We are honored to have Sarah Lyon from OTpotential.com share a guest post today about simple sensory strategies that can bring relief to complex problems! Sarah Lyon shares with us her solutions to sensory problems as a mom and an Occupational Therapist. We hope you find her ideas helpful as you educate and interact with your child!
“My son has a biting problem. He is almost 12 months old and whenever his world gets a little too exciting he will start chewing on me with his five razor sharp baby teeth.
As this is a painful experience, I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to analyze why this is happening. I know that chewing helps soothe his gums during teething, but you can’t tell me that his gums just happen to start hurting when he gets excited or frustrated. At first I thought the biting was purely behavioral and that he was doing it to get attention. While this may be a part of the problem, I noticed the other day that when he gets upset in his crib he gnaws on the railing. If that is solely an attention getting device, it is a very poor one as I took me a long time to notice the behavior.
From my pediatric occupational therapy courses and my time spent working in the mental health field, I know that oral motor is one of our powerhouse senses, meaning that it has a remarkably strong ability to soothe when our bodies are feeling disorganized. My guess is that, in his own little way, my son is unconsciously tapping into this powerhouse sense to help himself feel calm.
I’ve taken to carrying a knobby chew toy for him to bite in replace of my arm. I’ve been surprised at the times this has actually worked. Granted it isn’t a fix all, and he still gets a very firm “no” for biting. But at least I have a framework for thinking about the situation and a strategy to try.
This is what I love about sensory strategies, very simple tools and approaches can sometimes bring relief to very complex problems. We may not be able to “fix” the underlying cause, but they can sure make day to day a whole lot easier.”
Sarah Lyon, OTR/L
Special Needs Essentials Blog 
As our children got older we discovered that these chewy toys come in many shapes and sizes. Our oldest wore a necklace for years to help with her chewing needs and now our youngest does the same. Many of these items look like the kind of thing any child would wear and so don’t stand out if that is an issue for the student.
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