One of the students I work with has been diagnosed with complex ASD and has an extreme oral fixation. We have tried many oral toys, such as chew necklaces, chewy tubes, chewable pencil toppers, etc. Unfortunately, these oral toys did not hit the stimulus input that this child required. They continued to chew textbooks, their clothing, and any item they could get tangibly. This is when we decided as a team to get a vibrating oral toy to see if this would help and provide safety for the child with the consistent mouthing of non-preferred items.
Oral-mouthing toys provide engaging and gentle stimuli for individuals with exceptionalities. It can help a child feel calmer when they need that sensory feedback or to build sensation tolerance. These toys help children to have a safe experience and give them control over the sensory input.
These types of devices are created with the needs of children in mind, whether hyposensitivity or hypersensitivity.
Sensory Toys can help/benefit children by:
Allowing for safe exploration
Teaching children cause and effect
Helps build skills (cognitive, motor)
Help feel calm and relaxed - even when escalated
Gain focus within their environments
You can find great devices at: https://enablingdevices.com/
Tanisha@NUO
No comments:
Post a Comment