Do you know there exist toys to improve your child’s brain stimulation?
Autistic children have problems with their senses. Their brain and muscles are either hyperstimulated or are not stimulated properly.
Thanks to modern research, sensory toys are now available that can regulate the sensation of touch, balance, texture, smell, and hearing and also aid in verbal and nonverbal communication in your autistic child.
Let us know about sensory toys used for treating autism
What are the issues in autistic children related to senses?
Autistic children often experience sensory challenges, ranging from hypersensitivity to hyposensitivity. Hypersensitive individuals may be overwhelmed by stimuli, leading to discomfort or anxiety, while hyposensitive children may seek excessive sensory input. These sensory issues can affect daily functioning, social interactions, and learning experiences, highlighting the importance of understanding and addressing sensory needs in supporting the well-being of autistic children.
It has to be remembered that toys are just an aid to autism treatment. Autistic children should remain under the guidance of an experienced occupational therapist.
How can sensory toys help autistic children?
Special toys for autistic children serve as valuable tools for fostering sensory engagement, aiding in skill development, and providing a structured and supportive environment to promote learning and play.
For hypersensitive kids, toys designed with soothing textures, muted colors, and gentle sounds can help create a calming environment, reducing sensory overload. On the other hand, for hyposensitive children who seek sensory stimulation, toys with vibrant colors, varied textures, and interactive features can engage their senses and promote sensory awareness.
These sensory toys can help in mimicking a special event and teach a child to play naturally.
These toys can help the children to understand and regulate the different senses in a proper manner. There are many toys to regulate the sensory needs of autistic children.
Each toy has a specific purpose of regulating a particular sense and they even play a role in improving balance and mobility.
Let us now check how different toys cater to the needs of autistic children.
1. Sensory Mats
Sensory mats can be great toys for autistic children, They can feel the different textures of the sensory mats and regulate their sense of understanding texture.
You can give your child various kinds of sensory mats and ask the child to tell what kind of texture the child is feeling in his mind.
2. Sand or Putty
These sensory objects can be used by the children to make new designs, for example, a small miniature house model can be built. This definitely improves the motor skills of autistic children and activates the sensory pathways of the brain.
The sand can be variously colored helping the children to regulate their visual senses. In short, these types of toys help in enhancing creativity.
3. Chewing toys
Chewing toys are meant for autistic children who have texture sensation problems and chewing and biting sensation problems.
Chewing toys can be dotted type or like ridges or may be smooth. Chewing toys are made up of materials that are completely non-toxic for the body.
Therefore, these toys can be very effective for facial muscle exercise and sensing something with various textures and surfaces.
4. Rainmaker Toys
Rainmaker toys are for those autistic children who have problems regulating sound senses. The sound of falling rain makes the mind of the children calm and also help them relax their sense of hearing.
The color of the toy and the beautiful sight of the falling beads also make the sensation for the children wonderful. They can even listen to the rainmaker toy while playing and doing other activities.
5. Fidget Spinners
Fidget spinners are great toys as the spinners can be worn in the hand or the fingers and they keep autistic children focussed.
They have also become popular among the nonautistic population as a tool for anxiety and stress relief.
6. Pin Artboards
Pin artboards are excellent sensory toys for autistic children as they enhance creativity and also regulate the sense of texture in children.
They can touch the toys and feel the design they have created. It also increases the motility of the fingers and improves the muscle tone of the hands.
7. Electronic toy
Electronic toys are known to improve the autistic condition in children. Autistic children cannot tolerate different kinds of noise but the sounds of pets and home appliances can regulate their hearing senses.
They touch the dog and the dog makes a sound. This helps the children adapt to objects and also improves their socialization skills.
8. Vibrating cushion
A vibrating cushion helps in improving tactile or touch sensation in autistic children. The toy helps in initiating verbal communication and also helps in improving socializing skills.
9. Body Sox
Autistic children put themselves inside breathable, flexible, and colorful body sox which gently resists the movements of the autistic children.
The Sox helps in putting slight pressure on the body which helps the children to calm down and release their anxiety.
10. Reflective balls
These mirror balls provide a reflection of items that are brought near them. The balls create a distorted image and are ideal for autistic children who have visual perception problems.
They are also known to improve the motor skills of the children.
Conclusion
Autistic children are often hypersensitive to various stimuli which creates a sensory overload in them. They need devices or toys to calm down their senses.
Sensory toys are known to improve visual perception, sound perception, tactile or touch perception, and movement or balance perception in autistic children. They also foster creativity and mobility in young autistic children, However, these toys are just aided to control the symptoms of autism.
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FAQ :
Q1. What do kids with autism like to play with?
A: Kids with autism like to play with sensory toys that will calm down their perception of different sensory stimuli.
Q2. What are the 8 sensory needs?
A: The eight sensory needs are sight (visual), taste (gustatory), touch (tactile), hearing (auditory), smell (olfactory), vestibular (balance), proprioceptive (movement), and interoceptive (internal).
