How to Make Your Own Sensory Integration Tubs Cheap
Children with Special Needs, and even Neurotypical children, often suffer from Sensory Integration issues. Offering them a varied "sensory diet," a term coined by Occupational Therapist Patricia Wilbarger, is vital to helping them remain focused and organized throughout the day. You should be aware of your child's sensory needs before choosing the input to offer. A "high energy" child might need calming input, while a "low energy" child would need more arousing input. The same child may also express a need for different input on different days or times. Unfortunately, many commercially offered sensory integration toys and tools come with a hefty price tag outside the means of many families, and are generally not covered by health insurance. My daughter, who is both Autistic and has Cerebral Palsy, loves sensory tubs. These are basically a series of containers, each with a different collection of tactile, visual and auditory items for her to shove her hands in and explore. One of her sensory tubs is large enough for her to climb into and sit comfortably to play.
Things You'll Need
- As many clear containers as you want, ranging in size from 2 qt. to 32 gallons
- Various shapes of dry pasta
- Dried beans
- Craft pompoms of varied colors and sizes
- Corn meal
- Uncooked rice
- Inside out balls and toys of smiliar material, such as stretchy centipedes and velvet slime anemones
- Any other textured items that you can find and think your child might enjoy
Instructions
Go to your child's Occupational Therapy sessions and pay attention to the tools and toys her OT uses. Touch the toys, play with them, ask about them. Ask for suggestions. If your child does not have OT, do some research on sensory integration and commercially available products. Visit your local dollar store. You should be able to find 2 qt. and some slightly bigger clear storage containers there, although you would probably have to visit a department store for the larger bins. Still at the dollar store, after finding your containers, go to the toy department. You will be amazed to find many of the same toys, even the same brands, offered commercially by Special Needs retailers at less than 1/3 of the cost! Feel the toys, squish them, squeeze them, play with them, and compare them to what you have seen. Select enough similar toys, such as inside out balls and toys of the same material, to loosely fill one of your containers. Still at the dollar store, go to the grocery area. Select pasta of varying shapes and sizes, such as shells, elbow macaroni, spirals and bow ties. Still at the dollar store, in the grocery area, locate and select dried beans, uncooked rice, and corn meal. If your dollar store does not have these items, your local grocery store should. Still at the dollar store, go to the craft section. Locate and select enough pompoms of various sizes and colors to fill a container. If your dollar store does not have these items, your local department store should. Purchase your items and take them home. Fill each container with one type of item: squishy toys for a unique sensation, pompoms for soft and comforting, a mix of the types of pasta for hard and poky, dried beans for smooth and weight, uncooked rice for small and hard to hold onto, and corn meal for silky and sand-like. You now have sensory tubs! Let your Special Needs, or Neurotypical, child explore the contents of the sensory tubs at her own speed. New textures can be scary, or exciting, or both. The varying textures offer differing degrees of tactile input. Show your child how to turn and shake the sealed containers to hear and feel the thud-thump of the toys, the rain-like hiss of the rice, and the clatter of the beans. Each container will have a different weight for mild proprioceptive input, sound for auditory input, and the shifting items inside will offer visual input. Previous:How to Teach Children Accountability
