Teacher Challenges: Sensory vs Behavioral, implementing mindfulness and parents as allies

2. Today’s Workshop
• Sensory vs Behavioral
• Mindfulness
• Parent Involvement

3. Sensory vs Behavioral

4. Is it Sensory or Behavioral
• Most likely than not, it is BOTH!
• Sensory and behavior are directly linked at
all times. We take in information from the
environment through our senses in order
to then give a behavioral output.

5. Play Detective!
• By playing detectives I mean create a little
journal or a mental note of 3 things:
1- what was the antecedent
2-what is your child's reaction
3-what helped them calm

6. Behavioral
• If something is more behavioral in nature:
1- it's usually purpose driven
2-the child can turn it on and off at will
3- usually stops once they get their way
4-responds well to clear boundaries,
structure

7. Sensory
If something is more sensory in nature:
1- it's outside of your child's control
2-a child cannot turn it on and off at will. On the
contrary you give in to the request and they still
can't calm
3-takes longer to calm
4-does not respond to behavior modification
techniques alone
5-responds well to flexibility of the sensory situation
within a structure and routine. Ex: earphones in
the cafeteria

8. Reality Check ;)
• Many many times what I have seen is that
it is a combination of both! So you will
have to use sensory strategies as well as
behavioral modifications!!
• A lot of strategies will be trial and error.
There is no cookie cutter approach that
works best because every child is different
and responds differently.

9. Tantrum vs Meltdown
Tantrum Meltdown
Attitude is EVERYTHING!
Remain Calm. Consciously decide not
to buy into it.
Attitude is EVERYTHING!
Remain calm. No need to change it
but experience it with your child
Safety first Safety first
Learning experience. Boundaries,
making requests, frustration tolerance
Cathartic experience come out of it
happy. Let them channel that
frustration
IGNORE!!!! Walk then through it words kind and
gentle soft music song preferred you
item
Anything heavy
Ask yourself. What do I want my child
to learn.
Get clues as to input seeking. Provide
the environment that supports and
encourages to calm.

10. Mindfulness

11. Definition of Mindfulness
• The definition of mindfulness is a mental
state achieved by focusing one's
awareness on the present moment, while
calmly acknowledging and accepting one's
feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations,
used as a therapeutic technique.

12. As an OT when we want to help a child
regulate, we can do it one of 2 ways:
1- Modify the environment to decrease the
anxiety levels ex: using a visual schedule,
minimizing irritating sounds
2-Teach children to gain self- control of their
anxiety and well-being from the inside out
through MINDFULNESS techniques

13. The newer approach to reducing stress is
though mindfulness meditations.
Helps children to:
• Be in the moment,
• Focus on their breath rather than listening
to a ruminating thought and having to
figure it out.
• It teaches self-control. See a thought pass
through like a bystander and let it go by,
not having to do anything about it.

14. Mindfulness for Young Children
1-Meet them where they are at: videos work wonderfully. The bubble,
from go noodle Airtime space.
2- Teach awareness of their breath, their beating heart. Give them a
visual for breathing ex: smell the flowers and blow out the candles
3- Don’t expect them to do this laying down or with eyes closed, don’t
get fixated on what things have to look like focus on wanting to slow
them down just a bit and be in the moment.
4- Be concrete use props like lilly pad and frog for Sitting Still like a frog
5- Use the 5 senses. Be concrete ex: awareness to sound, or touch, or
taste Be in the moment.
If we can teach them to slow down and be in the moment, it will go a
long way to later on teach them how to become in control of their
wellness as young adults.

15. Parent Involvement

16. Parents and Teachers…Allies for
success!
• It’s not a them and us attitude. It’s a we attitude. We
are a team.
• I view the parent as the expert with the child
• I am a child advocate first
• Respect that there a normal and natural progression of
acceptance
• You do not need to make assumptions or judgments.
Just DESCRIBE the behaviors.
• Keep a PAPER TRAIL!
• Involve the parents as much as possible especially
with children that make the slowest gains.

17. Miss Mancy
Nancy Amar OTR/L
Tel: 786-384-0221
Email:
MissMancy@gmail.com
Web: www.MissMancy.com