Sensory Integration Therapy at Home for Autism : a supportive guide for Parents

Sensory processing therapy (SIT) helps children who face sensory processing challenges, such as those with autism or sensory processing disorder (SPD), by enabling their brains to respond more effectively to different sensory inputs.

Sensory integration therapy is the best way to fulfill the sensory needs of children. Children with autism are either hyposensitive or hypersensitive to their sensory needs. In this blog, we will guide parents on how they can fulfill the sensory demands of their children at home and improve their behavior. I hope this blog will be able to help you.

What is sensory Integration Therapy?

Autistic children have different sensory needs. Some children with autism experience sensory processing challenges such as being highly sensitive to light, texture, and sound, and may avoid these sensations altogether. On the other hand, some children seek out sensory input. We will describe the two types of sensory processing issues that are commonly found in autistic individuals.

Hyperactivity, reflecting the autonomic nervous system’s ‘fight or flight’ response, may result in behaviors such as aggression, hypervigilance, withdrawal (owing to poor tolerance of noise, touch, smell, or movement), or additional ‘safe space’ needs. Hyporeactivity, in contrast, is characterized by reduced awareness of sensory stimuli within the environment. Read this article for more detail.

Hypersensitivity

Autistic children with hypersensitivity react strongly to loud sounds, bright light, or shiny clothing.

Hyposensitivity

Hyposenstivity children seek more stimulation; they spin objects, hop and jump, and throw balls repeatedly, these children often enjoy the sound of their own voices. This is because hyposensitive child has a reduced response to sensory input, so they seek out more stimulation to satisfy their senses.

Set up a Sensory-Friendly Room With some useful Tips.

The best sensory room for an autistic child can be created at home. It’s important to ensure that the child feels safe and comfortable. You will need to set up a room with everything they need, such as sensory toys, lights, music, a weighted blanket, and more. Let’s look at some tips on how to prepare a sensory room for your child.

Take a Therapist’s advice.

Whenever you think of setting up a sensory room, it’s important to seek advice from a therapist. After closely observing your child’s behavior, the therapist will be able to recommend what would be most suitable for your child in the sensory room.

Quiet space

Designate and select a quiet space in your home where multiple persons come over and your child may get disturbed during activities. Place soft pillows and blankets in a small corner of the room, ensuring that you have dim lighting in your sensory room. You can also use noise-cancelling headphones, and keep a set of fidget toys in the room as well.

Observe your child and adjust.

A parent knows what things will excite or calm their autistic child. Keeping in mind your child’s needs, use some ideas to create a sensory room yourself.

Make comfortable sitting Areas.

Incorporate comfortable sitting options for your child, such as bean bags, movement chairs, swings, exercise balls, and trampolines for jumping, and crawling through tunnels made from blankets. These opportunities for movement are the best for your autistic child at home.

Tactile-Friendly sensory room

Place educational mats in the sensory room, and provide sand, sensory putty, clay, slime, sensory beads, and water beads for tactile stimulation. Encourage the child to actively participate in these activities. These sensory toys fulfill sensory needs and also improve finger strength.

Sensory Integration Therapy at Home

It has been observed that when work is done on a child’s sensory needs, sensory processing disorder (SPD) reduces over time, leading to significant improvements in the behavioral, social, and educational challenges faced by individuals with autism and the behavior problems gradually start to go away as you address the sensory needs.

While working on sensory integration, you should also focus on speech development. You can keep items like blowing toys, a vibrating brush, etc in the sensory room to help work on speech as well. For starting speech therapy at home you can read this article: Speech Therapy For Autism: 10 Proven Way For Speech Development At Home

Some points have been provided for conducting sensory integration therapy at home, which parents should know before starting this therapy.

1. Deep pressure Activities

Deep pressure activities are done to calm an over-responsive child and provide the necessary sensory input to an under-responsive child. In this activity, a pillow is used and light pressure is applied. You can also massage the child to provide deep pressure. This has been shown to improve the behavior of autistic children.

My experience with My Son

Additionally, I apply light pressure with a gym ball during deep-pressure activities for my 5-year-old autistic son. He also sits on the gym ball, fulfilling his need for jumping, and does some exercises with it, which helps him to feel calm.

2. Vestibular Activities

You can start with vestibular activities by playing spinning games using an office chair and offering soothing vestibular input with swinging or rocking on a chair.

My experience with My Son

In vestibular activities, the child is taught balance and coordination, and you can introduce midline activities. If your child is unable to balance at all, the first step is to take a large piece of cello tape and stick it on the floor in the shape of a straight line.

Ask your child to walk on top of the tape. Initially, you may need to assist them, but gradually they will learn to do it on their own. When my son could not balance, I taught him to do it using tape. Once the child starts mastering this, stick the tape in the shape of a 5, and after that, in the shape of an 8. The child will learn to balance and they should also practice walking under the line.

3. Proprioceptive Activities

These proprioceptive activities help teach a child about body awareness. They involve activities like jumping on a trampoline, crawling through tunnels, and push-pull exercises such as tug of war.

My experience with My Son

One example of a push-pull exercise I used with my son involves his love for apples. I would place an apple inside a room and stand outside the door holding it. I would tell my son that if he wanted the apple, he needed to push the door. Initially, he would cry, so I held his hand to help him push, and eventually, he learned the push-pull action. Another activity I used to practice push-pull was with a water gun. I would take the water gun from him and give him full physical prompts to help him understand the concept.”

4. Tactile Play

Activities like water play, sand play, and using clay, slime, or glitter in therapy can also significantly reduce this problem.”

My experience with My Son

You can use tactile activities to reduce your child’s texture sensitivity. For example, I mixed different cereals, black and white gram, and had my son sort them with his fingers. This helped him with sorting and greatly improved his sensitivity to different textures. Another activity is teaching painting with watercolors. I would apply color to his hand, hold it, and press it onto a drawing sheet, which he enjoyed. By using these two techniques, I reduced my son’s touch sensitivity.

5. Auditory Activities

“In these auditory activities, children listen to calming music, animal sounds, and transport sounds, and they are also encouraged to recognize pictures through flashcards.

My experience with My Son

You can give the child a horn or whistle, which they often enjoy. An activity I frequently do with my children is playing rhymes on the speaker and dancing and singing along with them in a fun way. Initially, the children may not cooperate, but they eventually start enjoying it. These activities are also beneficial for their language development.”

Conclusion

“Parents play a very important role in the lives of autistic children. If you help your child meet their sensory needs at home, you will gradually see improvements in their behavior, allowing your child to grow and develop further. So, I encourage you to work with your child, as children can make significant progress. If you notice specific behaviors that you find difficult to address, please feel free to ask any questions in the comments. I will provide you with answers.”

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)