fun and functional heavy work

you can do at home with the kiddos

By Dr. Amy Wheadon, OTR, OTD, NASM Certified Personal Trainer, YES

Every child has their own unique way of viewing and interacting with the world. This includes individualized responses to sensory information. Basically, everyone reacts differently to the “stuff” life throws at them. Children with sensory processing challenges often need a special sensory diet to help their bodies find that just-right engine. These activities can help all children and adults too!

Sensory Diets

The concept of the sensory diet has been used for over 30 years by occupational therapists. Sensory diets are designed to provide the "just right" amount of stimulation to keep a person at an optimal arousal level. While formal sensory diets are primarily designed for children by OTs, people of all ages use sensory diet strategies to regulate their arousal level for focus and success with daily tasks. This can be as simple as tapping your foot, listening to music, biting nails, drinking coffee or exercising (my favorite).

Basically, it is giving the right type of sensory input at the right time of the day to help regulate our senses. A sensory diet is a group of exercises, movements and activities kids do to provide their muscles, joints and nervous system with the information necessary to help them process, organize and react. Sensory diets are designed to tap into all of the senses, however, today I will discuss two of our most powerful systems: the proprioceptive system and vestibular system.

Proprioceptive system — one of our movement senses. It contributes to coordination and body awareness. Relates more to our big muscles, joints and nervous system.

Vestibular system – another movement sense. The vestibular system is connected to the inner ear and any change in head position will impact this system.

In this blog, I’ve listed five activities that will provide both proprioceptive (heavy work) and vestibular (movement) input to help kids organize their nervous systems and feel empowered along the way. They might just help you out too!

Proprioceptive input is any sort of activity where you really have to work your muscles and your joints. This type of work helps the nervous system to organize itself. This is especially helpful for children with anxiety or who have a hard time focusing in their environment.

Vestibular input is any type of movement that results in a change in head position. When the head position changes and the body is moving, this registers through the inner ear in the nervous system. Kiddos who are sensitive to movement may become overstimulated when given rotary input (spinning) or when the head is inverted (handstands or upside down). Linear movement is the most calming type of vestibular input and is often paired with proprioceptive input for maximum calmness.

The goal is to combine the calming linear movements with heavy work to help kiddos focus throughout the day. Using functional heavy work activities are especially important during the colder months and holidays when our schedules are off, transitions are difficult and there may be less outdoor activity due to inclement weather.

Five examples of functional heavy work activities plus one Bonus:

Carrying Groceries: Bringing in the groceries helps work those muscles and empowers kiddos at the same time. The work itself releases the calming chemicals in their bodies which can be regulating, and at the same time, since the child is helping with household chores it gives the child a sense of pride and accomplishment. Plus, as an added bonus, the whole family can get in on it.

Pro Tips:

Keep it balanced -carry a gallon of milk or a half gallon of milk (depending on the child's age and strength) in one hand and a bottle of laundry detergent in the other or equally weighted shopping bags.

Make sure the weight is heavy enough but not so heavy that the child is struggling.

Let’s do laundry: Helping with the laundry is a perfect heavy-work activity. Carrying or pushing a laundry basket room to room to collect dirty clothes, lifting the clothes out of hampers, carrying them to the “work” basket and getting it to the laundry room are all awesome proprioceptive activities! Have your child stuff all the clothes into the basket. Make sure they fit as much as possible. Now go to the laundry room and have your child move wet stuff from the washer into the dryer. Think of it like a tug-of-war game: Pulling heavy, wet laundry out of the washer and pushing it into the dryer. Once everything is dry, they can pull it out, put it back into a clean basket and deliver the laundry back to appropriate rooms. These activities all need those big muscles to do their work.

Your child is getting the proprioceptive input and muscle work to the joints, plus they get a sense of accomplishment making them feel positive and confident.

Tips:

Carpeted floors are best for pushing laundry baskets around

Avoid stairs and wood floors

Use towels or sheets in the washer and dryer, as they are heavier and require a push/pull motion.

Relay race clean up: This is a great way to mix functional heavy work and fun! Take an empty basket or cardboard box and ask your child to “drive” it around the house to collect toys. Have them park their basket, squat down to pick up the toys, jump up and toss it into the basket. Now push on to the next toy. When they have picked everything up, have your kiddo drive to the final destination and put everything away!

Tips:

Consider adding an obstacle course that your child has to maneuver around

Avoid stairs and wood floors

Raking leaves & shoveling snow: Getting kids outside, provides learning opportunities, fresh air and gets their bodies moving. Raking and shoveling use so many muscles and joints as well as the core, obliques and shoulders. For kiddos who are sensory seekers and who crave that proprioceptive input, there is something to be said for having that ability to jump into a pile of leaves or snow after raking or shoveling. This is also a functional and more organized way to enable your child to "body crash" (if that is something that your child's body is craving.)

Same thing holds true with shoveling snow. It's a combination of tactile input and heavy work. Kids can dig, shovel, pile or push snow.

Tips:

Try making heavy snow balls, placing them in a sled and pulling the sled to a fort.

Shovel a path for your pup!

These are great, nature-based examples of functional heavy work that also leave your kids feeling calm, organized and connected with the outdoors as well as a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Let’s dig:

Digging in the garden is another fun way to help your child help you and themselves. In our upcoming book, King’s Day Out ~ King Take A Bath, you’ll learn how Ben and King love to work in the garden together. King digs the holes and Ben plants the flowers! Try this with your own kiddos. Having your child help to plant flowers or vegetables in the garden or pull weeds, can really work those muscles and joints to help promote a state of calm.

Tip:

Try planting a pizza garden - make a circular plot of dirt, section off in pizza slices and have your kiddo plant their favorite veggies to go on a pizza (tomatoes, peppers, onions, broccoli). When it’s time to harvest…make a pizza!

Don’t worry about the dirt…that’s what tubby time is for!

Bonus - High Intensity Exercise!

This is my area of specific expertise, so I’m excited to share it with you! High intensity exercise is all about doing the right exercises in the right sequence to provide necessary heavy work and provide the right type of sensory input. Exercise can be highly effective and really easy to implement at home, plus the whole family can get involved! Stay tuned for my next post which will give specific exercises to try and how they help.

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Every child has their own unique way of viewing and interacting with the world around them. The King’s Day Out book series is designed to be a resource for all children, families, schools and pediatric medical professionals providing strategies for improved sensory tolerance in everyday life experiences.

Want to learn more? Visit www.kingsdayout.com or shoot me an email at amy@kingsdayout.com.

Exercise Gamessensory processing challengesoccupational therapyDr. Amy WheadonChildren