A sensory diet has nothing to do with food (awww man!). It is developed by an Occupational Therapist with specific sensory activities to either calm or stimulate your child when need be. If you perform these specific activities daily, it will help calm/stimulate their sensory issues and put them in a “just right” feeling, helping them be successful in school and at home.
I like to think of kids who have sensory processing disorder as a child walking around with a cup full of water. Just one more drop to their senses and that cup is overflowing….and how do you stop an already overflowing cup? It’s very difficult. If you follow a daily regimen of sensory activities, it keeps their cup half full, maybe more, maybe less, but not already overflowing when they wake up. This way, sensory stimulation throughout the day only adds a few drops of water, but at least their cup isn’t overflowing…giving them time to calm down before they hit their breaking point.
For example, a child may wake up with their cup filled to the brim, not knowing how to bring it down. When they get on the bus, maybe someone brushes their arm just a certain way that now their cup is overflowing. Once that cup is overflowing, there is no way to bring it down except with a sensory activity that could help. Think about the day they will have with the cup overflowing….meltdowns, phone calls home, tantrums, maybe even hiding in a closet from the teacher.
If you are seeing an Occupational Therapist, they should have developed, and continually developing a sensory diet for your child. Each diet is specifically tailored to meet the needs of THAT child.
If you have not seen an OT, you may have noticed some things around the house that calm/stimulate your child. If the purpose is to keep your child at a calm level (cup half full), then incorporate those activities daily. For example, before seeing an OT, I noticed coloring really calmed Whitney down. I would have her come home from school and color while she talked about her day. She really enjoys the adult coloring books, with a VERY nice set of her own colored pencils. The Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils are pricey, but boy are they worth it. Smooth coloring, in the lines, perfect sharpened ends….she’s in heaven.
I also noticed in the morning she was calmer when she had her own alarm clock slowly waking her up and calendar telling her what the activities were for the day. She felt “set up” for the day, calming her. This Philips Wake-Up Light Alarm Clock with Colored Sunrise Simulation and Sunset Fading Night is a Godsend. It mimics a rising sun in her room, slowly and easily awaking her to the day with a variety of sounds. She likes the birds chirping. I have one in my room and it is the best alarm clock I have ever had. You can also find them on EBay, because they are a bit pricey, but completely worth it.
Also, I immediately programmed the Amazon Echo Dot in her room to tell her her daily schedule when she woke. Check out this article about how to program Amazon Alexa to announce your child’s daily schedule.
For Wes, as you can see in the top picture, he loves tight spaces and took over my blanket storage basket. Everyday he would come home and squish himself into it….so the solution was to buy him his own basket that perfectly fit him and he was in control of where it was placed in the room and what was inside it. Wade greatly enjoys building racetracks and watching cars roll down hills. This was something I would encourage when he got home from school to set him up for a calmer evening. Also, both boys enjoy a 5-10 rock in their sensory swing in their bedroom (you can see Wade sleeping in the top picture). This has helped them sleep through the night, also setting them up for a more successful day.
Whatever your child’s sensory diet ends up involving… DO IT! And teach them how to do the activities on their own. They will start to connect how much better they feel and which activities help them when. And they will eventually INDEPENDENTLY (say what???) do them on their own. Whitney automatically goes to her sensory swing, plays ‘spa music’ on her Echo, turns on her calming lights, and is able to appropriately calm herself down before exploding on the boys (or us). It’s sooooo amazing!!!! Disclaimer: this does not happen over night…sorry to disappoint 🙂
