Agenda:

• Questions board (Post it notes)

• IASS https://new.sthelens.gov.uk/send/st-helens-iass-information-advice-and-support-service/

• Addvanced Solutions https://www.addvancedsolutions.co.uk/

• Citizens Advice St Helens

• Blobman Tree

• Anxiety

• PAL Community

• Further Questions

IASS Website

Aadvanced Solutions Website

1. Put your hands in water

Focus on the water’s temperature and how it feels on your fingertips, palms, and the backs of your hands. Does it feel the same in each part of your hand?

Use warm water first, then cold. Next, try cold water first, then warm. Does it feel different to switch from cold to warm water versus warm to cold?

2. Pick up or touch items near you

Are the things you touch soft or hard? Heavy or light? Warm or cool? Focus on the texture and colour of each item. Challenge yourself to think of specific colours, such as crimson, burgundy, indigo, or turquoise, instead of simply red or blue.

3. Breathe deeply

Slowly inhale, then exhale. If it helps, you can say or think “in” and “out” with each breath. Feel each breath filling your lungs and note how it feels to push it back out.

4. Savour a food or drink

Take small bites or sips of a food or beverage you enjoy, letting yourself fully taste each bite. Think about how it tastes and smells and the flavours that linger on your tongue.

5. Take a short walk

Concentrate on your steps — you can even count them. Notice the rhythm of your footsteps and how it feels to put your foot on the ground and then lift it again.

6. Hold a piece of ice

What does it feel like at first? How long does it take to start melting? How does the sensation change when the ice begins to melt?

7. Savour a scent

Is there a fragrance that appeals to you? This might be a cup of tea, an herb or spice, a favourite soap, or a scented candle. Inhale the fragrance slowly and deeply and try to note its qualities (sweet, spicy, sharp, citrusy, and so on).

8. Move your body

Do a few exercises or stretches. You could try jumping jacks, jumping up and down, jumping rope, jogging in place, or stretching different muscle groups one by one.

Pay attention to how your body feels with each movement and when your hands or feet touch the floor or move through the air. How does the floor feel against your feet and hands? If you jump rope, listen to the sound of the rope in the air and when it hits the ground.

9. Listen to your surroundings

Take a few moments to listen to the noises around you. Do you hear birds? Dogs barking? Machinery or traffic? If you hear people talking, what are they saying? Do you recognize the language? Let the sounds wash over you and remind you where you are.

10. Feel your body

You can do this sitting or standing. Focus on how your body feels from head to toe, noticing each part.

Can you feel your hair on your shoulders or forehead? Glasses on your ears or nose? The weight of your shirt on your shoulders? Do your arms feel loose or stiff at your sides? Can you feel your heartbeat? Is it rapid or steady? Does your stomach feel full, or are you hungry? Are your legs crossed, or are your feet resting on the floor? Is your back straight?

11. Try the 5-4-3-2-1 method

Working backward from 5, use your senses to list things you notice around you. For example, you might start by listing five things you hear, then four things you see, then three things you can touch from where you’re sitting, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.

Try to notice the little things you might not always pay attention to, such as the colour of the flecks in the carpet or the hum of your computer.

12. Play a memory game

Look at a detailed photograph or picture (like a cityscape or other “busy” scene) for 5 to 10 seconds. Then, turn the photograph face-down and recreate the photograph in your mind, in as much detail as possible. Or, you can mentally list all the things you remember from the picture.

13. Think in categories

Choose one or two broad categories, such as “musical instruments,” “ice cream flavours,” “mammals,” or “baseball teams.” Take a minute or two to mentally list as many things from each category as you can.

14. Use math and numbers

Even if you aren’t a math person, numbers can help centre you.

Try:

• running through a times table in your head.

• counting backward from 100

• choosing a number and thinking of five ways you could make the number (6 + 11 = 17, 20 – 3 = 17, 8 × 2 + 1 = 17, etc.)

15. Recite something

Think of a poem, song, or book passage you know by heart. Recite it quietly to yourself or in your head. If you say the words aloud, focus on the shape of each word on your lips and in your mouth. If you say the words in your head, visualize each word as you’d see it on a page.

16. Make yourself laugh

Make up a silly joke — the kind you’d find on a candy wrapper or popsicle stick.

You might also make yourself laugh by watching your favourite funny animal video, a clip from a comedian or TV show you enjoy, or anything else you know will make you laugh.

17. Use an anchoring phrase

This might be something like, “I’m Full Name. I’m X years old. I live in City, State. Today is Friday, June 3. It’s 10:04 in the morning. I’m sitting at my desk at work. There’s no one else in the room.”

You can expand on the phrase by adding details until you feel calm, such as, “It’s raining lightly, but I can still see the sun. It’s my break time. I’m thirsty, so I’m going to make a cup of tea.”

18. Visualize a daily task you enjoy or don’t mind doing

If you like doing laundry, for example, think about how you’d put away a finished load.

“The clothes feel warm coming out of the dryer. They’re soft and a little stiff at the same time. They feel light in the basket, even though they spill over the top. I’m spreading them out over the bed so they won’t wrinkle. I’m folding the towels first, shaking them out before folding them into halves, then thirds,” and so on.

19. Describe a common task

Think of an activity you do often or can do very well, such as making coffee, locking up your office, or tuning a guitar. Go through the process step-by-step, as if you’re giving someone else instructions on how to do it.

20. Imagine yourself leaving the painful feelings behind

Picture yourself:

• gathering the emotions, balling them up, and putting them into a box

• walking, swimming, biking, or jogging away from painful feelings

• imagining your thoughts as a song or TV show you dislike, changing the channel or turning down the volume — they’re still there, but you don’t have to listen to them.

21. Describe what’s around you

Spend a few minutes taking in your surroundings and noting what you see. Use all five senses to provide as much detail as possible. “This bench is red, but the bench over there is green. It’s warm under my jeans since I’m sitting in the sun. It feels rough, but there aren’t any splinters. The grass is yellow and dry. The air smells like smoke. I hear kids having fun and two dogs barking.”

• Students encounter many transitions across their time in school; in a key stage; in a year; in a term; a month; a week; a day.

• Transitions cause anxiety for many learners, but this is often heightened for autistic children and young people because of the Three Areas of Difference.

• It is important to plan, prepare and work in partnership to ensure smoother transitions – both macro and micro – for learners.

• Creating a culture that supports effective transitions – at a macro and micro level – starts at the top.

• We need to start by thinking about how we can design our learning environments to support and enable autistic children and young people in schools.

• We need to consider how we adapt our teaching and learning to ensure smooth and effective micro transitions in all classrooms across a school.

This page is from the book Blob Angrr! (2012) which is also

available from Speechmark.

Allow the individual or group in pairs to look at the image.

• Where are the Blobs the calmest?

• Where are the Blobs are exploding with anger?

• Which Blobs can you identify with? Circle them.

• Which Blobs do you not understand? Underline them.

• Which section of the circle do you need to understand

• better?

• Which Blobs in the circle do people see in you that you

• cannot recognise?

• Which Blobs do you remember your parents or guardians

being like when they got angry?

An introduction to the understanding of Sensory Issues when caring for a child or young person with SEND For further information & support, visit www.reachingfamilies.org.uk

Sensory Seedlings Programme

What is Sensory Processing?

This is the ability to take in, sort out, process and make use of information from the world about us. It allows us to make an appropriate response to meet the demands of the environment. Information about our own body and the world is gathered from the seven senses (proprioception, vestibular, tactile, taste, auditory, vision and smell)

What are the signs of sensory processing difficulties?

Sensory processing difficulties can be experienced in a range of different ways, though EVERYONE has some sensory processing problems now and then, because no one is well regulated all the time. Examples of this can be: overly sensitive to touch, sights or sounds; under reactive to touch, movement, sights or sounds; co-ordination problems; difficulties in organising and carrying out everyday activities. Often children who have sensory difficulties can be seen to seek out or avoid particular sensory input.

What else might be causing my child’s difficulties?

Some children that present with sensory diffiuclties may be struggling with a number of different concerns that are not related to their sensory processing. For example:

·       some diagnoses such as ADHD create symptoms that look like sensory processing difficulties

·       behaviour difficulties, for example children with demand avoidance type behaviours

·       attachement difficulties

·       circumstances in which children have not been provided with appropriate boundaries.

·       habitualy autistic spectrum disorder behaviours, such as hand flapping or head banging.

What is the Sunflower seedling programme?

The seedling programme aims to support children (children developmental age 2 to year 6 primary) with sensory processing diffiuclties that are affecting their activities of daily living. Initially this comprises of an eight week programme (detailed below) with the intention of this becoming imbedded into the child’s routine if it is successful in meeting the childs needs.

This is done through a programme of activities that promote movement. Movement, in particular Proprioception (sensations from joints, muscles and connective tissues that lead to body awareness),  is crucial for development and helps to regulate a childs’ response to sensory input. Therefore it is very important that your child is receiving a level of proprioception that is stimulating his/her system in order that they can learn and develop.

Sensory processing organises the sensations from one’s own body and the world around us. For some children, their sensory integration does not develop as it should and may affect their sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste or spatial awareness. Children can experience hypersensitivity (excessive and undesirable reactions) or hyposensitivity (under-responsive and difficulty in processing responses) to stimuli. This checklist aims to identify sensory processing issues. It is not a diagnostic tool and professional advice should be sought. Also bear in mind the child’s age, developmental stage and ability.

Focusing on.....

Proprioception – Input / feedback informing movement, body position, weight, movement, spatial awareness

Vestibular – Contributes to our balance system (inner ear) and our sense of spatial orientation

Visual – sensitivity to lights, difficulty focusing, distracted by stimuli

Tactile – sensitivity related to touch, pressure

Oral Input – sensitivity to taste, food preferences, oral stimuli

Oral Motor – tactile sensitivity of the mouth

Auditory-Language – sensitivity to sounds, speaking, difficulty with spoken sounds

Olfactory – sensitivity to smells, difficulty identifying odours, associates people / places / objects with smells

This guide was compiled by a small group of teachers to be used with one of the many diagnostic tools available for producing a Sensory Profile. We looked at a number of different schedules designed to provide a measure of a child's sensory processing abilities.

Our aim was to identify a method that could be easily understood and administered by colleagues working in the classroom. Whilst a number of sensory profiling methods met this criteria, we decided to use the Sensory Profile devised by Winnie Dunn (Pearson Inc, 1999). Her aim was to:

“... develop an evaluation tool for professionals to gather information about children's sensory processing abilities that support and/or interfere with functional performance.”

In school, we found the Winnie Dunn materials relatively easy to administer, score and interpret. The purpose of this guide is to provide practical strategies for our colleagues in the classroom to address areas of sensory ‘difference’ or difficulty identified through the use of the Winnie Dunn materials.

The Winnie Dunn Profile seeks to identify where sensory performance differs significantly from the norm across nine dimensions or “factors”:

1. Sensory Seeking

2. Emotionally Reactive

3. Low Endurance / Tone

4. Oral Sensory Sensitivity

5. Inattention / Distractibility

6. Poor Registration

7. Sensory Sensitivity

8. Sedentary

9. Fine Motor / Perceptual

There is a section of this guide corresponding to each of these areas.

Where a difference or difficulty is identified, the associated section contains strategies for practitioners supporting the child.

Each section is divided into two parts:

• Early Intervention

• Developing Tolerance

The starting points for supporting the child in the particular sensory area may involve further checks that should be carried out or initial strategies to support acute needs.

The strategies and suggestions included in the Developing Tolerance columns are for use over time to support the child's sensory needs in that area and, over time, to reduce the negative effects on learning and behaviour.

"A person's sensory profile will not change too significantly through life, but how that person learns to find balance and to feel calm and alert in the world can be altered drastically."
— Marc Landry, Occupational Therapist

This booklet was produced with support from Birchley St Mary's Catholic Primary Teaching Schools Alliance.

Sensory sensitivity refers to the way in which we react to stimuli around us. We have seven senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, vestibular (balance) and proprioception (body awareness). The information from these senses is processed by the brain and leads to a motor (physical) response. More recently, another sense has come to our attention called interoception.

This refers to our ability to respond to internal body cues, such as hunger and pain.

We learn to take in the right amount of sensory information to allow us to successfully engage with our environment. For example, when we are working at a computer, we will shut out background noises and concentrate on the screen, ignoring other visual stimuli.

However, some people have difficulty modulating sensory information and may either feel overwhelmed by too much sensation (hyper sensitivity) or receive too little sensory information (hypo sensitivity).

Adamson, Hare and Graham (2006) reported that 70% of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have sensory differences to the normal population. Sensory processing impairment is included as one of the criteria for the diagnosis of people with ASD (American Psychiatric Association, 2013): ‘Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interests in sensory aspects of the environment (e.g., apparent indifference to pain/temperature, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, visual fascination with lights or movement)’

General principles of a de-sensitisation programme

• Child focussed follow a child’s lead/interests, pick a time when she is amenable to working with you

• Developmentally appropriate any mouthing objects should be suitable for his/her age so dummies, mouthing toys are ok for babies but not for older children.

• Carefully graded, with small steps this is to ensure success and avoid fear and anxiety

• Involves controlled change and variety we need to keep the child interested and enable them to generalise

• Challenging if it is not challenging, the child isn’t learning anything new

• Frequent but not time consuming a little, often, will ensure the best results and is less likely to lose the child’s interest and yours!

• Paired with rewarding experience this is not meant to be a chore so try to make activities fun with lots of positive attention from you

• Regular exposure to the same foods over time – although you want some variety, it is important that the child gets to like foods through familiarity and has the chance to really know what they feel like and how to manage them in the mouth

• Use the word “trim” instead of “cut” to make the process seem less frightening.

• Choose a hair salon that is child‑friendly and doesn’t smell of strong hair products or dye.

• Stop by the salon for a practice visit to watch someone else get their hair cut.

  • If the buzzer sound scares your child, the barber can “play the buzzer” for them on a day they’re not having their hair trimmed.

  • At home, you can hold a vibrating toothbrush or vibrating pen near your child’s ears so the sound becomes familiar and non‑threatening.

• Use a towel and clip rather than a plastic cape — the plastic texture or Velcro fastener can be more irritating for some children than stray hair on the neck.

• Bring an extra shirt so your child can change straight after the trim.

• Provide firm pressure to the head, scalp, and neck before the hair trim.

• Make sure the child is sitting with their feet touching the ground.

• Let the child listen to favourite music, hold a favourite toy, or use calming oral input such as an ice lolly or sipping through a thin straw.

• A lap weight can help keep your child calm during the trim.

• Social stories or sensory stories can be used to help prepare your child for the experience.

© Paediatric Therapies Team, NWBH NHS Foundation Trust