For most kids, sensory processing occurs without conscious thought and these skills are automatic.
But for some kids, sensory information goes into the brain but does not get organized into appropriate responses.
For some of these children, school is a place they dislike.
CLICK TO READ: Getting Ready for School with Sensory Processing Disorder
Recommended Reading
- The Sensory Child Gets Organized
- Sensory Solutions in the Classroom for the Kid Who Cannot Sit Still
- Sensory Strategies for the Elementary School Classroom
Printable Classroom Support Resources
- Calming Strategies for the Classroom
- Classroom Behavior Management Guide
- Sensory Break Cards for the Classroom
- Classroom Behavior Management Incentive Puzzles
- Classroom Yoga in 10 Minutes a Day
- Create a Calm Classroom
- Sensory Tools for the Classroom – Handouts, Forms and Data Collection
- Sensory-Friendly Classroom Starter Kit
- Teacher’s Handbook to Sensory Processing in the Classroom
- Yoga in the Classroom
For more reading about sensory solutions in the classroom:
Behavior Solutions for the Inclusive Classroom: A Handy Reference Guide That Explains Behaviors Associated with Autism, Asperger’s, ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, and Other Special Needs
Gryphon House Wired Differently: A Teacher’s Guide to Understanding Sensory Processing ChallengesBuilding Sensory Friendly Classrooms to Support Children with Challenging Behaviors: Implementing Data Driven Strategies!Answers to Questions Teachers Ask about Sensory Integration: Forms, Checklists, and Practical Tools for Teachers and Parents
My son, who is 6 and has recently been diagnosed with SPD, was behind in fine motor skills. When I approached the school with this diagnosis, the teacher shared her concerns with his handwriting skills. They brought in an OT to work with him 1 day a week. Because of our location, this is the only OT interaction he has. I can say that it has done wonders. Not only with his handwriting but his willingness to do handwriting activities at home. This past summer, he actually sat down at the table and colored a picture on his own without any prompting from me. This was a very proud moment for me as in his 6 years I’ve never been able to get him to color a picture.
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing your experience.
If you’re unlucky enough to be in Indiana and have a child with a special need, you’re in for a world of pain. The state has literally turned the clocks back 50 years. We’re in the Brownsburg Community School Corporation and our superintindent – Jim Snapp – is anti-special needs. He is heavily focused on being a big fish that he loses sight of why he’s there: To run a quality school system. He’s marketing reps do a good job of making all the right pitches and saying the right things, but when pressed about special needs curriculum, ummm, he’s just uninterested, uneducated and quite a heartbreaker to kids who are differently abled in his school system. The local special needs “resource” is so far in the brown-nosing business that parents don’t get a fair shake. If you have to educate your child in the state of Indiana, please find your way to Carmel in Hendricks County or Avon or Indianapolis because you’ll cry everyday knowing that at Brownsburg Community School Corporation educational justice means “just US” to Jim Snapp. A terrible place for special needs kids past preschool.
School District 50 in Greenwood,SC almost destroyed our SPDer’s self esteem. The 1st and 2nd grade teachers had no tolerance for him and blamed the Mom for spoiling him. He had an IEP but didn’t not have time in their (per the teacher) class to cater to one child who cried all the time, didn’t want to be touched, who was made to stand up in front of the class and apologize for disturbing the class! He was 6 years old and didn’t know what he was apologizing for. He wouldn’t wear the same headphones another kid wore. Once we knew that we bought him his own. He didn’t want to sit where another child day because of the smell…let him sit on his cushion even if all the kids would want to bring a cushion because he wants to sit on one, what’s wrong with that. Embarrass him because he had nervous tics. They told him to tell his mom to put him on medication. He felt like and I don’t blame him, that they hated him. He was pulled out of that school and put in another school same district that had also taught Montessori classes. From day one he never cried. The Teacher’s praised him for everything. The Principal was awesome. He went through 3 to 5th grade in that school and loved it and was successful. Then the district did away with Montessori and he went into the middle school 6th grade with school that operated just like the one he was in 1st and 2nd grades. They belittled him, rushed him, the first month he had not had any IEP resource help, and to make a terrible story short, we pulled him out and went with the SC charter public school online at home. We recommend anyone looking for alternatives to consider your state’s public school online from home. Certified teachers, home room, different teacher for each subject. One-on-one Resource Teacher’s.
No cost do public school from home, they furnish computer if you don’t have one, they mail you the supplies, books, even the science project kits and any tool needed to do your projects. They have friend trips and you get scocisl skills through meetings, field trips, sports, etc. any extracurricular your bricks and mortar school offers their students is available for the home online students to participate in as well. There are options that don’t cost and this is one of them.
This year we found a public school on another county who has Montessori classes with a principal and teaches who have shown more interest in this one child than Lakeview and Northside ever shown him. He is a real person at Sanders and those students at that school blessed beyond words.
Unfortunately, I’m betting your story isn’t unique. Thank you for sharing!
It’s about time the CCGs started to commission occupational therapist to do full sensory audits, were missing a huge trick here and it is so short sighted