crash pads!
Walk into any sensory-based clinic, and you’ll surely find crash pads! Crash pads are a fan favorite for our sensory seeking kids. You know you have a sensory seeker if they are constantly moving around, crashing, or bumping into things. Crash pads provide a safe and effective way to meet their needs. In this post, we'll review the benefits of a crash pad and how you can use it around your home to support your child’s emotional regulation, sensory needs, and overall development.
Crash pads help support sensory integration by providing consistent and controlled sensory input. The tactile and proprioceptive feedback from playing on a crash pad helps the brain process and respond to sensory information more effectively, leading to improved sensory regulation and more organized behaviors.
Sensory integration is the process by which the brain organizes and interprets sensory information from the body and the environment. Sensory seekers often have difficulty with sensory integration, leading to behaviors that seek out intense sensory experiences.
If you work with an occupational therapist practitioner (aka sensory integration specialist), or have dedicated any amount of time to researching how you can support your overly active, sensory seeking child –chances are you have heard about heavy work or proprioceptive input. Heavy work or involving your child in activities that increase proprioceptive input increases regulation, which in result may look like increased emotional regulation or control over their emotional-driven actions (i.e. pushing, leaning, hitting, biting, etc.) Crash pads offer a multitude of ways you provide additional proprioceptive input for your child in a fun and safe way, making it amongst the most useful tools you can bring into your home. Aside from being an invaluable tool, there is also a limitless way to use a crash pad.
Ways to Use a Crash Pad
Jump off a bed/ couch onto the crash pad
Lay under it while reading a book, coloring, or having a family movie night
Use it to create at home obstacle courses. For example, roll over it to retrieve a puzzle piece from one side, then crawl back over it to place the puzzle piece in its place.
Pretend you're a turtle, carry it on your back as you crawl around.
Combine it with other pillows to create a mountain you need to climb over.
Practice your front rolls
Think about it, your child is likely already doing these things, and by bringing a crash pad into your home, you are 1). Teaching them that these regulatory actions aren’t “bad”, but instead tools for their bodies 2). Allowing them to fulfill their sensory needs in a safe way 3). Bringing in countless new, fun methods of play into your home.
Overall, our recommendation is that if you are able to bring a crash pad into your home, do it. Don’t overthink how your child will play with it, because we promise, they will figure it out. Bring in this tool and let their bodies & brain tell them how they need it the most. Some days, it might just be an extra large bean bag or where they fall asleep. On other days though, witness how just like you get up to get a drink of water when you feel thirsty, your child will find movement, or pressure they need to function at their best.
