Sensory Tips and Tools for Interns & New Professionals

April is Autism Acceptance and Occupational Therapy Month! The field of music therapy plays a big role in upholding advocacy and support for autistic individuals and providing personalized care for their needs. Often that means supporting diverse sensory needs. While our team at Dynamic Lynks is exclusively comprised of board-certified music therapists, we have learned so much about supporting diverse sensory needs from our OT friends and colleagues.

Our team is no stranger to catering interventions to sensory needs and regulation within sessions. This month's blog post will focus on providing fresh ideas, intervention inspiration, and assistance in supporting sensory regulation and integration for clients in the music therapy space.

Tip #1: Carry around a music-specific bin of sensory fidgets:

Having a music-specific sensory bin creates extra opportunities for clients to engage in music therapy groups or sessions, establishes boundaries around fidgets being used as tools for success, and can also be incorporated into active music-making interventions!

This is what I keep in my travel sensory bin!

Intervention Idea: Super Senses!

This experience is an opportunity to explore and experience the sensory bin within a session. The intervention is designed around a fabulous song by Kira Wiley called Super Senses. It talks about all the different ways we may perceive experiences. Below is a visual of all of the senses as superheroes!

Super Senses visual

Procedure:

1. Listen to Super Senses by Kira Wiley

2. Using the visual above, talk about what senses might be experienced throughout the intervention

3. Pull tools from the sensory bin to explore new sounds and feelings - squish play-dough in time with the beat of the song, roll a cabasa on different body parts, shake the snake fidgets in front of your eyes. Get creative and follow your client/student's lead!

4. Leave time for reflection after the engagement experience for clients and students to share their likes or dislikes from the activity and to discuss which senses were used. 

This provides opportunities to express preferences, demonstrate autonomy in picking tools, use descriptive words, take turns sharing, listen to peers, and allow students to explore what feels good and bad to them!

Tip #2: Consider multiple forms of sensory input:

How can we incorporate auditory, tactile, and proprioceptive input into an experience all at once? We have so many options in music therapy! I love to squish Play-Doh on the top of a drum and mold it with instruments to combine auditory and tactile stimulation into one experience. You could also combine colors and smash them with the beat of drum playing to incorporate visual, auditory, and tactile play.

Some clients will benefit from proprioceptive sensory stimulation. Using instruments to motivate movement or demonstrate cause and effect of movement is a great way to blend movement, sensory input, and music together. Using drums to motivate reaching various limbs, using drums to conduct the speed and force of movement, using a stretchy band to apply pressure to a steady beat, and so much more! We have an entire sensory tips sheet that explores how to incorporate proprioceptive and vestibular input meaningfully into therapy sessions with music.

Tip #3: Sensory regulation and integration are not synonymous with relaxation:

Many of the sensory experiences referenced here are not relaxation-based experiences. Experiences can be purely exploratory, or some may be used to spark increased levels of arousal from clients. Not all sensory experiences need to be relaxing. This might be a large shift in thinking about bringing sensory experiences into the group setting. It is common to feel like you have to leave clients relaxed after a session where your interventions targeting regulation are all slow, 60 bpm, guided relaxations.

If you have been struggling to engage students who seem dysregulated in relaxation-based sensory experiences, try something with a faster tempo. It never hurts to use the ISO Principle in entrainment experiences! A great example of this is stomping or tapping the beat on your chest to a song while gradually changing the tempo. Stephanie Leavell’s Strong Like a Tree is very grounding and great for this kind of activity. You can get students up and moving by stomping to the tempo while also providing a steady and grounding beat with your preferred accompaniment. You can match them at a faster tempo of 90-100 bpm and slowly down-regulate them to their optimal zone of arousal for the next step of communication, cognitive, motor, or attentional skill work.

Tip #4: It is okay to take sensory breaks within sessions:

30-45 minutes of consistent music/sound, while enjoyable, can become overstimulating for some clients. Silence and quiet can be powerful tools that help to make the times we are in active music that much more valuable for clients. This can look different depending on the setting and clients, so use your best judgment to set boundaries around taking breaks within your sessions. This might not be something that you facilitate in every group or 1:1, but needing a break is natural and normal! Breaks can be helpful to clients who exhibit different levels of sensory processing.

Tip #5: Your clients are their own sensory experts:

Maybe this goes without saying, but our clients know what they need the most! They may communicate it in different ways, or in whatever ways they can. Child-led or client-led experiences, when appropriate, can help you and your client to work together to establish an understanding of their sensory needs.

Intervention Idea: Educational sensory intervention

Let's leave you with one more sensory-based intervention that addresses answering Wh-questions, using descriptive words, and exploring textures. This is something that can be accessible to multiple levels and forms of communication, while providing opportunities for positive peer interactions, talking in front of groups, and experiencing different tactile and auditory sensory textures. This was inspired by a client sharing about an OT group they attended. The intervention design was then transferred into a song to use for cueing and building suspense (navigating inhibitory response control or distress tolerance, anyone?). 

Example mystery box for sensory exploration intervention.

Materials:

• An old cardboard box, with a hole cut in the top (pictured above)

• Various sensory fidgets or instruments that can fit inside the box.

  • Here are a few ideas to get you started: 

    • Canary sticks

    • Rubber worms

    • Nee-doh cubes

    • Suction cup fidgets

    • Rainbow slug fidgets

    • Cabasa

    • Ask your teachers what fidgets they might have available!

• A descriptive word bank, if some clients need that extra support

  • Squishy/hard

  • Warm/cold

  • Scratchy/soft

  • Loud/quiet

  • Big/small

  • Sticky/smooth

• Finally, a song to prompt questions and add an element of mystery to what is in the box! (You are welcome to write your own)

Procedure:

1. Play the mystery song (chords and lyrics below) or your original song!

2. Follow the directions of the song for clients/students to explore inside the mystery box

3. Before they pull out the item, describe it and experience it

4. Take time to have reciprocal and collaborative conversations to build skills while having sensory fun!

   
   

Mystery Song:

Dm              G

I put my hand in and I feel around

Dm           G

What’s it like? How does it sound?

Dm   C Dm

It’s a mystery to everyone but me.

Dm   C Dm

It’s a mystery to everyone but me.

           Am  N.C.

You get 3 clues, 

    Dm

so you can know too.

Dm

Clue One…

G

Clue Two…

Dm

Clue Three…

Am    Dm

What, oh what, oh what could it be?

We can't wait to see how you incorporate sensory tools and sensory exploration into your sessions!

For more tools, tricks, and tips, visit our free resource portal at www.dynamiclynks.com/resources