IMPORTANT: While one activity might be good for one child, it could be too much for another. Check with an Occupational Therapist before starting.

Here are a bunch of fun things you can do with everyday things you have at home:

1. Water Play in the sink: Fill a large bowl up with water in the sink and throw in some measuring cups. My kids play in the sink for hours. They also use bath toys. We put straws in the bowl and blow bubbles.

2. Family Animal Relay Races. We do this before meals or bedtime. It's really fun and it calms my kids down. We pretend we are different animals and race each other. We hop like kangaroos, slithers on the ground like snakes, walk like crabs doing the crab walk, crawl like bears. The possiblities are endless for this one. It fun to have my kids come up with some ideas too.

3. Laundry basket races. We put our children in laundry baskets and we race each other. They also push each other.

4. Vacuuming. My son vacuums all the time. It's another good heavy work activty.

5. Groceries. Helping with bringing the groceries in. For example,carrying in the milk jug.

6. Jumping on the bed.

7. Making a child sandwich. Taking two cushions from the couch and putting the child in between the cushion and gently applying pressure.

8. Going to the playground. Everything is wonderful there, the swings, slides, the large open fields.

9. Obstacle Course. Make obstacle courses out of furniture.

10. Fingerpainting. Try this with pudding or shaving cream. Get a baking sheet and fill it with shaving cream or pudding and have your kids play with it with their fingers. My kids write there names and make funny pictures.  Helps with fine motor and tactile defensiveness.

11. Swinging blanket. My husband and I put a blanket down on the floor and one of our children lay down in the middle. Then my husband and I pick up the blanket, him on one side and me on the other. Then we swing our child back and forth with them inside the blanket. We sing a song while swinging them or we count. My kids love it and it's a nice little workout for my husband and I.

My daugther taught me one of the most important things I've learned. It's to get in there and do whatever your child is doing with them. That brought my son out of his world and into ours. My son would constantly be spinning, jumping off everything, and running every where. She would be right there with him and they would be laughing hysterically together. This allows your child to feel accepted for who they are. They begin to trust the outside world.

Your child gives you keys into how they learn. Pay attention to what you child does and build off of that!!! Check out the book "Engaging Autism: Helping Children Relate, Communicate and Think with the DIR Floortime Approach by Dr Stanley I Greenspan" to learn more about this.

 

 

Also a great website that has a long list of Sensory Activites.

http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/

check out the blue tabs on the left for more activities;

     1. Treatment Activities

     2. Heavy Work Activities

     3.Fine Motor Activities