In today’s age we all have a reaction when we hear the word ‘diet’… Some of us want to know more, because we need to know how to quickly lose weight, but others just want to deliberately not listen. The last mentioned probably feel – it’s just another insane method that forces you to starve yourself in an attempt to let the numbers on the scale decrease. We all know that a healthy lifestyle, with proper eating habits essentially is the best way to lose weight and to maintain this weight. We also acknowledge that all healthy food does not accommodate with everyone and then you have to make adjustments in your diet.
This is exactly the same with a sensory diet. It is a list of activities that helps the child with sensory processing difficulties to feel calm and organised and this allows them to attend, learn and behave to the best of their ability. Activities are individually tailored to make sure that activities that are done achieve the desired effect.
Just like we try to eat more fruit and vegetables, and less sweets and chips, we also need a balanced amount of sensory information to allow our bodies to work optimally. A sensory diet gives the opportunity for the body to get more stimulation in some areas and to dampen the information received by other sensory areas.
Sensory diets can’t be generic. Activities that calm one child do not necessarily calm another child and could actually have the opposite effect. Tailored diets need modification from time to time as the child’s individual sensory systems develop and their needs change. As a child learns to use these sensory diet activities to maintain an optimal level of arousal, skills such as concentration, sharing, turn taking as well as learning becomes easier and within the child’s reach. This enables the child to move from being dependent on others for step-by-step guidance and assistance to manage tasks or situations independently.
Children that would probably benefit from sensory diets are:
- Extremely active (to the point where they cannot settle down to apply themselves to a task)
- Excessively tired and lethargic
- Daydreamers
- Easily ‘wound up’ by physical activity
- Unable to calm down after being in busy environments
- Impulsive
- Loud and unable to modulate the tone of their voice
- Restless during group time
- Too rough
- ‘In your space’ continuously
At last! A diet that could assist a child to reach his/her potential in various environments.
You might want to read more about sensory diets at home.
