24 Tips for Parenting a Child with a Sensory Processing Disorder
Children struggle every day. I mean childhood can be rough at times and even harder when you have a child with special needs. Sensory Processing Disorders can be hard for parents to make sense of.
Making life simple for both mom and child is just what Jennifer Hughes from Jenny Evolution is doing with her helpful and insightful information. As a mom who has been there she has so many resources for parents who are faced with special needs and sensory processing disorders.
There are a number of childhood disorders that can make life a whirlwind with things from clothes, to noise, to anxiety. These Tips For Parents With Special Needs Children are excellent and I am sure many of you can relate!
24 Tips for Helping a Child with a Sensory Processing Disorder
1. What Are The Signs of Sensory Processing Disorder helps parents to recognize some of the common signs and symptoms of sensory issues.
2. Do you struggle with pinpointing the basics of Sensory Processing? Read this What is Sensory Processing: The Basics Defined for a great understanding.
3. Children often times require a delicate approach to calming and this One Simple Trick To Instantly Self Calm A Child is a perfect remedy and approach.
4. Discovering Dyslexia: The Elephant in The Room is an excellent resource for parents to recognize the complications and heartbreak of children with dyslexia.
5. There are a lot of ups and downs when you have children with sensory issues and you can find some excellence with this Parenting Tip! Sensory Children Will Surprise You.
6. These Parenting Tips For A Happy Summer With Sensory Kids will remove all of the headache and hardship from your summer plans!
7. Check out these tips for Occupational Therapy At Home For Sensory Seekers that are excellent remedies that will not bombard your family budget.
8. Adjusting to a new baby can be a big deal for everyone and these ways on How To Introduce New Siblings To A Sensory Sensitive Kid will help ease the process so things go smoothly.
9. Encouraging your children to understand the complexities of sensory issues can be done sufficiently through these Children’s Books on Sensory Processing Disorder.
10. What Every Special Needs Mom Wishes She Could Tell You is a great testimony of how moms struggle alongside their children in ways that are not easily shared.
11. Sometimes recognizing little things can help make managing and coping with sensory problems much easier and that even calls for recognizing Spring Sensory Issues and how they may be affecting your child.
12. This Parent Secret: When To Call It A Day For Your Child has some great information on establishing a time frame of operation that works best for you.
13. Childhood disorders are vast in numbers and commonalities occur all the time. Get the facts with this ADHD vs SPD: What’s The Difference?
14. Meltdowns and temper tantrums happen to all kids and managing can be effective when you Give Your Child The Tools To Manage Their Own Meltdowns.
15. Friendships in motherhood are important and serve as delicate lifelines especially when you have a child with special needs. This read Special Needs Mom: Beware of The Frenemy puts friendships into perspective.
16. When you have a child that struggles with tactile defense putting on sunscreen can be a headache but using these Sunscreen Ideas For Tactile Defensive Kids is a great way to tackle sunscreen easily.
17. Do you have a kiddo that chews on almost everything? This DIY Chewelry Necklace is perfect for those sensory kids that need something to chew on and easily made right at home.
18. Use this ultimate Christmas Sensory Gift Guide this shopping season to buy all of the right tools and toys for building a healthy home for your sensory child.
19. Sometimes a diagnosis of childhood disorders can seem endless. Special Needs Alphabet Soup is a great read for parents who have children with multiple diagnosis that clarifies some confusion.
21. What is Proprioception? explains the muscular and operational affects of sensory processing so that parents can easily understand some behaviors of their child.
22. Finding all of the answers to your child’s hunger can be found in this Interoception:Why is My Child Always Hungry? which explains the connections of sensory issues and food.
23. When You Know Something is Wrong With Your Child is a great read for parents and an encouraging one for those who may be confused or lost over their child’s behavior.
24. Encouragement for parents with children who have special needs is an important way to keep trying and know that hard work pays off. If you are struggling read this Find Your Spirit.
Do you have a child with special needs and have an excellent tip or idea? Please share your best solutions!
More Parenting Tips
This is an excellent resource and list. I understand the difficulty when it comes to dealing with special needs. However, I’m still clueless on the sensory disorders. With Fibromyalgia, I have noticed that there are times when noises bother me and other times they don’t.
We all have our own sensory quirks… but Sensory Processing Disorder is when (1) the body either under-reacts or over-reacts to sensory stimuli and (2) it interferes with a person’s ability to manage daily life. For example, children in particular can fall in a fight or flight response is they are over sensitive to the sensory input around them — which creates mega meltdowns on a daily (if not hourly) basis.
Hope these resources shed some additional light for you!
Jennifer @ The Jenny Evolution
This is a great resource for parents who are dealing with this issue. I will share this with my friend.
Thanks for passing this on to your friend. As the mom of sensory kiddos, I often found it hard to find the time to find resources. I would also recommend you pass on The Sensory Spectrum (www.thesensoryspectrum.com) to her as a terrific resource for articles and community support.
Jennifer @ The Jenny Evolution
This is a great resource offering tons of information. Sometimes, parents with a special needs child can feel lost in it all. However, in my heart, I admire these parents. They are the epitomes of strength.
Thanks, Annemarie… these parenting tips and insight have been learned through personal experience and lots of research to figure out how to help my own kiddos out!
Jennifer @ The Jenny Evolution
As a former Special Education Teacher I commend you this list is comprehensive and absolutely excellent. Parents need to get pro-active quickly to get the proper diagnosis of course, but learning what to do once you have it, and having a resources and a sounding board for advice or just to share stories is important! Great share!
Thanks for the feedback, Tracy! It’s often a long journey before parents are able to pinpoint what’s going on with their kiddos if they have Sensory Processing Disorder. And then it’s a long journey to figuring out just how to help their children with their specific sensory needs.
Jennifer @ The Jenny Evolution
These are fantastic tips. I have sensory issues myself, so I totally get what it’s like. Your tips will help lots of people.
Thanks, Robin. These are actually my tips and I’m so pleased Crystal was willing to share them so other moms can benefits from my on-the-street learning.
Jennifer @ The Jenny Evolution
I never hard of sensory processing disorder before, but thank for the great tips and solutions.
These are great tips. I’ve never thought about what you’d have to do to help a child with a sensory processing disorder.
It can be a long journey into figuring out what each sensory kiddo needs (because they all have individual needs) but the more people who understand Sensory Processing Disorder, the more we can help our children and adults with SPD.
My little cousin suffers from something like this. I remember when he was really young I couldn’t eat chip by him (Or anything crunchy) because he would cry and cover his ears. Now that he is getting older he understand it more and my aunt is amazing! She really helps him cope with certain things and instead of having melt downs she taught him other things to do.
Teaching our children coping mechanisms is certainly key for our kids…. my son is now 9 and his sensory issues are SO much more manageable because we have worked on designing an environment for him as well as teaching him how to approach his own sensory issues.
Jennifer @ The Jenny Evolution
Thank you for this list! I have a friend who is definitely keeping tabs on resources. One thing – do you happen to know if there is a list of online games/activities that might be good/fun for sensory kids? Just wondering.
Let me ask my friend Jenny. She is the SPD guru. Her site is one to defiantly put on your friends list and each of these resources came from her.
Generally, kids with sensory issues don’t need online games or apps. They need a physical sensory diet, catered to their specific sensory needs. The only time I recommend an app is if your child really needs to understand their schedule or is upset by changes. Then you can use an app to help them understand how the day will unfold.. it helps set expectations and helps ease transitions.
Jennifer @ The Jenny Evolution
These are great tips! I am blessed to have a child that does not suffer from this, but my niece does. I see how she struggles (and she is now 21!) I am will tell my Brother about this post!
This is a wonderful list of resources that I’m going to be sending to a friend. I too will benefit from the list as I’m exploring the possibility that my son has a sensory issue. Thanks!
I’m glad there are products and posts out there that can help parents through these things! This is a great resource!
I don’t have a child with a sensory processing disorder but a friend of mine does. Some days are more challenging than others for them, but they handle everything so calmly.
I have read about this before. It’s very interesting. My daughter doesnt have the disorder but shes very specific about fabric so we just let her pick out her own clothes. But its hard when it’s dance recital time… she hates the itchy tulle and sparkly thing and big feathers. She’ll deal with it, but she’ll let you know she hates it.
This is a great resource guide! I wasn’t familiar with this disorder prior to reading your post and am glad there are resources available for families that are dealing with this disorder. I will definitely recommend this guide to other moms in my circle.
As a teacher, I come across these children every day and have learned to spot the signs and to work with them appropriately. As a parent, this post is extremely helpful!
Absolutely love this post and thanks for useful tips. It’s very important to learn the signs and symptoms early.
This is a great list of resources. This will definlitely help parents dealing with the above mentioned issue.
I will be sharing this. My kiddos don’t have this disorder but I know a few kids who do, so this is very helpful!
These are all great tips and books for people who have kids with sensory issues. I don’t have kids yet but I’m glad there are so many resources out there today!!
What a great resource for parents, AND teachers! My kiddo has some sensory issues that we deal with daily and it can be such a struggle. There’s lots of little and giant things we can do and teach them to do, to help them. Thank you for all of these ideas.
I don’t have a child with special needs, but I certainly have learned a lot from your post. And for sure your tips will be helpful to parents who have a child with special needs.
My friend has a five year old non verbal Autistic Daughter. She has sensory issues. I will have to share this post with her.
Wow you did such a great job! I know many families who have children with sensory issues and I know they would love this! Thank you for creating this list!
There are so many things to watch out for in your kid’s behavior nowadays it gets confusing. You never know if they have a condition and it’s good to have tips like these to look up to know what to do.
These are some wonderful tips. I’m going to share with with my sister in law. My niece has Autism and I think they could benefit from these tips.
This is definitely some great info! My daughter has a speech delay and is in a preschool class for kiddos who need a tad bit extra help with things before going into kindergarten , and afew kids in her class are in this class becaus they see an OT PT etc for sensory issues.
This is so insightful! I have a cousin that would probably be interested in reading this since she has three children with sensory disorders.
Great info that I will have to look into. I have two little ones and a 7 year old. None of this but you never know!