How To Channel and Develop Touch: Sensory Board

Kelly, our occupational therapist, strongly suggested we make a sensory board for the boys. The purpose of this board was to channel their tactile sensitivity. Our goal was to educate them about touch, literally direct their sense of touch. We did not want to desensitize; we did not want to deaden their sense of touch.

Now getting the boys to cooperate was a different matter.

We started simply: a plain piece of white cardboard. We asked the boys to look at it. The boys looked at it. No problem. Then we asked them to touch it. The boys had no problem touching it. Those were huge steps. Each step was followed by praise.

Over the following weeks, we slowly attached different materials to the board, adding only one at a time. Each material had a different surface. We included sand paper, silk, velvet, denim, wool, and plastic. Each piece was about three inches. Each new piece presented trials for each boy.

I touched the material first. I had to show the boys that I would not get hurt. Then I usually did a hand-over-hand with the boys. That means I took their hand and touched the new sample gently. I quickly let their hand go. Then it was up to them to willingly touch. Sometimes it took several attempts over months to get the boys comfortable to touch each sample.

We did not spend a lot of time in this activity. It really was a few minutes three or four times a week. I am not really sure how long it took for the boys to master the "touch" of the board; I think it was a year.

We then ventured into more surfaces, such as wood, sand, metal, and glass. We talked about the uses of each as the boys held the sample. We also cautioned them about the hazards of each.

As they adapted to these new surfaces, we tried going outside. Grass, trees, sidewalks, anything that was in their environment posed tactile problems. So the next step was to introduce more surfaces in a controlled environment: a sensory room. I'll write about our sensory room next time!

Beach and Tactile Issues Part 2

Last week we had fun at the beach. Several years ago that was an impossibility. The boys simply could not have handled the sand.

Tactile = anything pertaining to the sense of touch The tactile symptoms of autism can be unique, just as each individual, autistic or not, is unique. Ryan, Nick, and Cameron had various tactile issues. Ryan did not like to be touched. Nick could not handle clothing on his arms and legs, nor shoes on his feet. Cam banged his head on the floor. None of them could tolerate anything gooey or dirty on their skin. None of them could tolerate the feel of denim or anything metal, such as zippers. Really, the only material they could tolerate was cotton. It was quite distressing to figure out what to do in each case. Remember that Ryan was diagnosed with autism at age seven, Nick at age five, and Cam at age two. Since we did not know what we were dealing with, the earlier years for Ryan and Nick were really a struggle. We simply did not hug Ryan much. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, Ryan would lean back to get out of a hug, and this usually resulted with a dent in a wall. Nick ran around in shorts and t-shirts. Cam usually wore a bike helmet to protect his head. The real progress in their learning to live with "touch" did not start until we had Kelly, an occupational therapist. At first, I thought that meant sending my kids to work, as in to earn a paycheck. I quickly learned that occupational therapy related to the kids and what was a normal activity in which they should be able to participate. The first, big step was shaving cream. It was easy to put on, and easy to wash off. If it got on clothes, it was easily washed out. Kelly put just a little bit on each hand of my boys. Oh, the screeching and hollering that bellowed from my kids, protesting that awful stuff. Poor Kelly. She timed this activity. At first it was simply trying to get the kids to tolerate a minute of shaving cream on their hands. That took about a month to master. Of course, they still screeched and protested. Ryan even jumped around because he did not like it one bit. Kelly rewarded them with spinning or swinging. That gave each boy some down time, time to recover. Obviously, this issue is going to be a mini-series instead of two parts. Next time I'll go into more detail and briefly cover other therapies like the use of horses, sensory room, sensory boards, etc. photo credit: littledan77