Question
How can I encourage sensory recognition?
Answer
One way we can encourage sensory recognition is to tune children into their body sensations. You might notice a child's face is all scrunched up, their fists are clenched, or they are rubbing their eyes. When my children were young, my partner sometimes wouldn't read those clues so he would keep wrestling with them or playing with them. Then they would go over the top of being overstimulated.
Sometimes it's really important to read the physiological clues because that's all we're getting. But we can help tune children in by saying it looks like your body may be tired. When that happened to you, I saw you holding your stomach. I'm wondering if it feels like a volcano or bumblebees in your stomach. Help them pay attention.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, Preventing Challenging Behaviors, in partnership with Region 9 Head Start Association, presented by Julie Kurtz, MS.
Continued and its subsidiaries provide professional education authored by qualified Subject Matter Experts for continuing education purposes. These materials are intended for educational purposes and do not constitute medical advice or a substitute for individual clinical judgment. Continued is not a clinical healthcare provider; the licensed professional is solely responsible for ensuring that the application of any techniques or information presented is within their legal scope of practice and jurisdictional requirements.
