Many of our sensory seeking children self-regulate by chewing or sucking on non-food items. Chewing on their shirt sleeve or sucking on their fingers helps to organize, calm, soothe, and regulate their sensory systems. Providing a chewy necklace or bracelet is a great way to feed their sensory system, but there are also certain snacks that you can feed their bodies to help them regulate too! This blog gives ideas of some snacks to try that provide great sensory input for your sensory seeking child.

Crunchy snacks provide a lot of pressure input to the jaw. These snacks include:  

• Nuts 
• Thick or hard granola bars 
• Apples, pears, carrot sticks, cucumbers 
• Pretzels 
• Crackers 
• Ice chips 
• Rice cakes 
• Bagel or pita chips 
• Graham crackers 
• Dry cereal 

Chewy snacks promote an increased rate of chewing as well as providing a lot of input. Some examples of these snacks are: 

• Fruit snacks 
• Fruit leather 
• Dried fruit 

• Raisins 
• Chewy mini bagels 
• Gum 
• Sausage sticks or beef jerky 

Sucking on snacks and drinks also provides great resistance in the mouth for sensory seekers. Try these ideas: 

• Drinking liquids through a crazy straw or small coffee stirrer straw 
• Drinking a smoothie or yogurt through a regular straw 
• Sucking on apple sauce or yogurt squeeze pouches 
• Sucking on hard mints 

 Next time you give your little sensory seeker a snack, try one of these to nourish both their bodies and sensory systems! 

Children explore and seek to understand the world around them in a variety of ways using their senses. A child’s sensory system works to help them to see, hear, touch, taste, smell, and feel where their bodies are in relation to others and in space. Some children tend to avoid certain sensory input (e.g., avoiding busy or noisy spaces, or becoming upset at the sight, taste, or texture of certain foods), while others seek specific types of input (e.g., they may enjoy making loud noises such as humming, or chew, bite, or explore things with their mouth).  This blog focuses on giving more insight about oral motor sensory seeking.

Some children seek sensory input via licking, chewing, biting, or putting things in their mouth more than other children, which is known as oral motor sensory seeking.  Here are 4 things you may not have known about oral motor sensory seeking: 

1. Your child’s care team will likely have strategies to support your child’s oral motor sensory needs.  Be sure to consult with your child’s healthcare team to ensure that your child’s oral seeking behaviors are sensory in nature. 
2. A child who seeks oral motor sensory input may be attempting to self-regulate in order to participate within their daily routine.  For example, some children chew on their pencils, shirt collars, or lips while they are engaged in a challenging task.  Other children may bite themselves or others if they are anxious, overstimulated, or are having trouble communicating their needs.  These behaviors may be a child’s way of organizing and calming themselves within their environment. 
3.  Oral motor sensory seeking is a combination of tactile (touch of teeth or object in mouth), proprioception (deep pressure of the jaw crunching or biting something), and taste (flavor or sensation provided).  Each child’s sensory profile, or how their senses work together, is unique and can change over their lifespan.
4. A designated sensory diet can help your child to functionally incorporate oral sensory activities throughout their day.  Your child’s occupational therapist may recommend a trial of crunchy or chewy textured foods, sucking through straws, blowing bubbles, chew sticks, heavy work, or other strategies to support your child to meet their need for sensory input throughout their day.

We know about sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch… but what if someone told you there's a sixth sense? We all have this sense, but most of us are unaware of its existence. It is called proprioception and is very important to our body's understanding of itself and how to navigate the world. 

Proprioception, or the body's ability to sense itself, can be a complicated matter, especially in children with academic, social, or behavioral issues like ADHD, Autism, and sensory processing disorder. Proprioceptive dysfunction has been observed in such children, as many of them have difficulty knowing where their body is in space and understanding boundaries when playing and interacting with other children. 

Many children with processing disorders report feeling scattered or disjointed, which may be related to a faulty proprioceptive sense. Children who are clumsy, uncoordinated, and sensory seeking are often experiencing proprioceptive dysfunction. The following are common signs of proprioceptive dysfunction: 

• Sensory Seeking (pushes, writes too hard, plays rough, bangs or shakes feet while sitting, chews, bites, and likes tight clothes) 
• Poor Motor Planning/Control & Body Awareness (difficulty going up and downstairs, bumps into people and objects frequently, difficulty riding a bike) 
• Poor Postural Control (slumps, unable to stand on one foot, needs to rest head on the desk while working) 

These children often self-regulate by engaging in behaviors that provide proprioceptive input, such as toe walking, crashing, running, or flapping. 

Regulating Proprioception

Heavy work, or tasks that involve heavy resistance and input to the muscles and joints, is essential to regulating proprioception. Frog jumps, bear hugs, and climbing monkey bars are just a few activities that can make a child's proprioceptive sense stronger. Other activities include: 

• Weightbearing activities e.g. crawling, push-ups 
• Resistance activities e.g. pushing/pulling 
• Heavy lifting e.g. carrying books 
• Cardiovascular activities e.g.running, jumping on a trampoline 
• Oral activities e.g. chewing, blowing bubbles 
• Deep pressure e.g. tight hugs 
• Wiping benches and tables 
• Brushing/mopping floors 
• Holding doors open 
• Carrying piles of books 
• Carrying a backpack with a heavy item in it 
• Stacking chairs 
• Moving furniture 
• Putting out and tidying away toys 

Providing proprioceptive activities can enhance a child's learning in the classroom and at home. These activities will help a child to achieve a calm and alert state, which then improves emotional wellbeing and the ability to engage and learn. It should be noted, however, that some children may be overresponsive to proprioceptive input and will, therefore, avoid some of the activities listed above.  It is important to find alternative calming strategies for these children. If you have any questions or concerns, talk to your Blue Bird Day therapists today.