How Sensory Integration Therapy Creates A Sensory-Friendly Classroom For Autistic Children?

10th April 2024

The classroom environment always buzzing with activities like:
 

• students chattering
• Pencil scratching
• Table screeching voice
• Fluorescent light humming

This kind of classroom environment is an exhilarating experience for most of the students. However, for children with autism, it can prove to be quite overwhelming and it disrupts the sensory processing.

This is where sensory integration therapy can be of big help.

Special education educators can utilize sensory integration therapy teaching techniques to transform the classroom environment into an environment. This technique helps children with autism to regulate their senses, amidst the chaos.

In this blog post, we will be exploring why sensory-integrating therapy is the ultimate way to create a sensory-friendly environment for children with autism.

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So, without any further delay, let’s get started.

What is Sensory Integration Therapy?
 

Source: medicalexpress.com

Children with autism can face various sensory processing difficulties in the classroom environment due to being hyper-sensitive and hypo-sensitive to certain stimuli like-
 

• Touch
• Smell
• Sight
• Taste
• Movements

These sensory challenges can create a hindrance in every aspect of children with autism’s life like- daily functioning, mood, emotions, behaviour, and communication.

This is where the sensory integration therapy can help. Sensory integration therapy is a type of therapeutic approach whose primary aim is to help individuals with autism regulate and process any sensory input better, which will help them to engage and participate more actively in classroom activities and interactions.
 

Effective Sensory Integration Techniques For Children With Autism

Utilizing or implementing various sensory integration techniques is one of the vital aspects of therapy for children with autism.

Let’s get to know some of the simple and effective sensory integration techniques that can help children with autism understand and respond to their sensory stimuli information:

Deep Pressure Therapy

Deep-pressure therapy is a kind of therapy that involves applying pressure on children with autism firmly and evenly distributed. You can use various activities to achieve this like-
 

• Deep-Pressure Massage
• Compression garments
• Weighted Blankets

Deep pressure therapy helps children with autism to regulate their sensory system and helps them to calm or relax their anxiety or negative emotions, which ultimately gives them a sense of security.

Proprioceptive Activities

Proprioceptive activities help children with autism to improve their body co-ordination, body awareness and it gives a sense of stability. This activity involves engaging different muscles and joints to provide sensory input. You can consider introducing Proprioceptive activities to autistic children like -
 

• Lifting hands or legs
• Pushing objects
• Carrying light or heavy objects
• Pulling objects

Vestibular Stimulation

Vestibular stimulation helps children with autism to improve their sensory processing, co-ordination, and overall balance. It involves activities that engage the vestibular system, which plays a vital role in a human’s spatial awareness and balance.

Some of the vestibular stimulation activities are-
 

• Swimming
• Rocking
• Spinning

Tactile Stimulation Activities

Tactile stimulation helps children with autism to improve their tactile processing, tolerance, desensitize hypersensitivity, and improve sensitivity to touch. It involves various activities to provide various sensations and textures like by-
 

• Engaging with tactile toys
• Playing with different textured materials
• Finger painting

Visual Stimulation Activites

Visual stimulation is a sensory integration technique that involves various visual aids or cues to support the sensory processing of children with autism. It basically helps autistic children to process visual information without getting sensory overload. You can consider introducing visual stimulation activities to autistic children like-
 

• Visual Timer
• Visual Schedules
• Various visual aids

Auditory Stimulation Activities

Auditory stimulation is a sensory integration technique that focuses on sound-based sensory input. Auditory stimulation helps children with autism by enhancing audio processing capabilities by increasing sensitivity to any sound or reducing hypersensitivity. Some of the audio stimulation activists that you can introduce to children with autism are-
 

• Playing different musical instruments
• Listening calming music
• Encouraging students to play sound-based games

Oral Stimulation Activities

Oral stimulation is a sensory integration technique that helps children with autism to provide sensory input in their oral muscles and mouth. This type of stimulation activity helps children with autism to regulate their oral sensory system, reduces oral sensitivity, and improves feeding skills. Some of the oral stimulation activists that you can introduce to children with autism are-
 

• Engaging with chewable toys
• Using Straws
• Engaging with any oral sensory exercises

Sensory Integration Therapy Is The Key To Improving Sensory Processing Ability For Autistic Children

Every autistic child may have suffered from various sensory processing difficulties which makes the classroom experience difficult. As a responsible special education educator, you can utilize the above-mentioned sensory integrating technique to create a positive classroom environment that supports the unique sensory needs of children with autism.

If you are also looking for more effective strategies and techniques to cater to the different learning and sensory needs of children with autism, then you can consider pursuing Online Special Education Courses in Singapore, where you will get guidance from a top expert trainer, who will also help you to become a capable special education teacher too.

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