DIY Sensory Equipment – Active Play Therapies

27 Jun

Thoughts From a Therapist: Movement Space Success!

Originally published on Sensory Integration Education on 21st July 2022.

I’ve just finished the Autism in Schools project I was commissioned to complete this term (and waiting to hear whether they may extend it). I wrote in June that I was about to set up a Movement Space. I decided to use this term, rather than ‘sensory room’, so that there was a clear focus on active, rather than passive, sensory experiences.

In May half-term, our SENCO and pastoral worker and I traipsed into school, ~~dragging with us~~ expertly manually handling equipment: some loaned from me and some borrowed from the PE cupboard. This included: an itinerant swing frame, a complete with platform swing, aerial silks, a rope ladder, a button swing and cocoon swing; a foam crash pad; a bouncy barrel; crash mats; a spinning top; a weighted blanket; stepping stones; a balance board and a whole load of other small sensory bits.

I deliberated about the safety of lending equipment that is generally used under my watchful gaze, but as children can go to a park and get similar experiences without any need for a therapist, I reassured myself it was a measured risk and I made a safety video for staff to watch before using the room (covering things like signs of over-arousal of the vestibular system, keeping children safe with mats and beanbags etc).

The movement space was a success! The school has now ordered the same equipment to continue providing movement spaces in both the infant and junior schools. The pastoral worker was absolutely key to the success of the project: her enthusiasm and knowledge of sensory needs was already excellent – and her approach gave more hesitant staff the confidence to try things out. A calmer summer term was the result, with lovely examples such as a boy just totally relaxing onto the foam crash pad after being quite upset, saying “Its just like a cloud!” and being able to go back into class successfully.

I think there’s a lot of scope for including movement rooms in mainstream schools, and the staff in charge on site are crucial to the success. Definitely something I’ll be taking forwards with me! You can see photos of the movement space here.

31 May

DIY Crash Pad

This soft, lumpy crash pad is an absolute hero of rough and tumble play. Got a little one who likes to leap off high places? The crash pad is here to help. It helps challenge balance, it’s an interesting tactile experience and it provides a rustle-free crash landing (unlike beanbags that tend to make quite a noise! As well as not being that soft to land on when the fabric is at it’s maximum stretch).

Crash pad - medium — Crash pad made with a single duvet

Crash pad - large — Crash pad made with a single duvet

So… To make the crash pad you will need:

Zippable allergy duvet protector (single duvet is fine but double if you want to go giant!) (Link as an example) Zipped is key! Don’t get one with buttons or poppers – you need the zip to hold all the foam in.
Duvet cover (in whatever colours and patterns you/ your little person likes) – in whatever size your duvet protector is.
Lots of foam offcuts (I sourced some for free from a local Upholstery business – they often have offcuts they would like to go to use)
Bread knife
Scissors

Instructions

I lay out all the foam pieces to check for any pins. I also used a fabric cleaning spray to make sure all the pieces were clean.

2. Open your duvet protector and hang it somewhere so it’s open – this makes it easier to throw all the foam pieces in as you cut them.

3. I cut the foam outside – it creates lots of mess so it was easier to sweep up this way. I used a combination of tearing some pieces with my hands, using a bread knife, and scissors for thinner pieces. In terms of size, I cut them up to about the same size pieces as the length of my scissors. You can cut them smaller or larger depending on whether you want it more or less lumpy! The smaller you cut, the more foam you’ll need.

*Bread knife and scissors – cut the foam up*

4. As I cut, I threw all the foam pieces into the zippable duvet protector. Once all the pieces are in there, zip it up!

5. Now wrestle your giant crash pad into the outer duvet case – put the zipped end in first so it’s not at the end with the duvet opening (this is to prevent curious fingers unzipping the inner protector and foam going everywhere!) Ta da! You did it!

31 May

Bouncy Barrel

DIY Bouncy Barrel

This came about when I was trying to create a Movement Space/ Sensory Gym in a Junior school. I really wanted a soft play barrel to add to the space, but these were around £500 each which was out of the budget.

So – this easy, no sew bouncy barrel does the job brilliantly!

Barrels are great therapeutic tools. They give lots of proprioceptive, tactile and vestibular input. They challenge motor planning and bilateral integration and provide great escape spaces with a blanket over the top.

Bear in mind the method below means you CANNOT access the valves easily, so don’t make this if you want to inflate and deflate your tyre barrel regularly. Unless you’re OK with the valves sticking out, but it makes them a bit unsafe for vigorous play as there’s hard pokey bits in the area you’ll be rolling around in.

Inner tubes are also just great play objects without being made into a barrel too – they can be bounced on, into, through, stacked and used for all sorts of fun, so they can be repuprposed if needed also.

ALLERGIES: Also, please be aware that I believe inner tubes often contain latex, so these won’t be suitable for people with latex allergies.

Ingredients for 1 Bouncy Barrel:

3x 20” inner tubes (or around 20”) (You could also use 4 or 5 tyres to make an even bigger barrel!)

2m Lycra

Thick foam (I used soft foam and firm foam for extra security.)

Gaffa tape

Scissors

Glue gun (optional, only if using 2 types of foam)

Instructions

Inflate your tyres – you’ll probably need to take them to a garage tyre pump unless you happen to have a special pump at home. Bear in mind these tyres are BIG! So only inflate all of them if you have enough room in your car.

2. Securely Gaffa tape the valves down sideways.

3. Cut out a small square of soft foam, just bigger than the valves. Cut a larger square out of the soft foam and glue gun these together. (Or you can just use one layer of firm foam – I used two for extra safety!)

4. Gaffa tape the foam over the top of the valves securely. You’ll want to use lots – I completely covered the foam so it didn’t look like a tempting thing to try and access!

*More Gaffa taping! Covering the foam completely*.

5. When you’ve got all the valves securely covered, stack them on top of each other. Get your Lycra and wrap it round the tyres. Tie two sides of the fabric together at the top and the bottom, leaving some spare fabric before the corners. As you tie the knots, pull the fabric taut around the tyres so it holds them together. Tie the fabric together in the middle where there will now be a gap also. You can now put the corners through the centre of the tyres and tie the top to the bottom so there’s some lycra covering the inside also.
This is just a guide to how I knotted it – but anything that holds the tyres together is fine!

6. Enjoy playing in your new bouncy barrel!

Roooolll!

21 Feb

DIY Body Sock Tutorial

A few weeks ago, I bought some red lycra. In the world of sensory equipment – lycra is my friend! It stretches, it’s silky soft, it comes in lots of colours and it’s easy to get hold of and, best of all, it’s cheap. I bought 1 meter of this lycra from Fabricland.

The body sock is a great sensory tool – it provides a space to stretch against resistance (proprioception), a snug place to hide to minimise visual input and a great motor planning activity to get into and see how you can move your body. For children who struggle to have good body awareness, it can help them know where their body ends, and proprioceptive input such as this is often calming for those with and without sensory integration difficulties.

The body sock I made is adult sized as we want some equipment for parents to try out. You can make this smaller to your child’s height. This body sock can fit me (4’10″…arguably child sized according to multiple clothes shops!) and my other half (6’2″) due to the wonderful stretchy properties of the lycra!

I didn’t cut the lycra at all, and went with how it was cut to a meter in the shop.

So – to turn this rectangle into a body sock requires some fiddling around but if I can manage it, that means any level of basic sewing will get you by! Don’t aim for it to be perfect, it just needs to be securely sewn and roughly in a rectangle shape. I just used standard thread but it may be worth getting some more heavy duty thread for children who really like to push and stretch.

Decide which is the outside of your fabric. I’m sure there’s some rule for this, but I just looked at both sides and decided which size I liked better – this side is your ‘right side’.
Fold your fabric rectangle in half length ways, right sides together.
To make a neat edge for your opening where you will climb into the body sock from, about a quarter of the way down, pin a neat hem – I pinned for about 50 cm but this is for a 10year old – adult sized one. I would imagine 30cm would be fine for a 5 year old. (This was fiddly as the lycra rolled itself in on itself).

Sew down the pinned section, making sure to double stitch the ends as this will get a lot of stretching! Repeat on the other side of the fabric so there is a mirror image hem that side too.
With your fabric right sides folded together still, pin either side of the opening then pin both sides of the fabric together, leaving the neatly hemmed opening unpinned. Sew up these seams either side.

Now you should have a long tube (with a neatly hemmed opening!) Lay the fabric flat on a surface and get the sewn seam in the middle – as per this photo:

Sew up top and bottom seams (you can pin first if you want but I just attacked this with my sewing machine – its not an exact art and doesn’t need to be perfect – just a sack to stretch around in!) Again, I double stitched over all of these to make sure it could take some stretching.
Ta da! Your body sock is ready! You can add velcro up the hemmed edges if you want, but I’ve left mine open as the velcro can sometimes add in an irritating tactile and noise element. Some children prefer velcro-ing themselves in though – its all a matter of personal body sock preference!
Here’s a photo of the finished product – one with me in and one with other half modelling – the scary face on the t-shirt adds to the overall effect I think!

Hope you enjoyed this – do let us know how you get on if you attempt the body sock and what your children/ recipients think of them! We run regular parent courses on sensory integration topics, and provide sensory assessments to children and adults in Dorset. Do give us an email if you’d like to get in contact. Happy sewing!