Sensory processing is the way your body receives external stimuli, particularly through our various senses. Each of your different senses allow our brains and bodies to effectively receive information and regulate it accordingly. Movement activities can help prepare your body to be in a regulated state to be able to attend throughout the day. Sometimes we might need to wake our bodies up because are feeling tired, bored, sick, etc. Activities we do to stimulate our bodies are called alerting activities. These exercises are ones that are more arrhythmic and unplanned. Alerting activities are best conducted through active movements. Our team of Occupational Therapists have provided some activities we use in to prepare their minds and bodies for therapy, that can also be used at home!
Movement activities can help prepare your body to be in a regulated state to be able to attend throughout the day. Sometimes we might need to wake our bodies up because are feeling tired, bored, sick, etc. Activities we do to stimulate our bodies are called alerting activities. These exercises are ones that are more arrhythmic and unplanned. Alerting activities are best conducted through active movements.
“Log Rolling” Ask your child to lay down on the ground and roll back and forth like a log! You can ask the child to go slower or faster, or both to increase stimulation. You can also hold hands with the child to make it more interactive.
“Over/Under” Have your child pick any object they choose and pass the ball over your head or under their legs. Or if no caregiver is present, they can do it on the wall or against a mirror to make silly faces. Allow your child to pick a toy that is motivating and stimulating for them! Sometimes we even ask the child to use shaving cream and make a shape on the wall when they go “over”.
“Windmills” Windmills are a really fun, customizable activity! At its core, the activity requires your child to put their arms out and spin in a circle, like a windmill. From there, you can have there you can have them do any silly movement or dance they want! You can ask them to go down and touch their toes as fast as they can or have them dance along to “head, shoulders, knees and toes”. You can get as silly as you would like!
These are just a few examples of activities our Occupational Therapists use, but we encourage you and your family to customize them to your child’s interests and needs. We hope that you can put these different activities to use in your home! If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child’s development, please contact our offices to speak with a highly trained therapist! Our team can be reached at 813-330-7967 or info@aaspeech.com.
