resources / Sensory activities
Sensory Activities
When you are feeling really energetic or chatty and you want to be moving or playing and active, but your teacher needs you to listen carefully or you are indoors in a quiet space such as a library or church or at home at meal-time or before bed, you can use sensory activities to calm and quieten yourself. This also works if you feel angry, annoyed and frustrated to help you release your emotions, release stress and calm down. You can also use sensory
activities to raise your energy and level of alertness when you feel low in energy and mood. Start slowly with the activity then build up the speed or the volume as you get more alert.
Activities you can try if you feel too energetic or emotional with anger, fear, frustration
- Squeeze a stress ball
- Play with a fidget toy
- Do some colouring
- Play Chess
- Do a crossword or sudoku
- Play slow, soft music
- Play a musical instrument softly and slowly
- Wear noise cancelling headphones
- Go for a walk in nature
- Sit in the backyard and read
- Sit on a slow rocking chair
- Slow stretching
- Yoga
- Chew gum
- Burn a scented candle or incense
- Hug a weighted toy
- Walk with a weighted backpack or with wrist or ankle weights
- Rub foot lotion on your feet
- Rub scented hand lotion on your hands and arms
- Walk barefoot on the grass
- Watch a fish tank
- Brush your hair slowly
- Take 5 deep breathes in and slowly breathe out
- Sit under a weighted blanket
- Wear a scented bracelet with lavender for you to smell
- Swing slowly on a hammock or swing
- Blow a harmonica
- Have a warm, scented bath
- Close your eyes and imagine yourself somewhere calm and peaceful to you e.g. sitting by a creek, sitting on a boat on water with a gentle wave, sitting in a forest quietly watching a deer
Activities you can try to pep yourself up if you feel too low in energy, unmotivated, sad, teary
- Listen to loud, fast music
- Play fast music
- Beat a drum loud and fast
- Have a cold shower
- Chew ice
- Splash cold water or cold, wet face towel on face
- Squeeze body parts with your hand
- Lift light hand weights
- Walk or hike
- Play with a fidget toy
- Rock quickly on a rocking chair
- Visit a friend and play a board game
- Call a friend and chat
- Go to the mall with a friend
- Play dress-ups
- Try on make-up and brush hair into a new style
- Have a 3-legged race with friends.
- Tap a beat on your body parts and get a friend to copy.
- Play charades
- Have a dance-off with a friend.
- Walk barefoot on the grass
- Water play in the sink or with a water pump
- Skip by yourself or with friends
- Play elastics
- Ride a bike
- Go for a swim
- Play a Sports with friend
- Play touch football
- Blow a whistle
- Swing high and fast
- Suck or chew a lolly
- Chew gum
- Sit under a weighted blanket
- Wrestle a brother, sister or parent in play
- Chew on a chewy toy
- Bounce a trampoline
- Balance on a large therapy ball
- Play handball with a friend or against a wall
- Bounce a ball
- Squeeze a stress ball
- Chew a peppermint
- Swivel on a spinning chair
- Read a comic
- Flip through a photo book
- Play an action screen game
- Read an action book
- Rub your arms and legs quickly
- Sing a song
- Dance to music
- Play throw and catch with a friend or with a ball against a wall
- Hum a tune. Get a friend to guess the song
- Do a silly walk competition with a friend.
- Play sticks with a friend or by yourself – lay 10 braids or 10 sticks in a row . Step in between each braid or stick without touching them. Then move 1 stick after each turn making it more difficult e.g. if you touch a stick you’re out.
- Play the Whisper game. Sit in a circle with family. Whisper a made-up sentence in the ear of a person next to you. They repeat the sentence in the ear of the next person. It travels around the circle. After it reaches the least person, have them repeat the sentence aloud and you say the original sentence. Listen to how the sentence has changed