Burrito Roll for Sensory Needs of Students
Here is a fun activity that we use to do with a student in 1st grade who needed sensory input for deep pressure. He was very activate and would get so wound up that we had to remove him from the regular classroom and would have to put him in my office (which we used as a make-shift sensory room) where he would jump on top of the counters and run around in circles screaming and yelling.
So to get him to stop doing that and release his energy and calm down in more appropriate ways, we put him on a sensory schedule for breaks about every couple of hours with different sensory activities each time. The break right after lunch we rolled him up like a burrito and did his deep pressure therapy. We used a weighted blanket and then he would like to stay rolled up, with the lights off and just natural light coming in while he listened to his favorite song which at that time was the theme song from the movie, "Frozen". It worked like a charm! (most of the time : )
I saw this video shared on the face book page for "Autism and Special Needs Resources, Ideas and information" from "Occupational Therapy for Children"'s page and it shows almost exactly what we use to do. They call it a Sausage Roll but it's the same idea.
Click on the link below to play the video:
Other places to find ideas for Sensory Integration:
://slideplayer.com/slide/7634241/25/images/8/Sensory+Needs+and+Regulation.jpg
Any student, either General Education or Special Education who has these types of sensory needs would benefit from this. Sometimes we didn't know if it would work for a particular student, so we would try it and see. You will know right away if it works or not! We kept a log of sensory activities that worked for each child and updated it frequently.
Sensory activities when used appropriately and for the right student makes a World of difference!