Touch Sense Activities

Overview

Touch sense activities help a child to be less fidgety, calmer and more focused.

Children who ovoid touch tend to perceive it as negative, harmful and even painful.

Alternatively, children who seek lots of touch are often not perceiving it accurately and therefore crave or seek more touch information to get better, clearer touch information in general.

Play Video

Avoiding Touch

If your child avoids touch experiences then do the following:

Firm, predictable touch is favourable
Deep-pressure massage on the skin – please click on the video link attached.
Use squishy or textured fidget such as a stress ball
Write with a vibrating pen
Use Theraputty or playdough
Play in a sandbox or with water
Use deep-pressure massage or the Wilbarger Touch’ Brush Protocol [see video below]
Discuss with the parent the need for this programme and seek permission to do it at school.

Seeking Touch

Children who seek lots of touch are often not perceiving it accurately and therefore crave touch to get more information.

Ploy with clay, sand, finger-points and ploy dough i.e. lots of different tactile experiences.
Hide objects in bogs of rice and try to find objects without looking
Sandwiching between two cushions or children. Always ensure that your child‘s head is out
Use the Deep-pressure massage programme and/or the Wilbarger Touch Brush Protocol – more information about this sensory programme is available in the Resources section.