Your Child's Sensory Portrait
The following checklist will help you to focus in on your child's unique sensory portrait. It is designed to help you deepen your understanding of his sensitivities and any triggers and patterns underlying worrisome behaviors. The checklist can be an important adjunct to a professional evaluation. It will help you, the occupational therapist, and any other professionals gain a holistic picture of your child and clarify which therapeutic approaches and practical solutions will be most helpful. Because school presents a whole different set of sensory experiences, you might ask your child's teacher to fill out this checklist too.
While sensory sensitivities can vary from day to day, even from hour to hour, most parents can identify specific activities that are usually challenging in one way or another. Which sensory stimuli does your child typically avoid? Which does he actively seek out? Does he have mixed reactions, liking certain things sometimes but disliking them at other times? Or is he neutral, reacting neither more nor less dramatically than any other child his age?
From Raising a Sensory Smart Child by Lindsey Biel, M.A., OTR/L and Nancy Peske. Copyright © 2005. Used by arrangement with Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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