How to Create a Sensory Kids Play Area

BABY & KIDS

Aug 9

with Occupational Therapist Nancy Amar

LISTEN TO THIS SHORT VIDEO WHERE DEBORAH INTERVIEWS AN OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST ABOUT SENSORY SPACES

Deborah: “So I wanted Nance to really help us and give tips, which I can then throw in my two cents about how to create spaces for these kids during this time where they are socially isolated from their little friends. Even if the three-year-olds, they have little friends and they're not running around outside. So how to create spaces for them using things from the house. We also have a list that Nancy gave us of stuff that she suggests, inexpensive things like body socks and stuff, which are awesome. But how to do that and how to do that easily, because Nance, I'm just going to give you this scenario, picture a mom and dad working from home, full-time, three little kids all under the age of six. One of them perhaps is in the spectrum, one is hypoactive, meaning they're very mellow. How would we create a space for them, a play area for them perhaps even in a closet or under a stairwell? How do we do that, and what should we look for?”

Nancy: “So I think what we have to really be mindful of right now is really recreating a little bit of what was going on outside the home in terms of their environments, how to recreate it a little bit in the home in different spaces, right? So I think let's say, we do have limited space, but sometimes we want to let's say, get the kids to do everything in their bedroom. They're going to now do their Zoom school, the virtual school in the bedroom, some of them had virtual therapy in the bedroom, play in the bedroom, sleep in the bedroom.

This is too much energy for different things and it just doesn't allow them to regulate themselves. So I think as much as parents can, is to create spaces, little pockets in the home where they can be used or designated for certain things. So maybe a little area where that's school, right? So the dining room table becomes the school. And then let's say, like you said, an open closet could be a little quiet area for the kids. And then the bedroom is usually more sacred and it becomes their safe space. That's a space where they get to sleep, they get to calm. Some kids left the play in their room. They get to play in their room, but you don't want to create all these little environments in one same small space. You see what I mean?”

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