Sensory diet

What is a sensory diet?

A sensory diet is a set of activities put together to meet a child's individual sensory needs. It includes a tailored set of physical activities and accommodations. These activities can be easily incorporated into a child's daily routine and aim to regulate emotions, improve attention, and encourage purposeful movement.

Whilst sensory diets can be built into daily routines, there may also be a need for some children and young people to participate in sensory activities e.g. movement breaks that are more responsive to their presentation 'in the moment'.

Sensory diets are not just for children or young people with identified sensory issues. We all need a diet of sensory input. Most people naturally participate in conscious or subconscious acts that meet their specific needs. For example, some people might chew gum or fidget with a pen during a meeting at work to stay focused and attentive.

An occupational therapist usually designs a sensory diet.

Why are sensory diets important?

For some children and young people, sensory diets can help them to feel calmer or more alert, which in turn aids their ability to engage in learning, learn new skills, and socialise with others.

For children or young people who tend to get overstimulated or are hyper-aroused, a sensory diet can include calming activities that help them come down from an overloaded state. Conversely, children or young people who feel 'sluggish' or present as hypo-aroused can engage in alerting activities to help them feel more alert.

By using a sensory diet regularly, children and young people can become more aware of how they are feeling and recognise when they're not in a "just right" state. Over time, this leads to children and young people being able to independently choose sensory activities to get them back to a state of regulation.

What are some key components of a sensory diet?

Here are some key components that can make up a sensory diet:

• Proprioceptive System Activities: These activities can be helpful for children or young people who seek out rough play and jumping or crashing, as these behaviours may be communicating that they may need more input to this particular system. Proprioception is one of our movement senses and contributes to coordination and body awareness, and proprioceptive activities typically have a calming impact on most children and young people. Activities that provide input to the proprioceptive system may include stomping, jumping, deep pressure, and working against resistance including climbing. Fast proprioceptive inputs may contribute to a more alert state while slower proprioceptive inputs may contribute to a calmer state.
• Vestibular System Activities: This is our other movement sense, related to balance and how we perceive our body's orientation in space. Some children and young people need constant movement and struggle to sit still, whilst others appear 'sluggish' or lethargic. In these cases, vestibular input can often help meet the child or young person's needs. Activities that provide vestibular input can include swinging, rocking, swaying, and bouncing.
• Avoidance of Triggers: The simplest sensory diet involves a simple avoidance of triggers.
• Increase in Glimmers: Along with avoiding triggers, a sensory diet also involves an increase in 'glimmers'. A glimmer is a reminder of a positive experience, this could be a smell, a picture or an object. It does not need to be a massive life event but could be just a small reminder of something that makes you feel good. For example, taking a sip from a water bottle with a rubber sports cap may remind someone of their rugby playing days making them feel instantly happier and calmer.

How might this work in practice?

A balanced approach to a sensory diet may consist of an alerting, organising and then calming input.

Some schools and settings may use Sensory Circuit training or Sensory Motor Integration Learning Experiences (SMILE) which can help design a bespoke plan.

Here's a breakdown of what makes up a sensory circuit or balanced diet plan. Most plans will have one activity from each section in this order:

• Alerting Activities: These are designed to provide both vestibular (movement and balance) and faster proprioceptive (awareness of body in space) stimulation, which can help the child or young person to become more alert. Examples include jumping on a trampette, sitting and bouncing on a gym ball, star jumps, marching, step-ups, skipping, and lying over a gym ball on their tummy. Alerting activities can also include any movements that are fast in nature, repetitive and may involve sudden changes in direction.
• Organising Activities: These activities provide a motor challenge and require the child or young person to plan, organise and/or sequence their movement. Examples include catching a ball or beanbag, throwing a ball or beanbag to a target, balancing on wobble boards or walking along a gym bench, crawling through a tunnel, jumping through hoops, log rolling, and animal walks.
• Calming Activities: The final phase of the circuit is designed to calm the child or young person and prepare them for engaging with learning. This may include slower or static proprioceptive inputs such as lifting, pushing, pulling, stretching and deep breathing.

Sensory diets should be tailored to the current needs of the child or young person. This may mean that sometimes a child or young person needs more of one type of activity over the others e.g. more alerting activities than organising activities or more calming activities than alerting activities.

A visual schedule can be used to show the number of times the activity will be repeated or the length of time the activity will take. For example, 5 press ups, 30 seconds of tug of war etc.

Many schools and settings use a sensory diet before school and after break or lunchtime. Regardless of timings, it is essential that adults understand the individual needs of the children and young people and track, record and review progress as appropriate. Staff should consult an Occupational Therapist if they are making changes to the activities which are heavily increasing the frequency and total volume of sensory inputs due to the increase on fatigue on the child.

What support is available?

National

The OT Toolbox provides information and further advice about sensory diets.

Norfolk

For information regarding training and further support visit the SENSI website