Today, we are starting off our Christmas in July celebration with a giveaway on a Sensory Backpack! Sensory backpacks are a powerful calming tool for children of many needs. There are weighted backpacks, compression packs, and book bag fidget tools out there. Here, you’ll find out some information on these sensory resources AND, can enter for a chance to win a Relax Pack Sensory Backpack of your own!
What are Sensory Backpacks?
Have you heard of the term “sensory backpack”?
Most kids you know probably have a backpack that weighs way too much for their age or size. But for some children, the added weight of a backpack is calming. It’s proprioceptive input that has an organizing effect on kids.
Sensory diet bags are tools that help to support a child’s sensory needs, while on the go, at school, or in the community. Understanding your child’s Sensory Needs is just part of the puzzle.
A sensory kit can be used to meet the needs of a child and can look like many things: Sensory kits like a weighted backpack offers calming sensory input that can be used to both calm and stimulate a child’s sensory system.
Typically, it is portable and easy to maneuver as a way to make the tools accessible at all times to the child or children in need. Since all children have sensory needs, a sensory backpack can be a way to provide sensory input in a discreet and engaging way.
Sensory backpacks offer proprioceptive input in the way of pressure and weight.
They offer a means for the child to fidget and move their hands.
Many times, there are chewable items for the child to gain calming, heavy work through the mouth.
By using all of these items on a sensory backpack, kids can gain calming, heavy work input that allows them to focus, pay attention, remain safe in group settings, and help to organize the child during community settings or outings.
Calming Sensory Input
Children with sensory problems often are either at high alert hyper-reactive or unresponsive (hypo-reactive) to the input from their environment. They become overly distracted by outside stimuli, or they may seek out additional sensory input from the world around them. Over responsiveness or under-responsiveness can mean difficulty with paying attention or focusing.
The proprioceptive system receives input from the muscles and joints about body position, weight, pressure, stretch, movement and changes in position in space. Our bodies are able to grade and coordinate movements based on the way muscles move, stretch, and contract. Proprioception allows us to apply more or less pressure and force in a task. But, the sensory system allows us to accept input too, in a way that is calming and organizing, so that we can self-regulate input from the world around us.
Self-regulation is an issue in sensory integration disorders and other diagnoses…as well as in children without a specific diagnosis. Children with self-regulation problems usually demonstrate unusual sleeping patterns, eating difficulties and self-calming issues. They struggle to cope with sensory input and need coping strategies.
Sensory input in the way of deep pressure, weight through the muscles or joints, chewing on resistive surfaces, or bear hugs are some coping tools that can have a grounding effect on kids with sensory issues.
Sensory Backpack Calming STRATEGY
That’s why a sensory backpack offers such a calming and organizing input for kids.
It’s a powerful way to help kids feel safe, pay attention, focus on walking in the hallway, or on the bus.
This year, children may return to school with an even higher level of anxiety or worries. Things are different this year and the school schedule may be different. Maybe kids are not in school at all.
A sensory backpack can offer a routine for schooling at home and allow them to self-sooth using proprioceptive input so they can complete distance learning tasks.
