Sensology: Waking up the senses

At the end of the Best of British SEN conference in London, Lucy and I decided to treat ourselves to buying some of the classic Flo Longhorn books that had been on our wish list. We opted to buy two books- The Sensology Workout - Waking Up The Senses! and Massage Stories: Exploring Communication Through Touch. Lucy also bought the book Once Upon a Touch...: Story Massage for Children by Mary Atkinson which I have often borrowed! I recommend all three of these books to anyone working with children with PMLD. The books present a wealth of practical ideas alongside the theory which is very helpful. There are examples of plans that have been used by both teachers and parents (I always find it useful to see ‘what a good one looks like’ before creating my own). I have implemented both Sensology sessions and Story Massage into my timetable for the past two terms and the impact for my pupils has been fantastic. This post we will focus on Sensology but I will go into story massage in a future post.

What does it look like?
So what is Sensology? Well, it does what it says on the tin- it is a session to wake up the senses! It allows pupils to engage in experiences that stimulate each specific sense in turn through resources specifically selected for the individuals you are supporting. This session provides important opportunities for pupils to begin to show awareness, engagement and to develop preferences. In my class I begin each session with the ‘busy body’ song. If you’ve ever taught EYFS/kS1 you’re probably familiar with this tune but if not you can find the song here http://www.letsplaykidsmusic.com/ive-got-a-body-action-song/. We sing the corresponding verse of the song linking to the sense we are waking up e.g. eyes for visual, ears for auditory and we encourage the children to look in a mirror as either we point to the specific are or they find it themselves depending on ability. After this it is then time to explore.

Each child has their own Sensology box that contains resources unique to them based on our existing knowledge of their preferences and suited to their level of accessibility. It is important that the resources you select provide your children with opportunities for independence; being able to ‘do’ rather than be ‘done to’ as can often be the case for our PMLD leaners. I would tend to avoid any resources which will require hand over hand support. Following my learners preferences helped me to find a good starting point for identifying the experiences that they will engage in more readily for example, in my class I have a pupil who is at the stage where he loves to look at people’s faces but does not yet show very much awareness of other visual experiences. He will independently engage in looking into a mirror, in fact he loves it and has a really good giggle at himself! This can be extended by adding in lights such as finger lights, a red clown nose etc. that may draw his focus and perhaps even provide opportunities to develop unintentional movements into intentional ones. We have noticed that this particular child is starting to notice black and white visual stimuli so creating items such as a monochrome sensory umbrella with hanging black and white and reflective stimuli will hopefully promote his emerging awareness. During my session I offer opportunities for high contrasting experiences: textures (e.g. sandpaper and jelly), tastes (e.g. honey and soy sauce) and smells (e.g. peppermint and lavender). Offering two very different experiences again lends itself to the development of preferences. You can find an example of the Sensology session I delivered with my class last year on our resources TES page.

How often we do it?
I do a Sensology session every morning and it lasts 20-30 minutes (the duration is directed by the children- if they show particular interest we may focus on one area for longer). We turn the lights off to help our children to focus on each sense without visual clutter (you can keep them on for the visual section but I usually have them off as I use different types of lights for many of my learners).

Why do Sensology?
Since beginning this session I have really noticed the impact on my pupils. Within my class I have noticed signs of anticipation amongst my pupils, a definite increase in awareness and signs of preferences. One of my learners has learned to communicate a definite ‘yes’ and ‘no’ which he happily exercises in the session to make choices between the high contrasting experiences. Another pupil adores the opportunity for tasting and will now open his mouth in anticipation when he hears the word taste. He has also learned to say ‘more’ in context and without any prompting to repeat his favourite experiences where previously he has only used words randomly rather than to communicate. During our ‘smell’ activities I use a water spray with the added scent oil, before spraying we say ready, steady….go! Some of our pupils will now indicate ‘go’ when they are ready through movement or vocalisation) and show that they are anticipating the spray with giggles or closing of the eyes. These achievements did not happen after one session or even a week of sessions but over the space of a term and for some longer. As each pupil has their own personal box it is easy to differentiate and change the experiences at a pace that is appropriate for each child. 

You can find an example of the Sensology session I have used with my class this year for free on our TES resource page here or search Sensory_Dispensary on TES.  . I have included my own planning template as well as the one I used for a lesson observation as this includes greater detail and explanation. Please note that some areas have been removed to protect the identities of the children. 

All of Flo Longhorn's books are available to order from her website: http://flopublications.com/index.php/book-sales 

An old sensory story - the need for repetition

I wanted to share this story for two reasons. Firstly, this is the story I demonstrated at the staff training session we wrote about in the last post. And secondly, I wanted to post about sensory stories a result of a recent discussion about repetition. It was mentioned that we are being measured on our pace and high expectations of the children and continuously moving them on. Our children require an immense amount of time and patience to reveal their full potential. By repeating an activity such as a sensory story for a considerable time we are giving the child the crucial TIME to at first notice, then perhaps tolerate moving to exploration and finally intentional actions. Our children do not have object permanence, they need time and repetition to help them begin to build it. 

Jo Grace used a great quote on twitter recently by the late, great Penny Lacey: Lacey (2008) where learning is driven by repetition choosing the developmentally correct level of experience is vital. #PMLD

Another point was the children getting bored. In my experience it is the adults who get bored not the children. Often our children experience things repeatedly as though for the first time which is why repetition is so necessary. The input should still be engaging and using sensory stimulus is always great for exciting and encouraging the children to explore your resource. A way to combat staff boredom I've found is working with TAs to develop understanding. Our 'word' in my class next year is going to be 'why?' I'm currently drumming up ideas for an interactive staff why board (I'll probably post about this later in the year) We must help TAs understand why and give them the tools and support to recognise progress and emerging communication. They are less likely to moan about the repetition if they understand why they are repeating and the impact they are having on the development of the children they are working with.

This previous year I was in fact working with a lovely group of SLD children, some of whom had autism. They were key stage 2 and working in old money terms between p5 and p8. I adopted an EYFS approach to learning encouraging lots of child initiated exploration in a supported way. The children engaged in the activities and the adults tailored their engagement within an activity to their personal learning goals. I had three choices of activity in each 'lesson' for maths, literacy and topic and these activities remained the same for the week. The children grew in confidence in their favoured activity, loved the freedom of choice (it particularly helped my children with ADHD) and the repetition of activities throughout the week allowed me to see progress. In role play activities they were beginning to use language from the story. I really think the main thing that made this year successful in terms of learning outcomes being met, improved behaviour especially turn taking and other social skills was the structure of my sessions and repeating activities for a week.

Anyway... here is my sensory story!

Bruce the bear

Bruce was a bear with a wet nose at the end of his snout	black rubber ball dipped in water	Tactile
Bruce was a lazy bear and he loved to sleep	Switch – snoring	Auditory
One morning whilst curled up asleep he heard the rain pour and the thunder crash outside	Thunder maker instrument	Auditory
He got up and looked at the rain splashing in the puddles	Water pouches in laminate (make with caution) (gloss not matt) Alternatively: a water spray	Proprioceptive, auditory
Bruce walked through the forest and the pine needles stuck to him	Smell pine	Olfactory
Bruce saw a beehive hanging from a tree	Bee pompom sensory umbrella	Visual
He shook the tree	Green glitter sensory bottle	Visual
The bees stung him – ouch!	Crackle foot spray (from Avon)	Tactile
Bruce ran away from the bees and jumped in the lake	Drop a pebble in a bowl of water	Visual
Once the bees had gone he snuck up and enjoyed the sticky sweet honey	Taste honey	Gustatory

I wrote this story over two years ago now, it was one of my first and not my best. My topic was animals I think and our SLD group were doing mini-beasts and woodland creatures so I tried to link it and came up with this.

It is always tricky to get all of the 7 senses, the vestibular sense is the one I find the hardest and I haven’t managed to get it in all of my stories.

The children really enjoyed this story, we did it for about 6 weeks. The aim for our children is to find a purpose in their world and have experiences they can play a part in. For this to happen, our children need repetition. It may take over 100 times for a fluke to become an intentional action.

During this story my children anticipated parts of the story particularly when to drop the pebble in the water and they anticipated that they would get splashed. Some vocalised before it happened others turned their heads away to avoid the splash of the water. It took over 4 weeks for this to emerge. At first they didn’t notice the umbrella but by the end of the term some were reaching up. One child loved to tap them and track their movement. Another child loved the crackle foot spray and after weeks of experiencing it decided he wanted more and held his hand out for more.

Repetition, repetition, repetition. If I had moved onto a different sensory story the next week I would not have seen any of this emerging communication or anticipation and it would have limited the children's full potential. 

Hannah will be writing a post next week about the impact repetition has on the outcomes from her daily sensology sessions. I love Hannah's sensology sessions and have 'borrowed' it and adapted it slightly for my new class in September. 

All of my sensory stories are inspired by hearing Jo Grace present at Sensory Spectacle’s Interact workshop training day. Sensory Spectacle have another Interact workshop coming up. It is a great opportunity to take part in multiple hands-on workshops during one day! http://www.sensoryspectacle.co.uk/events

Jo travels the country delivering training on sensory stories, mental health and wellbeing and sensory engagement. She is also an author of two great books 'Sensory Stories for Children and Teens with Special Educational Needs' and 'Sensory-Being for Sensory Beings: Creating Entrancing Sensory Experiences' both books can be found on amazon. 

Check out her upcoming training courses on her website: http://jo.element42.org/training

Hannah and I will be at Parallel London’s sensory 1K in Jo’s sensory tent with some proprioceptive activities. Check out the website, we hope to see many of you there. http://www.parallellondon.com/