1. ARC Main Office, 92 Little St Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 9am-2.30pm
(Term time)
Open free of charge to all
ARC Disability Support Workers
Sensory resources
Numeracy and literacy resources
Life skills resources
Therapeutic games and toys
Gross and fine motor resources
Just a little bit about who we are….
I have come here today to talk to you about sensory processing, and to get us started I am going to offer you a simple visual sensory experience:

2. S S Y N O E R
Lots of requests for sensory items in the toy library….reason is…
Many many people with disabilities have a sensory processing deficit of some sort
They may be sensory seeking….like playing with the fans, or like vibrating things, or stimulates themselves repetitively in some way
They may be sensory avoiding….shrink from loud noises, not like to be touched, be stressed by really busy environments
If you can understand their sensory profile on a very basic level, you are in a better position to support them
Sensory processing is a huge topic….we could fill a whole day on it. But we only have a little bit of time, so there are few things we are NOT going to talk about today:

3. What we WON’T be talking about:
This was in your kindergarten curriculum…..everyone here could give me an example very quickly and easily of each of these. I am also not going to talk about how the processing of each of these different stimuli engages a different part of the brain….

4. Many of you will be aware of this already, if not…there is a plethora of information on the internet.
When we are talking about people with disabilities, it makes sense that a deficit in some area of the brain would affect sensory processing.
I am also not going to mention that there are actually MORE than 5 senses, some of which are particularly relevant to disability support work:

5. Vestibular Proprioception
Vestibular---sense of balance---has to do with middle ear---you experience it in the lift
Proprioception—sense of where your body is in space---has to do with messages between the muscles and your brain
Examples: being in a lift, gross motor
These two senses are very interesting and very relevant in disability support work, and there is lots of good information on the internet about them
So that’s what we won’t talk about….what will we talk about?

6. Sensory Engagement Work
…increasing the sensory value of everyday experiences…
Joanna Grace
Founder of the Sensory Projects
International Inclusion and Sensory Engagement Consultant
Trainer and author
Sensory engagement work is something each and every one of you can do every time you are working with your clients.
By sensory engagement work we mean increasing the sensory value of everyday experiences. It is a deceptively simple concept that most of us don’t consider without making a conscious effort, and we are going to do a couple activities today to demonstrate how easy it is.
This information comes from Joanna Grace, a special needs practitioner based in London.
So….increasing the sensory value of everyday experiences…..what do we mean? One more slide for you to watch, and then a couple of activities for you to do.
So lets look at an everyday experience that most of us would experience each day….

7. The experience is driving in the car to work each day
The experience is driving in the car to work each day. Or it might be on a bus, or a bike….doesn’t matter. The point is you do it in the same way every day. Anyone here zone out?
Lets pretend you set yourself a 5 day challenge to increase the sensory value of travelling to work. On day one….
Some of these things may not actually be comfortable….and I don’t recommend going out of your way to find ways to make your clients uncomfortable…the point is to understand the concept of sensory value of an experience.
Now…our first activity……