10 Ideas for Oral Sensory Seekers in the Classroom

10 Ideas for Oral Sensory Seekers in the Classroom

Do you see students chewing the tops off of pencils, mouthing their fingers, chewing their t-shirt or making excessive mouth noises?  Maybe these oral habits increase during stressful times in the classroom.  Some children seek oral input to help with self regulation and attention span.  Providing children with appropriate oral input may also help to calm the body.  Other children may dislike or avoid certain foods and textures in the mouth.  It is important to determine a child’s sensory preferences before providing the following suggestions.  Consult with a pediatric Occupational Therapist if you have questions.

Here are 10 ideas for oral sensory seekers in the classroom:

1. Chew gum
2. Drink from a water bottle
3. Use a chewy tube specifically for children who seek oral input
4. Eat crunchy snacks i.e pretzels, carrots, etc
5. Eat sour foods i.e. lemon or lime flavored lollipop
6. Eat chewy foods i.e. bagels, fruit leathers
7. Drink thick liquids through a straw
8. Deep breathing exercises
9. Blow a cotton ball on the desk
10. Vibrating toothbrush around the mouth

Remember, check with your Occupational Therapist to determine the best recommendations for your children or students.  Oral input requires adult supervision.  When you introduce new oral input, try only one at a time.  Observe if the oral input helps the child.  If it does not, try a different type of oral input.  This will help determine which suggestions is benefitting the child.  If possible, collect data to track a pattern of change in self-regulation, attention, behavior or emotional state following the oral input.  You can use the Sensory Tools in the Classroom packet to help jump start your data collection.

All students can benefits from breathing breaks to provide oral input, mindfulness and a calm body.

Breathing Breaks: This digital download is a collection of 16 deep breathing exercises and 3 tip sheets. Deep breathing exercises can help to decrease stress, reduce anxiety, remain calm, strengthen sustained attention, sharpen the ability to learn and more! This packet includes 16 full page breathing exercises and 3 tips sheets in color or black and white. In addition, the breathing exercises are provided 4 to a page to make smaller cards or booklets.  FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION.

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Frozen Oral Motor Painting Craft

Download this FREE template to create your own Frozen art work using oral motor skills, water color paints, a straw and the template.  You can download your copy at http://yourtherapysource.com/freefrozen.html

Gum Chewing and Headaches

Gum chewing is occasionally recommended for children as part of a sensory diet therefore I thought this research regarding gum chewing and headaches was important to mention.  Pediatric Neurology will be publishing research on 30 patients between 6-19 years old who had chronic or migraine headaches and chewed gum daily.  The medical doctor, Dr. Watemburg, requested that the patients stop chewing gum for one month.  The following results were recorded:

• 19 of the 30 patients reported that the headaches went away entirely
• 7 of the 30 patients reported a decrease in frequency and intensity of headaches

To further test the results, 26 of the 30 patients resumed gum chewing for two weeks and all of them reported a return of their symptoms within days.

The researcher concluded that gum chewing causes an overuse of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) resulting in headaches. 

Now, this is a very small study but interesting.  I happen to be a gum chewer and never experience headaches from it.  But, I only chew gum for short periods of time several times per day.  In addition, when I have recommended gum chewing for children on a sensory diet or to improve focus, I have never had reports of headaches.  

Just some information to keep in the back of your mind after you recommend gum chewing for a child on a sensory diet.  Perhaps inform the parents that headaches may be a side effect of excessive gum chewing. 

How about you?  Do you find that children occasionally get headaches from chewing gum?

Reference: American Friends of Tel Aviv University (2013, December 19). Chewing gum is often culprit for migraine headaches in teens. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 20, 2013, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2013/12/131219130937.htm