this not that: classroom edition

As occupational therapists, we are all too familiar with the Response to Intervention approach and the complex asks that are placed on general education teachers. We’ve been ecstatic to see how tools like adaptive seating, social-emotional learning books, and fidgets have been introduced to the majority of classrooms and are widely available for teachers and parents alike. 

We see teachers put in so much effort to better support their kids with sensory, attention, or emotional-regulation needs that we have been inspired to create a series aimed at you, teachers, our fellow collaborators on the mission to support our students' learning. 

The purpose of this blog post is to share our take on generic, tier 1-type, classroom resources from an occupational therapist perspective. For any who might be less familiar with the OT profession, occupational therapy practitioners are health professions who have specialized education on the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial demands of everyday activities. The occupational therapy profession focuses on increasing participation and performance on these activities. For children, among the most important “occupations” that we work with are participating in play and school functions. For that reason, OT’s in the school system evaluate if there is a barrier that is inhibiting a child from participating in learning. If there is, we work with teachers to try to find in-classroom solutions. 

Unfortunately,  the average kid is approved for ~1 hour/ semester of personal OT school intervention. For that reason, the biggest impact comes from bringing in adaptations into the classroom. Teachers, we try to catch you before classes begin or over email, but we are empathetic to the endless things on your plate–which brings us back here. A compilation of our recommendations and our reasoning behind it for you to consider as you prep your upcoming classroom. 

Adaptive Seating

To begin, wobble cushions are what we see most often brought into the classroom. However, our experience tells us that there are better options because when it comes to either allowing movement (vestibular input) or applying pressure (proprioceptive input), wobble cushions offer minimal of either. Instead, we have seen positive responses with wobble stools. When a child is regulated, they will sit on it like a regular stool, but if their bodies are beginning to crave movement, they will begin rocking on it. Another reason we endorse the wobble stool is because even with the most active child, this stool doesn’t allow for movement big enough that will cause a distraction in the classroom. 

Another alternative we like is a yoga ball chair. Yoga balls are very bouncy, so all of our sensory seeking kids will respond great to it. Directly sitting on a yoga ball can work too, but the likelihood of a kid slipping off it or it being thrown around the classroom in the heat of a moment are high…which is why we don’t recommend it standalone. Given stability and support though, we wish we could get one of these into every classroom! The size is very fitting to our Kindergarten and elementary aged kids. Similarly, these bases offer the same benefits for a cheaper cost. If you already have yoga balls, you can also find the base individually. 

Finally, bouncy bands are also minimal, yet effective ways for some extra movement and proprioceptive input while staying seated. Because these bands of very thick and resistive, our sensory-seeking kids often bounce their feet on it, replicating a jumping movement.

Tactile Input

Another item we’ve seen raise in popularity recently are sensory stickers. While we love that kids love them, we feel obligated to share that before these texture stickers… OT’s used velcro! The less cute but more economical choice, OT’s have been placing the rough side of velcro under desks for ages! Placing a small strip of velcro under all your desks is the definition of a Tier 1 intervention. It’ll harm no child, and will be a fun surprise to your students when one day as they struggle to pay attention, they find a fun tactile stimulus hidden from eye’s view that meets there need to wiggle. This tactic will keep their hands under their desks instead of wandering with supplies or other classmates. We are a huge advocate for the overly simple tools because we are certain that there are some kids in your classroom who you might not categorize as a “mover” or “diminished attention” kid who will still benefit from having a strip under their desk! Especially in our world of over-used screen time impacting all of our attention capacities, such a simple too is invaluable if it meets sensory needs and allows a child to refocus on the curriculum you are presenting. 

Also, don’t let us limit you! We’ve seen how creative you all get with your classroom design. Incorporate colorful velcro into your classroom to make it a tactile-rich environment for your students! We know you have students who run their hand across the wall as they walk, why not enrich this everyday moment for them with something as simple as velcro? Use it to create “spots” or outline seating arrangements for your floor time activities– you’re likely already doing this, why not add a sensory component to it?  

Vestibular input 

Vestibular input, or simply put, movement that causes you to change position, is amongst the most valuable to support increased attention. Think about how you feel refocused after a quick run or experience increased alertness after a rollercoaster. This is why we recommend trying to find a way to fit in vestibular input into movement breaks. We often see teachers incorporate YouTube “Brain Breaks”, which are awesome, but we’d like to give you a few more tips on how to maximize this idea.

Why yes, kids in general benefit from getting up and moving, but if this movement can be a little bit more focused on change in head position (aka vestibular input), you can further increase your students’ level of alertness. Our recommendation is to maybe replace brain break videos, where the children are following the movements aimlessly, with lead group stretches aiming to target this head movement. Here are some examples!

Ways to incorporate vestibular input into the classroom

• Windmills 

• “Reach for the sky, touch your toes” 

• Twisting upper body side to side (rotating). Really encourage your students to exaggerate this movement. 

• Downward dog and upward dog

• Inchworm crawls out/in

If you have a ‘sensory corner’ and can bring in a balance board, that’d be great! But if not, just work on some simple movements that don’t take up much room and the whole class can do together!

I hope you found this helpful! Feel free to ask us any classroom specific questions!

Best,

Growth Spurt Team