Help me give my students chew sensory necklaces to provide them with oral sensory input to help calm, focus, and self-regulate in the classroom. This is a safe alternative to chewing on hands/fingers, shirts, pencils, and toys.
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
My Students
I am the Fowler Elementary School District's occupational therapist. I work with students from pre-school to 8th grade. The students I work with have special needs and primarily need help with their fine motor skills and sensory processing abilities to improve their success within the classroom. These student try their hardest in class, but to people who don't know about their difficulties it seems like they are always distracted or choose not to pay attention, but that is not the case. They either physically cannot complete the tasks asked of them, or they cannot organize their brain well enough to pay attention no matter how much they want to.
The students who have sensory processing difficulties have difficulty paying attention to classroom instruction and assignments, and even have difficulty tolerating the classroom environment in general.
The sensory strategies we provide for them give them extra support in class to increase their participation and success with accessing their educational curriculum.
My Project
Students with sensory processing difficulties may demonstrate mouthing behaviors such as chewing their clothes, hands, pencils, or classroom items. Younger children will put everything and anything in their mouths if they are oral sensory seekers, which can be a choking hazard. Older children in elementary school or above may chew on their pencils or fingers which could also be a safety issue (calluses or wounds on their hands, or maybe biting too hard on their pencils which can also be a choking hazard).
Chew sensory necklaces can provide students with sensory processing difficulties a safe oral sensory input to help calm, focus, and self-regulate them in the classroom.
This is a safe alternative to chewing on hands/fingers, shirts, pencils, and toys. These sensory tools will also help the students receive that input and still be able to complete classwork activities because it will free-up their hands.
Half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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