15 Best Activities to Assist Kids with Tactile Sensory Disorder
TACTILE SENSORY DISORDER! When a child has the tactile disorder, he/she will experience discomfort and wish for a way out of the situation whenever there is a touch. Children with the tactile disorder feel some sensation more strongly than the way most people feel it. With this disorder, children do not enjoy touch or cuddles with others. They dislike touching certain textures and fabrics, dislike washing their face, having a haircut, or combing their hair, can be sensitive to heat or cold, they may dislike eating some food due to their textures.
When a child complains about clothes or shoes even though they seem fit to wear and are made out of comfortable fabrics or when there is a blowing wind against a child’s face and he turns away. These are strong signs of Tactile Autism Disorder.
Even though there is no cure for Autism as it is not a disease but a disorder, there are some activities that can actually aid kids to some extent. So how about learning some those activities for kids with tactile autism that will be helpful for them?
Fun Tactile Sensory Disorder Games
Children love games and fun activities. Whenever there are games involved, kids will participate very attentively. So here are some fun games that can be beneficial for kids with Tactile Autism.
Hide And Feel
Have some items like spoons, keys, paperclips in shoebox-sized bins, and fill them with sand or rice.
Have your child look for the objects with eyes closed, he will find and identify the objects when he feels them (touch). This is obviously a very helpful activity for Tactile Autism activity as it totally depends upon the sense of touch.
Water Play
Water play will enable your children to engage their whole bodies in sensory play.
Secure a baby pool, have some basic items used in the house like spoons, cups, and balls for their exploration in the water.
Allow them to get into the pool, search for those items and have fun.
Just in case you don’t have a baby pool, make use of a bathtub and the children will enjoy the activity while getting used to having their body relax in a pool.
Scavenger Hunt
Have some small treasures your child loves and enjoy like putty, pom poms. Make tin foil balls with them, hide the balls somewhere in the house or outside the house.
Initiate a scavenger hunt to find the hidden treasure.
When this activity is done involving other children, there tends to be increased socialization, love, and the ability to function in groups. It also helps a child to improve tactile sense and sense of exploration since the activity is well rewarding.
Homemade Glowing Bouncy Ball
Children love playing with the bouncy ball because they have so much fun playing with it. Let’s now make one.
Have borax in a half teaspoon, cornstarch, and warm water in four tablespoons each. And mix the ingredients in a bowl, allow it to dissolve totally.
Measure a tablespoon of white glue and a teaspoon of fluorescent or glow in the dark in another bowl. Mix well until the paint is blended with the glue.
Then combine the two bowls and wait for a minute before stirring them together so that the paints from the two bowls can react on their own before working on them. Stirring it will bring out a sticky, hard, and slimy material.
Make these into balls and put them inside separate bowls. Place the balls into the refrigerator before playing so the balls will be in shape for a much longer period.
This is a tactile sensory craft and children with Autism would always love to play with it.
Jump Into A Pile Of Leaves
This is an effective activity for children who are hypersensitive to touch. By the time they perform the activities for some time, they develop likings to the game, showing the treatment is having an impact.
Secure an environment where there is a pile of leaves making sure no harmful thing or object is left there.
Supervise your children as they jump into the pile of leaves, it is a fun-filled activity.
Exciting and Entertaining Activities
Let’s look at some amazing and exciting tactile sensory activities now. After all, entertainment is also very crucial to attract the attention of Many activities will children.
Homemade Foam
Have borax, warm water, and white school glue with polystyrene beads for this activity.
Have a bowl and mix two teaspoons of borax and half a cup of warm water. In another bowl, mix school glue with water ( ¼).
Have them mixed and add polystyrene beads before sealing the bag. Then mix well and the foam is formed.
Children find mixing the foam a fun-filled activity and this activity will get them adapted to touch and thus help in aiding Tactile Autism.
Create Color Art
This involves the use of colored water. Have the water filled in a bottle and spray it on white materials like clothes or sheets to make art.
When children are done with this activity, the white cloth or sheet will be left beautiful.
It is fun-filled, as children view their work, they may love to create more and this gets them engaging for a while.
Lemon Scented Rice
Have your lemon juice, white rice, food coloring, a paper towel or a tray, and a sealable bag.
Measure the amount of rice you desire to use for the experiment, add lemon juice in an effective amount, add the food coloring, pour in a bag, and shake well till it gets coated and pours out on a tray or paper towel, spread for it to get dried up.
Now we have got lemon-scented rice. Let the children play and have fun with it, the grains of rice gives a very satisfying feel when touched, so they are perfect for kids with tactile autism.
Liquid Starch Slime
This craft is amazingly consistent and doesn’t consume time.
Have your liquid starch secured, you can buy it from a grocery store. Make a cross-linking for the slime by mixing borax with white glue, water, glitter, and food coloring.
Add half cup of water, half cup of glue, and mix in a bowl.
Add food coloring and glitter and mix it well with the glue.
You should then add your liquid starch from the grocery store and mix it very well. What will follow is kneading till you have good liquid starch slime.
This is a wonderful craft for children.
Ultimate Fluffy Slime
Have a school glue, shaving cream, foaming soap of about (120 ml)each. Have your cornstarch like 1 tablespoon, lotion, borax, and hot water.
Add all together and mix very well as you get your slime, knead it well, add extra oil if the smile is fluffy but not stretchy. Knead until the desired result is gotten.
This activity is a great one for keeping children busy, a stretchy and squishy slime is fun to play with.
Play and Learn
There are many activities that will be extremely knowledgeable and aid kids with tactile autism. And so I have gathered some of the best down below:
Plant A Garden
This is an awesome tactile sensory play, all you need to do is garden work.
Have the children make a slight clearing of the garden and start digging in the dirt, planting seeds, sorting seeds, watering, and all.
You can also plant seeds in the cups of an egg carton, it is a simple alternative if you don’t want to have it big or you don’t own a garden.
Beading
Children have the chance of running through a collection of beads with their fingers and also have the chance of choosing the colors, textures, and patterns that appeal to them.
Children can bead with string and beads, enjoy the process of making a beautiful art while it also serves as a treatment for a sense of touch disorder.
Pasta Sensory Bin
Have pasta noodles and macaroni, get bottles, and get measuring items like cups and scoops. Have these kinds of pasta in a large bowl, hand them over to the children while you give them time to play and have fun.
The children start to mix and measure these kinds of pasta with the measuring materials with them, this gets them relating with items and treats their olfactory disorder.
You can also use this to explore the sense of sound by asking the children to shake the bottles and explain its sound.
Christmas Sparkle Cloud Dough
Have cornstarch or flour and vegetable oil? You are good to go then.
This is not a complex task, set the table for your child and instruct him to mix the ingredients. Since it is the Christmas period and he will be making a Christmas cloud dough, provide red and green glitters for the child to add.
Your child will have fun making the cloud dough and playing with them.
Sensory Activity With Corn Meal
Have a tub of cornmeal, cups, forks, and spoons for measuring. Allow and encourage your child to work on this as much as he wants.
The child will fill the tub and available cups accurately with the provided tools.
It is a good sensory activity that is fun-filled, it is a good treatment activity for children with tactile autism disorder.
This activity can include planting flowers or herbs in the environment too, watering them, and smelling them which will also stimulate your sense of smell.