What is a Sensory Diet

No, I am not talking about food here folks, I am talking about a diet built for the senses…for kids with Sensory Processing Disorder. If you read my blog regularly, you will know that one of AJ’s main issues is Sensory Processing Disorder or otherwise known as Sensory Integration Dysfunction. World Renowned Occupational Therapist Patricia Wilbarger coined the term Sensory Diet (as well as the Wilbarger Brushing Protocol).

A Sensory Diet is a carefully designed activity schedule that provides your child with sensory and nervous system input to help him/her stay focused, alert, and organized throughout the day. It is VERY important to recognize that EVERY child’s sensory diet will be different because there is no child who is the same and who needs the same sensory input and output. For example, one child may need to use more heavy work activities to utilize her proprioceptive sense and another may need more tactile input.

According to the Sensory Smarts website (a byproduct of the book, Raising a Sensory Smart Child: The Definitive Handbook for Helping Your Child with Sensory Integration Issues) “to construct an effective sensory diet, you need the sensory smarts to truly understand your child’s sensory difficulties and how they interfere with his life.” You will need an occupational therapist to evaluate your child and help you create the sensory diet that will best suit your child.

What is also important to take into account is your child’s threshold for stimulation. If your child is easily stimulated and is often overstimulated it will be very important (early on) to keep a log of what triggers the overstimulation.

Even three years into AJ’s diagnosis we are still learning what triggers his overstimulation but we believe we are getting a handle on it and are finally able to keep him at a more regulated state during the day.

Here is a sample Sensory Diet from Sensory Smarts. We do MANY of these things as well as use natural light as much as possible and try to avoid using lights in the house. We avoid noise (no TV, stores, and play areas) as much as possible because his auditory sense sends him into fight or flight very quickly. We have limited clutter in the house to get rid of visual stimulation.

The hardest part is finding his threshold everyday because everyday it seems to change based upon his sleep or the weather. But, we try to do the best we can, minimize as much as we can, and provide him with as many sensory tools as we can.