Here are some suggested activities to support developing consistent preferences:
Treasure baskets
Treasure baskets are a great place to start – they are a container filled with everyday objects to explore. You can include items that have a nice smell, make a noise, or have different textures. You can find more details and examples here: Making a treasure basket
Take time to explore and take note of favourite items or textures.
Give verbal clues to support exploration “Can you find something that makes a noise?” “Can you find something rough?”
You may have to model this yourself at first, exploring together “This one makes a noise!”
Talk about how each object feels and explore it together. For example: A pine cone – feel the ridges, roll it up their arm gently, smell it.
Messy play
The feel and textures of unfamiliar items can be challenging at first. There is a wide range of different textures that can be explored and it is helpful to build on these experiences, starting with the easier ones and becoming harder over time. The chart below gives some ideas you can use.
| Easy (Dry & easy to control) | Medium (Dry, some may stick) | Challenging (Wetter and can stick) |
|---|---|---|
|
Shredded Paper Dry Pasta / spaghetti Dry rice Dry Porridge Oats String Dry sand Beads Dry lentils/beans Hay/Straw Leaves |
Damp sand Sequins Kinetic sand Thick cornflour / water paste Cold wet pasta Wet rice Chalks Playdough Compost Glitter |
Foam e.g. bubble bath Water Wet Sand Wet noodles Wet lentils Jelly Mashed potato Shaving foam Mashed banana Paints |
Sensory trays
Sensory trays encourage exploration of materials, development of touch skills and making use of vision and hearing. They can also promote engagement and support creative and imaginative play.
Once you have established what textures the learner enjoys / tolerates you can use some of the Messy Play materials above to create a sensory tray.
Some things you’ll need:
- A tray
- Items from one of the lists below
- A selection of smaller, preferred toys or engaging objects
Ideas to get started:
- Fill the tray with a preferred material.
- Hide some familiar objects / smaller toys in amongst it (don’t completely bury them to begin with, just enough to encourage exploration).
- Present the tray to the learner and encourage them to investigate – at first you could put your hand under their hand and explore the texture together. This gives them the opportunity to remove their hand if they want to. At this point you could try again or change activity.
Top tips:
- Contrast is key! A beige table and a white tray filled with shaving foam or rice is not going to get the best engagement.
- You could start exploring more challenging materials together by placing them in a zip-lock bag.
- Some learners may prefer trying this activity with their feet.
Other concepts to explore:
- Water play: Warm and cold water.
- Pouring and measuring water with cups, bowls, etc.
- Cooking: Experiment making biscuits / dough / cakes / crumbles, etc.
Sensory preferences
It might be helpful to create a chart to record known preferences. This may support planning activities and developing choice making.
They can be useful to share with all staff for a consistent approach.
| Likes | Dislikes | |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | ||
| Hearing | ||
| Taste | ||
| Touch | ||
| Smell | ||
Contact your Advisory Teacher for additional advice and support.