Rachel Harrington, COTA/L, AC & Jessica Hill, COTA/L
What is a sensory circuit? We use this term to describe an obstacle course that is used for a sensory diet routine.
A sensory circuit can be used in the clinic as a way to meet your client's sensory threshold. It can be used at home as your child's daily sensory diet routine as well!
We break down how to create an effective sensory circuit using 5 steps: identify the child’s sensory preferences; create a visual support / tool; add a vestibular and a proprioceptive activity; add 1 or 2 more sensory components; and finally, add a goal.
What is a sensory circuit? We use this term to describe an obstacle course that is used for a sensory diet routine.
A sensory circuit can be used in the clinic as a way to meet your client's sensory threshold. It can be used at home as your child's daily sensory diet routine as well!
We break down how to create an effective sensory circuit using 5 steps: identify the child’s sensory preferences; create a visual support / tool; add a vestibular and a proprioceptive activity; add 1 or 2 more sensory components; and finally, add a goal.
Choose a vestibular activity and a proprioceptive activity. These two, I think, are very, very important to include in the sensory circuit. You typically want to start with vestibular and follow it up with proprioception to help reregulate reorganize the nervous system after the alerting vestibular activity, especially if your child is over responsive to vestibular input. But incorporating these two specific types of activities into the sensory circuit is very important for sensory integration processing, as well as overall organization of behavior and regulation.
Rachel:
I'm Rachel.
Jessica:
And I'm Jessica. And this is All Things Sensory by Harkla.
Rachel:
We are both certified occupational therapy assistants and together with Harkla, we are on a mission to empower parents, therapists and educators to help raise confident and strong children of all abilities.
Jessica:
On this podcast, we chat about all things sensory diving into special needs, occupational therapy, parenting, self care, overall health and wellness and so much more.
Rachel:
We're here to provide raw, honest and fun strategies, ideas and information for parents, therapists and educators as well as other professionals to implement into daily life.
Jessica:
Thank you so much for joining us. Before we jump into today's episode, we want to let you know that our Holiday Sensory Survival Guide is on sale right now through Christmas. And this is something that we've had on sale for the last couple of years during the holiday season, because it provides you with some tips, tricks, and strategies to just get through the holiday season. One more quick thing that we want to let you know
Rachel:
There are over 35 pages in this survival guide and they include things like road trips survival activities and about before we jump into today's episode. We are having strategies, holiday picky eating, our gift guide, our modified gift guides not like a huge ones like our sensory gift guide. We provide you with a holiday season sensory diets, visual schedule template because we are obsessed with visuals, how to use sensory diets and visual schedules, sensory diets for when you're traveling, which is what I'm going to be using quite often this holiday season, holiday traditions, low talks, holiday ideas, you know surviving holiday parties, and we also share 10 tips for sensory friendly holidays. So lots and lots of information is included in the survival guide PDF document that you have access to forever. It is $5. You can head to the link in our show notes and check it out. one final sale of the holidays and this sale is for our digital products. You will save 20% off when you shop our digital courses, December 15 through December 22, 2023. I mean, this is our last sale of the year of 2023. If you missed the physical product sale and you're like crap, I didn't get a gift for so and so; then, you can get them a digital product. Because what better Christmas gift than getting something that you can't open and you can't see, but the information is actually really helpful. It's probably a better gift anyways, because.
Jessica:
It's the gift of education.
Rachel:
Exactly. It is so good. It's so helpful. I love it. If anyone wants to gift me a course feel free.
Jessica:
Not one of our courses.
Rachel:
No. With that being said, save 20%. The link is in the show notes. If you have questions don't hesitate to reach out. But Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Thank you for being here. Let's listen to today's episode. Hey everyone, welcome back to All Things Sensory by Harkla. We're happy to have you here for another exciting episode today.
Jessica:
We're gonna talk about a sensory circuit. We're going to talk about what it is, why we like them, and how you can set one up. We're gonna break it down into five steps. So it's super simple and easy at least we think it is. Hopefully you will think so too.
Rachel:
I feel like a sensory circuit is kind of my new favorite term. Yeah, cause like a sensory diet is great. I've always used a sensory diet. I probably always will, but I almost feel like a sensory circuit is easier for people to like visualize and understand. Because normally we say a sensory diet or like an obstacle course and so I was like, let's just combine them together as like our definition is an obstacle course that is used for a sensory diet routine. So combining the best of both worlds.
Jessica:
Yeah, so an obstacle course is is a sequence of movement and sensory activities that you go through several times. If you are a therapist, you're probably very familiar with obstacle courses. If you follow us on Instagram, we post about obstacle courses all the time. So you're probably familiar with him thereand then we have a lot of information on sensory diets as well. But sensory diets are essentially, the different sensory activities you do throughout the day so that you stay calm, regulated, happy and when we can combine them into a sensory circuit, you have a super fun activity for your child to do at home or for your clients to do in the clinic.
Rachel:
So let's jump in to creating a sensory circuit in your house, in your classroom, in your clinic. If your therapist, you're like, I need some new ideas, let's jump in. Let's figure out how we can make a sensory circuit and like Jessica mentioned that we're going to do five steps because we want it to be easy to implement, easy to understand, and we want you to be successful carrying over.
Jessica:
So step number one is to identify your child's sensory preferences, sensory needs, so that you know how to meet their sensory threshold. This applies to you if you're a parent, or if you are a therapist, understanding your client's sensory preferences and sensory needs is really the first step. And I'm finding this to be very, very important in the clinic when I'm setting up obstacle courses. And I'll use these sensory circuit obstacle courses in the clinic as kind of like that preparatory activity for my clients, and I have to really tailor it to each client because they all have different sensory needs. So that really is step number one is knowing what those sensory needs are, knowing what specific sensory activities you need to include to meet the child's sensory threshold. And if you're not familiar with sensory threshold, or you're not sure what it is, go listen to Episode 187, where we dive into the sensory threshold and how to meet it.
Rachel:
If you need a sensory checklist to identify their specific sensory needs, we have a checklist in our sensory diet course. We have a checklist that we always use from sensational brain. It's a free checklist and you can always just Google a sensory checklist and you can find things online as well.
Jessica:
Actually, I just remembered we created a free sensory preference checklist for children ages five and up and you can actually get that free checklist by going to the Harkla YouTube channel and watching the videos on parenting a sensory seeking child and parenting a highly sensitive child. Those two videos have a link to the free sensory checklist. So that's a really easy way to identify sensory preferences.
Rachel:
Yep. Okay, so now that you know their preferences. Are they seeking vestibular input? Are they avoiding auditory input? Are they sensitive to different tactile input? Then you can choose a visual aid or visual supports that you're going to use to help set up the sensory circuit so they can follow the sequence. So some of our favorite ways to use these visual supports are by using a whiteboard, drawing pictures, drawing activities, writing a list for older kiddos, using a picture system with pictures of each step either adding velcro to the back of them or lining them up or sticking them on the wall or on the carpet. Our sensory diet course also has visuals that you can use and BrainWorks from Sensational Brain has activity cards in their membership there. Canva has stock images you can make. You can use a Polaroid camera if you really want to get fancy. So yeah.
Jessica:
We also have a free to do, done visual on our freebies page. It'll be linked below. We're just giving you guys all kinds of freebies today.
Rachel:
Yes.
Jessica:
But yeah, that's a really simple to do, done visual schedule that you can download and use. You can draw pictures, you can use velcro pictures, whatever you want. So you can get that one for free too.
Rachel:
Okay, so that's number two: choose your visual aid.
Jessica:
Number three, is to choose a vestibular activity and a proprioceptive activity. These two I think are very, very important to include in the sensory circuit. You typically want to start with vestibular and follow it up with proprioception to help reregulate, reorganize the nervous system after the alerting vestibular activity, especially if your child is over responsive to vestibular input. But incorporating these two specific types of activities into the sensory circuit is very important for sensory integration processing, as well as overall organization of behavior and regulation. So some ideas for vestibular activities would be swinging, jumping, rolling, somersaulting, anything that puts the head into a different position, or moves the body through space in some way, would be vestibular and then like I said, followed up with proprioception. Some different proprioceptive ideas would be jump and crash onto cushions or crash pad, crawling is a super simple, easy proprioceptive activity, vibration is a great way to get proprioceptive input, anything that works the muscles and provides compression to the body or the joints will be proprioception.
Rachel:
Yep. Okay, so you've got your vestibular and your proprioceptive activities. Number four, we're going to add in other sensory components. Now you can pick a couple of these, I would maybe pick one, two, or three to start off with. You've got your auditory system, you could do something like metronome crawling, or metronom clapping, listening to music., Your tactile system, you could include a sensory bin or dry brushing or vibration. Visual system, you could incorporate infinity loop tracing. Olfactory, your sense of smell, you could do a scented scrunchie for them to smell. You could do an oral motor activity, blowing a pom pom along the floor with a straw or just with her mouth. So you can add in these other activity components as part of your sensory circuit and so like I mentioned, you're not going to pick all of these, but you can pick a couple. Maybe that your child either loves or maybe some things that they are struggling with. Maybe they don't like the certain texture of Orbeez, the water beads, and you want to set up a little sensory bin with them and they're safe, they're not going to eat them and that can be a good way to work them into tolerating that texture a little bit more. So yeah, add in some other sensory components.
Jessica:
The more the merrier, but also don't get overwhelmed by thinking you have to do so many, especially for younger children. You could just do one and have a simple three step sensory circuit with vestibular proprioceptive and tactile. But doesn't have to be super complex, even though sometimes the more complex ones are also very fun.
Rachel:
You set up some pretty complex ones at the clinic, which are fun. But yes, it's a little more structured and a little bit more. I mean, you have an idea of what you're doing with each activity that's meeting the goal. So for a parent who's doing it at home, it can feel a little bit. It's always harder to do these activities at home with your own child.
Jessica:
Yeah, and I think.
Rachel:
Speaking from experience for myself here.
Jessica:
Yes, the clinic is definitely a different environment. But I think if you're new to setting up sensory circuits or obstacle courses or sensory diets, then just start small and simple and then you can build from there. Number five is to add a goal to the sensory circuit. So you can simply have your child go through the sensory circuit a couple of times to really just help meet their sensory needs. But we really like having a goal, like a start and a stop and something that your child does within these sensory obstacles that has a purpose. So that could be a puzzle, container play, some sort of game that has pieces that you put on at the beginning of the sensory circuit, and then you have a goal to get the pieces all the way through the sensory circuit, and they put it on the puzzle board or in the container or on the game at the end. And then they go through again to get the next set of pieces, and so on until they fully completed the game or the puzzle. You can also add homework activities into this. So you can add spelling words, you can add handwriting or math to really make homework or homeschooling a little bit more fun. But also anytime you add movement into a cognitive activity, you're reinforcing that cognitive learning.
Rachel:
I love doing these I was thinking about that crazy caterpillar game that we were talking about the other day. You've got the balls and the tweezers and the caterpillar that like dances and moves and he's holding his arms out and so you can grab like certain colors. And you can have it the child grabs certain colors to get through the sensory circuit and then they have to put the colors in on little caterpillar at the end, and then go back through and get the next color. So that's what we mean by adding the goal or in OT language, adding the function. Just to make it functional, and not just a rote, boring, like, activity that doesn't have any benefit to it.
Jessica:
So those are our five steps to setting up a sensory circuit. Now, if you have this all set up, and you're ready for your child to go through it, make sure you teach them how to go through it first. Show them all of the steps, do it with them, make it super fun. If your child goes through the sensory circuit, and it wasn't challenging enough, it was really easy, you can change up the steps of the sensory circuit to make it more complex each time they go through. You can change the motor planning components So instead of crawling forwards through the tunnel, now they have to crawl backwards through the tunnel. Instead of clapping to every beat of the metronome now they clap on every other beat. So you can really change up the different components each time they go through, if needed, or if the sensory circuit is a challenge for them, you can really build the skills each time they go through.
Rachel:
If you set up a sensory circuit, and it goes well or it doesn't go well, take a video, tag us on Instagram at All Things Sensory Podcast. It is really helpful to have other people view these and see that it's doable and fun and exciting, and we'd love to see it and share what you've
Jessica:
If you liked this episode, make sure you share it created. with a friend. Take a screenshot of you listening and post it to your stories and tag us at All Things Sensory Podcast. Leave us a review. If you haven't yet, you can leave reviews on iTunes and Spotify. Let us know how we're doing and if you have any questions, just reach out to us.
Rachel:
Thank you so much for being here. If you have any follow up questions, don't hesitate to reach out. And we are here to support you.
Jessica:
Okay, we'll talk to you next week. Bye.
Rachel:
Okay, bye. Thank you so much for listening to All Things Sensory by Harkla.
Jessica:
If you want more information on anything mentioned in the show, head over to Harkla.co/podcast to get the shownotes.
Rachel:
If you have any follow up questions, the best place to ask those is in the comments on the show notes or message us on our Instagram account, which is at Harkla_family or at All Things Sensory Podcast. If you just search Harkla, you'll find us there.
Jessica:
Like we mentioned before our podcast listeners get 10% off their first order at Harkla. Whether it's for one of our digital courses or one of our sensory swings, the discount
code:
sensory, we'll get you 10% off. That's s e n s o r y.
Rachel:
Head to Harkla.co/sensory to use that discount code right now.
Jessica:
We are so excited to work together to help create confident kids all over the world. While we make every effort to share correct information we're still learning.
Rachel:
We will double check all of our facts, but realize that medicine is a constantly changing science and art.
Jessica:
One doctor or therapist may have a different way of doing things from another.
Rachel:
We are simply presenting our views and opinions on how to address common sensory challenges, health related difficulties, and what we have found to be beneficial that will be as evidence based as possible.
Jessica:
By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or your child.
Rachel:
Consult your child's pediatrician or therapist for any medical issues that he or she may be having.
Jessica:
This entire disclaimer also applies to any guests or contributors to the podcast.