The past month has helped me organize my thoughts around my children's chore responsibilities since there has been many more messes around my house. You can have the conversation, like I've had with friends, about whether to compensate your kids for chores, what is a chore vs. expectation, etc. There are alot of opinions out there and I have my own mom perspective on those. However, for the purpose of this blog, I'll stick to my OT perspective :) Chores are a great way to teach responsibility, routine, skill acquisition, and to get sensory input! I happened upon a chart from Integrated Learning Strategies that has sensory sensitive chores. I follow them on Instagram and get quick tips and ideas from them as a therapist. I am posting this chart for you to check out to see what chores might suit your child and their sensory system the best! You can download the chart below to have the whole picture. Here are the types of kids that would fall into the outlined categories: Chores with no texture: for those that are sensitive to how things feel and different textures, maybe your child doesn't even want to look at things that have different textures. Chores with texture: for those that seek a variety of textures and touch alot of items. They may seem "obsessed" with petting the animals or rubbing people's arms. Heavy weight chores: for anyone! "Heavy work" provides sensory input to the joints which is calming. Most therapists would agree that you can't get enough heavy work input. If you have a child with endless energy, put the energy to good use and ask them how they feel when they've completed a purposeful task. Chores without loud noise: for the kiddos that are sensitive to loud, unexpected, or alot of varying noise. Chores with headphones or earplugs: for the kiddos that want to participate in the process of vacuuming, baking, etc, but are typically aversive to the noise of the activity. Chores with gloves: for those with tactile sensitivities (myself) who need to get some chores done but don't want to touch anything yucky. Gloves (if you don't have a latex allergy) offer a great barrier to the "yucky" stuff but allow the task to still be completed. The child then learns they can still participate in activities with some simple accommodations. Hopefully you will find something on this list for your children to do, so that you have some relief and so they reap the benefits as well! LeAnn
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AuthorLeAnn Wald Archives
May 2020
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