Purpose: Offers educators a way to understand sensory challenges, as well as the behaviors that result from those challenges. Ages: 2 ½ years to 5 years Administration Time: 20 minutes
"How SENSIBLE! A brief tool for teachers to identify children who they feel may be at risk for Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)...SENSE also provides therapists with a theoretical framework and suggestions for developing in-service trainings for teachers and administrators interested in SPD." Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, OTR, Research Director KID Foundation
This well-known author of several titles on sensory processing dysfunction (SPD) has created a user-friendly tool for occupational therapists and other therapists working with preschool educators. This educational tool issued as a first glimpse into the sensory needs of preschoolers aged 2 ½ to5, and may compliment more thorough standardized assessments. Its purpose is to offer educators a way to understand sensory challenges, as well as the behaviors that result from those challenges. Therapists and educators can then create a program specific to individual preschooler sand their classes, targeting areas of need. The workbook contains a sample introductory letter to parents and educators, as well as a permission form, to help therapists explain SPD and describe the purpose of the scanning process. It also includes checklists for individual student responses to sensory stimulation and whole class charts to help organize the findings to give a clear picture of the needs of the class. A reference section describes how a typical preschool child develops and contrasts that to a preschooler with SPD. The checklists, charts, and reference section are divided into three categories of sensory processing: sensory modulation, sensory discrimination, and sensory-based motor skills. Each of these categories focuses on how the senses (tactile, vestibular, proprioceptive, visual, auditory and olfactory) are affected. A list of primary and secondary therapies is also included. 64 pages, 2005
