Best Blog Posts for Sensory Supports

To start this school year, our team is compiling some of our best examples of supports we have seen in our districts and featured in previous blog posts. Today we are highlighting all of the Best Blog Posts for Sensory Supports!

Click on the hyperlink under each heading below to be taken to the related post on that topic.

• Sensory Systems Overview

• Sensory Tips and Tricks

• Sensory Activities at Home

• Heavy Work

• Incorporating Heavy Work into Daily Routines for Resistant Students

• Incorporating Proprioceptive Input

• Hallway Paths

• More Hallway Paths

• Purposeful Walk

• Purposeful Walks and Sensory Jobs

• Exercise

• More Exercise

• S’cool Moves

• Motor Room

• Active and Passive Sensory Rooms

• Mini Calming Sensory Rooms

A-LIST Spotlight: Occupational Therapist Marissa Steinhelfer from Montgomery County ESC and West Carrollton City Schools

It is our favorite time of the month when we feature one of our area's brightest and best educators through our A-LIST Spotlight! This month, we are highlighting Occupational Therapist Marissa Steinhelfer from Montgomery County ESC and West Carrollton City Schools. Marissa does a great job collaborating and problem-solving with her teams at West Carrollton. 

We reached out to Marissa so that she could share a little bit of her expertise for this month's feature. Check out her post below: 

"I am so honored to be featured on this ACT Team Blog!  A little background about me: I am originally from the Pittsburgh, PA area and am a graduate of Elizabethtown College in Central PA.  I have been an occupational therapist for over 20 years.  I spent the first part of my career working with adolescents and adults within an inpatient rehabilitation center of a large hospital where I specialized in the treatment of individuals with traumatic brain injury.  I began my adventure as a school-based occupational therapist in 2018, joining the wonderful team of therapists employed with the Montgomery County ESC.  I am now in my 5^th year as a school-based OT, servicing elementary school-aged students within the West Carrollton City School District. 

In my present role, I provide direct skilled OT services for students with identified needs in fine and visual motor skills, sensory processing difficulties, executive functioning skills, and/or self-help skills to help students more successfully access their educational environment.  I also provide consultative support to teachers and staff to facilitate implementation and carryover of strategies into the school day.  I am fortunate to work with truly exceptional teachers, staff, and other therapists!  I am always learning and growing--actively seeking out opportunities to increase my own knowledge and skill set so I can use “best practices” to help my students and teams.  I am so grateful to all of the professionals who have shared their valuable time and resources with me. 

Here are examples of some of the roles I have as a school-based OT:

Helping to embed sensory-motor activities and sensory-based supports into the classroom and larger school environment to help meet sensory and self-regulation needs such as:

• Motor pathways using colored tape on floors
• Heavy work stations (e.g., colored book carry and sort).  A special “shout-out” to my friends at my local Dayton Metro Library branch who graciously donated out-of-circulation books for me to wrap for use with one of these stations.

• Movement stations (bend and reach upper/lowercase letter match using Velcro manipulatives; S’cool Moves posters)

• Purposeful walks that incorporate preferred picture icons related to student interests
• Trialing sensory-based supports such as flexible seating (ZUMA rockers, resistive kickbands around desk legs, etc.), weighted materials, noise-cancelling headphones, removable under-desk texture board to meet student need for increased tactile input when sitting at desk, etc.

Providing input and activity suggestions for a sensory-motor room

• Stoplight Choice Board to provide a framework for structuring sensory-motor breaks

• Activities that provide purposeful movement opportunities to support a student’s need to move while providing regulating proprioceptive input (book cart push/carry/sort; prone scooter board Velcro puzzle)
• Visual transition sequence of activities to help students prepare for return to class"

We just love Marissa's creativity and ability to individualize supports for her students. Shout out to Marissa for your contribution to this month's spotlight and for all you do for your teams and students. We are so lucky to partner with you!

Regulation Rendezvous: S'cool Moves

If you have worked in an elementary school or with an occupational therapist sometime over the past 20 years, chances are you have heard about S'cool Moves. S'cool Moves is an evidence-based program that incorporates a variety of movement activities and music to help students regulate by focusing and calming so that they are ready to learn. For more information, visit their website at https://www.schoolmoves.com/. 

Today's Regulation Rendezvous is not endorsed or licensed by S'cool Moves, but rather provides some practical examples of how we have seen educators use the program in schools across the Miami Valley. 

S'cool Moves provides tons of awesome visual supports to use when implementing the program. Some can be done during quick warm-ups at the start of a lesson, during brain breaks when the students can do gross motor movements, or during individual "in the moment" breaks. 

Wendy Sondergaard
Rushmore Elementary, Huber Heights

Tracey Cooper
Tecumseh Elementary, Tecumseh

Emily Ottmar
Brantwood Elementary, Mad River

Shanon Vance
Valley Forge Elementary, Huber Heights

For more ideas on incorporating movement across the school day to help students regulate, check out our previous Regulation Rendezvous posts:

Exercise

Hallway Paths

Purposeful Walk

Regulation Rendezvous: Motor Rooms

Many of our previous posts focus on providing students with opportunities for calming sensory input. But what if you have a student who needs alerting input or who has a high threshold for movement or vestibular input? Then today's Regulation Rendezvous is for you! Today we are focusing on Motor Rooms which is a designated location for students to get motor input in a structured way. Check out some examples of awesome Motor Rooms across the Miami Valley:

Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

When using the Motor Room at Stevenson Elementary, students follow a circuit of activities which incorporate motor skills as well as academics. 

Match velcro shapes after crossing balance beam

Count and stretch using resistance bands

Bounce on trampoline before matching magnetic letters to sight words/alphabet cards

Sort heavy books by color

Count and step up

Count and bounce on therapy ball

When finished, students take a few minutes to calm their bodies before returning to classroom focused and ready to learn. 

Hammock swing calm down seating

Rocking chair calm down seating

Mound Elementary, Miamisburg

The students at Mound Elementary have a variety of sensory equipment to choose from during their proactively scheduled Motor Room time. 

steamroller

platform swing

stationary bike

crash pad

cocoon platform swing

Springcreek Primary, Piqua

A Motor Room (or in this case a Motor Lab) is a great place for students to go for physical therapy services as well. We love this Motor Lab where PT, Amy Pratt works with her students. Amy has a therapy ball, textured stepping stones, yoga cards, a balance beam, a platform cocoon swing, steamroller, and a couple stepping platforms. What a fun and functional space!

Mad River Middle School, Mad River

Older students need movement breaks too! We love the use of exercise equipment at Mad River Middle School to prepare students for ways to incorporate sensory supports as they get older. 

treadmills

treadmills, stationary bike, elliptical

trampoline

Jane Chance Elementary, Miamisburg

Exercise equipment comes in little sizes too! Look at these pint-sized Motor Room options at Jane Chance Elementary in Miamisburg including a stationary bike, treadmill, rowing machine, and some seating options. They also use S'cool Moves posters to guide student exercises. 

Tecumseh Elementary, Tecumseh

ALIST Occupational Therapist, Tracey Cooper at Tecumseh Elementary also uses S'cool Moves in her Motor Room at Tecumseh Elementary in addition to visual motor activities. 

Snyder Park Elementary, Springfield

Check out all of these swing options in the Motor Room at Snyder Park Elementary! In addition to swinging, students can also use the ball pit, tunnel crawl, therapy ball, trampoline, or climbing play forms. 

For additional information on structuring Motor Room breaks to get the most out of this valuable student support don't miss our previous post:

Regulation Rendezvous: Proactively Scheduled Sensory Breaks