    • Chewy bagel
    • Big hard pretzel
• 9:15-10:00 – Craft time
  • Have Hope complete a heavy work / calming task before sitting down
    • Chair push up
    • Completing the “job” they she has in the morning
    • Rolling on top of therapy ball
  • Weighted product
    • Let Hope wear her lap pad from home
    • Consider use of weighted vest or compression vest
• 10:00 – 10:30 – Free play. Hope usually does well at this time.
• 10:30 – 10:45 – Bathroom break. Again, Hope transitions well
• 10:45 – 11:15 – Music, Art, or Computer time. Hope struggles still at these times
  with remaining seated. Incorporate same tasks as from Craft time.
• 11:15 – 11:45 – Lunch. Incorporate same tasks as from snack time.
• 12:00 – 2:30 – Nap. Hope sometimes struggles falling asleep but does well remaining
  asleep.
  • Allow use of weighted lap pad.
  • Allow use of hand held vibrating toy if not too distracting for other students as this has been a positive form of calming input for Hope in the past.
• 2:30 – 3:00 – Gym time. Incorporate same tasks from Recess time.
• 3:30 pick up. Hope transitions well to her parents.
• 4:00 – 5:30. Errands, play time at home. Hope can be “wild” when the family first
  gets home.
  • Allow Hope to use the porch swing or jump on the trampoline in back yard
  • Ride trike or scooter
• 5:45 – 6:15 Family dinner.
  • Allow Hope to feed new and unfamiliar foods to dolls, other family members, keeping the activity fun.
  • Provide one food that she can play with – for example, put a scoop of mashed potatoes on the tray and encourage Hope to just play with it with her fingers, spoon, and fork.
  • Continue to encourage Hope to try new foods every night.
• 6:15- 7:00 Bath time and pj’s. Hope usually does well.
• 7:00 – 7:30 family used to watch TV, but has been encouraged to replace TV with
  quiet activity such as books or coloring or block play to help Hope best prepare
  for bed.
• 7:30 Bed time.