0:09

Hi everyone and welcome back to

0:11

Belle's OT Corner . I hope you

0:13

have had a lovely couple of weeks and

0:16

enjoyed our episode last week

0:18

. Today we're going to

0:20

dive into all things sight and

0:22

sound . So this is our visual

0:24

and our auditory systems . As

0:28

always , we're going to keep the same

0:30

framework of what the sense is , what

0:33

it looks like when a child can be having some difficulties

0:36

, and then always finishing

0:38

up with those tips and tricks and those

0:40

strategies for what we can do to help

0:42

these children be a little bit more comfortable

0:45

, be able to engage in

0:47

their occupations and

0:49

be ready to tackle the world around

0:52

them . So today we're going to

0:54

start with sight first . And similar to

0:56

last week when I paired them up together

0:58

, when we did taste and smell

1:00

together because they kind of impacted

1:03

on each other , sight and sound

1:05

, funnily enough , can impact upon

1:07

each other as well . So we'll start

1:09

off with sight . So

1:11

what is sight and how does

1:13

it work ? Well , as I'm sure you've

1:15

all guessed , sight works

1:17

by visual stimuli and that's picked

1:19

up from our eyes and there are different

1:22

parts in our eyes . There's rods , there's

1:24

cones , there's a cornea , there's the lens , lots

1:26

of different bits and pieces . You don't

1:28

need to worry about what does which job

1:30

. The basis is

1:33

visual . Stimuli is picked up by

1:35

the visual receptors in our eye and

1:38

they will detect things like light

1:40

, they'll detect color , they'll

1:42

detect movement , they might detect

1:45

shape and orientation

1:47

of an object , so they detect all these different bits

1:49

and pieces . This information

1:51

then gets sent to your optic nerve and

1:53

up and along your optic nerve and

1:56

into your brain . Now

1:59

, unlike some of our other senses , sight is

2:02

a little bit different . Actually , sight and

2:04

sound are a little bit different because

2:07

they have their initial pathway

2:10

up to the brain , where our brain actions

2:12

it if it is important or not

2:14

important , as always , if it

2:16

is a threat to my safety and therefore I

2:18

need to act on it faster and

2:20

I need to have that faster action plan and

2:23

or if it's something that I can just think about a little

2:25

bit and I'm just going to add that into

2:27

the picture I'm building about my world

2:29

around me . Now

2:32

we have that same process within

2:34

our visual system we figure out

2:36

what's happening in the world around us and

2:38

if it's a threat to myself , we

2:41

then have an extra cognitive

2:43

layer that goes on , which we're not going to talk

2:45

about today , but I do want

2:48

to emphasize that the

2:50

visual system is a little bit more complex

2:52

and we will dive into the higher

2:54

complexities of it in a different

2:57

season , because it doesn't . It relates , but it doesn't

3:00

relate , and I want to keep them a little bit separate

3:02

to make it easier for you guys to chunk down and

3:04

understand . But

3:07

the visual and the cognition

3:09

side of our visual system is when we get

3:11

into visual perception skills , and

3:14

so this is where you might hear things like form

3:16

closure , visual figure ground . There's

3:20

lots of different terminologies here , but

3:22

it's essentially about the thinking that

3:24

goes on and how our brain is

3:26

cognitively processing the

3:29

images that get sent up to

3:31

it , different to

3:33

how my brain responds

3:35

to the sensory environment

3:38

that I am in and what my sensory

3:40

needs might be within different

3:42

environments to be able to help me to

3:45

engage . So today we're just going

3:47

to focus on the real sensory side

3:50

of how it works . But

3:52

the kind of higher order cognitive thinking

3:54

bits and pieces is still important . We're

3:56

just going to talk about it in a later season , but

3:59

I did just want to highlight that it does exist . We're

4:02

just not going to address it today . So

4:05

our visual

4:07

system , so our site , works

4:09

in combination with our vestibular and

4:12

with our auditory system , and so

4:14

our auditory system . Think about it . If you hear a

4:16

sound , the first thing you tend

4:18

to do is you turn your head to look to see

4:20

where that sound is , particularly if it is a

4:22

scary sound or

4:25

a sound that your brain recognises as

4:27

needing your attention so someone calling

4:29

your name , a car running down the street

4:31

really fast , maybe an ambulance

4:34

, a loud crash . When we hear

4:36

these things , typically we will then turn

4:38

our head so that our brain can

4:40

match our visual field with

4:43

that sound to give us more information

4:45

, to then be able to develop a more

4:47

accurate action plan

4:49

for what we're then going to do in response to that

4:51

input . It also

4:53

is teared out with our vestibular system , which

4:55

I did mention in our vestibular

4:57

episode . So go back and have a listen to that

4:59

one . But the crux of it is if

5:02

they weren't talking to each other , any movement

5:04

that you would make , your visual system would bounce

5:06

around all over the place . But

5:09

for more detail , jump back and have a listen to that vestibular

5:12

episode . So

5:14

the other

5:16

part that can impact upon our vision

5:18

that I should address

5:20

as well is it

5:22

is separate to . So how we process

5:25

our vision is separate to the vision that we have . And

5:28

so if you do have concerns about your child's vision

5:30

, number one is to always go and get their eyes

5:32

tested , because we want to see

5:34

are they actually not being able

5:36

to interpret that information ? Because

5:39

it's their eyes and maybe

5:41

it's how their eyes are moving and their eye

5:43

control and the convergence

5:46

of their eyes , and so this is when we have two eyes

5:49

that are working together and so we're not getting too much

5:51

overlap in our vision , and

5:53

that is a separate component to

5:56

what we're talking about today . That's

5:58

kind of the nitty gritty of how

6:00

the eyes themselves are working , before

6:03

we then send that message up to our brain , and

6:05

that sending that message up to our brain is the bit

6:07

that we're going to be looking at today , which

6:09

is then separate to what happens when the brain starts

6:11

to think about that information , which

6:14

is that visual perception skills , which we'll talk

6:16

about in a later episode , but

6:18

always my first point of call , if

6:20

I ever have parents or teachers querying

6:22

some things with vision , number one

6:25

go and get your child's eyes tested

6:27

, because it never hurts to know , and if they

6:29

come out as no issues with

6:31

their vision , that's when we can then take

6:33

that next step . So

6:35

, in the crux

6:38

of it , it is our eyes detect

6:40

all this information . Being light , colour movement

6:42

is the really big ones . This

6:44

information is then sent up our optic nerve

6:47

to our brain and our brain then processes

6:49

it . As is it

6:51

important that I need to have an action plan for

6:53

this , is it not important ? And

6:56

in some cases , as I know you guys

6:58

know now , it might be that

7:00

we have an under responsive child and so

7:02

we're not registering some of these things

7:04

anyway , which we'll talk about in a second

7:06

. So that's the

7:08

how it works . Now

7:11

let's talk about what it might look like

7:13

if a child is having some difficulties

7:15

with this and , just like last

7:17

week , we're going to talk about these in terms of

7:19

over responsive and then

7:21

under responsive , and

7:24

with strategies of what to do after each

7:26

one . So over

7:28

responsive and this , as

7:31

I'm sure you guys are getting really good at knowing now , this

7:34

is where we're noticing lots of input

7:36

, and if you're new and you've just picked up for this

7:38

episode , go have a listen

7:40

to some earlier ones , particularly the first

7:42

episode that I did on this little season

7:44

, because it breaks down some of these words that

7:46

we're talking about , but over

7:48

responsive . So I'm going

7:51

to notice things in my vision

7:54

. We'll get to noise in a second . Notice

7:56

my visual field more than

7:58

someone else

8:00

might and things in my visual

8:02

field might bother me more quickly than

8:05

somebody else . So

8:07

when we see children

8:09

like this and we see children that might be having

8:12

difficulties in this area , we

8:14

might see a child that blocks their vision

8:16

, covers one eye . Maybe

8:18

they use their hand to kind of almost like

8:20

a cap or they pull a hoodie really

8:22

low over their eyes . Maybe

8:24

they squint a lot or they're rubbing their

8:26

eyes . Typically these children

8:29

might be quite fatigued after having to

8:31

engage in a task that does require

8:33

a lot of visual input . So

8:35

maybe they've had to look up at the board for a really

8:37

long time in class or at

8:39

home . Maybe they've been doing some reading and

8:42

you notice that after engaging in this , where there's

8:44

that big strain on their eyes , they'd

8:46

maybe start to rub their eyes a little bit afterwards

8:49

. These children

8:51

might be bothered by bright lights . So

8:53

it could be you walk into a store

8:55

and they've got those really awful

8:57

fluorescent lights on and you can

8:59

see the child might pull a bit of a

9:02

face or have a bit of a physical reaction

9:04

, or maybe it's when they go out into

9:06

bright sunlight , and so playground

9:08

times could be really tricky , and you might notice a

9:10

child that prefers to be in the shade

9:13

instead of out

9:15

and about in the bright sunlight . These

9:18

also could be children that you notice

9:21

are distracted and overwhelmed

9:23

in busy environments , and

9:25

so they are just noticing too

9:28

much , and so in the classroom it

9:30

could be if the child

9:32

is sitting further in the back of the class

9:34

and you've got beautiful artworks

9:36

up on the wall on the child's left there's

9:39

glass windows on the right , then the child

9:41

can see everyone walking up and down the hallway

9:43

. You're in the front with the board

9:45

trying to do your presentation , but to the left of the

9:47

presentation is the plan for the day . Under

9:50

the presentation might be different resources

9:53

the kids can come and get . There's five

9:55

kids to my left , there's four kids to my right

9:57

, and all of a sudden my little brain

10:00

is trying to process

10:02

all of this information all at once and

10:04

it just gets too much , and they

10:06

can experience what we call overload

10:08

, where their brain cannot process anymore

10:10

, and so they then consequently might

10:13

disengage from the situation . They might not

10:15

be able to follow instructions because there is

10:17

just too much their brain is trying to process

10:20

from a visual perspective . Too

10:22

many colors , too many moving objects , too many

10:24

different things that their brain is

10:26

trying to decode . You

10:29

also might notice that these children may

10:31

avoid eye contact or be taught

10:33

listening very actively , but not giving

10:35

you eye contact . And just a side note on this

10:37

I don't believe eye contact is essential

10:39

at all for any

10:42

sort of engagement or communication . You

10:44

can have fantastic conversations with somebody

10:46

, for example , when we have conversations

10:48

on the phone is just a really obvious one

10:50

. It's not a necessary component

10:53

. But why we can see children that might

10:55

find this more challenging is

10:58

because visually , there is so

11:00

much going on on the face . My

11:02

lips are moving , you can sometimes see

11:04

my teeth and my tongue , and sometimes you can't . My

11:07

cheeks might move . If I'm smiling and getting really excited

11:09

as I'm telling a story , my eyes

11:11

will widen or narrow and be very expressive

11:13

depending upon how I feel about the story , and

11:16

then my eyebrows are going to be doing a whole bunch

11:18

as well , depending upon how animated

11:20

I am as I'm sharing this information

11:22

with you , and for some children this

11:24

is great because it gives them lots of extra cues

11:27

about what I'm saying and what's important , but

11:30

for other children that is

11:32

too much information for their brain

11:34

to process . Because the crux

11:36

of this is arch brains

11:38

can only think about so much

11:40

at once . We have only so much power

11:43

in our brains , and if I'm having to

11:45

use up most of my brain power processing

11:48

what I'm seeing , I can't

11:50

process what I'm hearing , so I'm missing instructions

11:52

. I can't process thinking about what I'm

11:54

supposed to be learning , and so I'm not engaging

11:57

in that because it's just it's too much . And

11:59

that is not the child's fault , that

12:02

is not the teacher's fault , that is not the parent's

12:04

fault . There is no fault here , it

12:06

is just the reality . And

12:08

so what we do is we help these children

12:10

to try and minimize some

12:12

of these cognitive demands and how much their brain

12:15

is having to think about and interpret , so

12:17

that they can then focus on the

12:19

tasks that they need to do . So

12:24

we also might see some

12:26

of these children that are over responsive

12:28

can have difficulties with moving objects

12:30

and judging how fast things are moving , and

12:32

again , this can be because they are just

12:35

watching so much that they don't notice

12:37

and can't judge that as quickly . So

12:41

what can we do ? How

12:43

can we help decrease some of

12:45

that cognitive load . How can we help these

12:47

children engage in what

12:49

we are trying to help them do ? And

12:51

there's lots , but the biggest one

12:54

is for these little over responsive

12:56

kiddies . Unsurprisingly

12:58

, we want to try and reduce the visual

13:00

input if possible . Okay

13:03

, and so when we think about this at home

13:05

and again we're going to think

13:07

about it around occupations Well

13:09

, what is it that we're trying to help our child do

13:12

at home ? Maybe

13:14

at home it is the morning

13:16

routine and you notice that your

13:18

kitty gets so distracted , looks

13:21

at so many different things . Sees a toy they

13:23

want to play with , sees something else is

13:25

all over the shop and we just can't

13:28

figure out what to do . Okay

13:30

, so one thing that we could look at doing if you think

13:32

your child might be really over responsive

13:34

is we can decrease some of

13:36

that visual input . Maybe

13:39

we look at using a very simple

13:41

visual on a

13:43

blank wall . So bathrooms

13:45

are a great one because they're typically a little

13:47

bit plainer . Or maybe there's a room

13:49

in your house or a corner in

13:52

your house where you can have not

13:54

any artwork , not any toys

13:56

, nice , quiet corner where maybe

13:58

we can stick up a little visual of what we have to

14:00

do . So that is the only thing in

14:03

your child's visual field , so that

14:05

they can then really focus and attend to

14:07

that task . It might be that we bring the clothes

14:09

to this corner so

14:11

that the only thing that we have around is

14:14

what we're trying to focus on In

14:18

the classroom . Reducing visual input can

14:20

be looking at where a child

14:22

is sitting and physically sitting in

14:24

that seat and looking around

14:26

and seeing what can your line of sight see

14:28

, and thinking about

14:30

where you stand as the teacher during the day

14:33

and if you look in that direction , what

14:35

can the child see and what could be minimized

14:37

when you stand in

14:39

a different section for teaching or maybe at mat

14:41

time , sit where the child will normally sit

14:44

and have a think . What can that child see ? If

14:46

it is that their line of sight

14:48

goes straight outside and there's

14:50

lots of movement outside ? Maybe it's

14:52

the area where kids do PE and so there's constantly

14:54

different classes moving in and out or

14:57

maybe sitting that child somewhere else , but they don't have

14:59

that same level of visual distractions . Looking

15:02

at how many displays the child

15:04

can see from their desk , I'm not saying , don't have displays

15:06

in your classroom , but just be mindful of where

15:08

you put them up and maybe you set up

15:10

your classroom so that you have a corner that is

15:12

a little bit planar , so

15:15

that if you have some of these children in your class

15:17

you can sit them up so they have that when they look

15:20

up , instead of looking up and getting

15:22

all of this really overloading and overwhelming

15:24

input . The

15:26

other things that we can do is

15:28

things like dimming lights , and obviously this isn't always

15:31

possible at school , but some schools have different

15:33

covers that you can put over lights . At

15:35

home you can look at dimming your lights or

15:37

only using lights and like the adjacent room

15:39

can be a really nice one , particularly if you have like an open

15:41

plan living space

15:44

Turning on one light in one area

15:46

, but you're kind of working a little bit separate from

15:48

it when

15:51

you're outside , or even , in some cases

15:53

, inside , think about using sunglasses

15:55

. You know we automatically put sunglasses

15:57

on if it's a bright , glary day because it's nicer

16:00

for our eyes and it means we don't have to squint

16:02

. It is the exact same

16:04

approach . We just might use them a little

16:06

bit more readily for some of these kids and

16:09

help them start to identify . Oh

16:11

, you know , I can see your eyes are squinting . Let's

16:13

try these . Did they help ? Did

16:15

they not help . And sometimes

16:17

you know , even if your child isn't

16:20

speaking , you can still have

16:22

these conversations about wow , your

16:25

body looks a little bit calmer or you're wow

16:27

, you're smiling , I think you like those , I think they're

16:29

helping you , and then you can

16:31

practice trying them in different environments as

16:33

well . But it's just again that

16:36

idea of muting my visual

16:38

environment a little bit . We

16:42

can also look at if we

16:44

think within the classroom again . So

16:46

for some of those teachers that listen along to my podcast

16:49

, thinking about what

16:52

we put on worksheets how

16:55

much colour do you have on your worksheets ? Can

16:57

you print one in black and white for this child , or

17:00

can you print and have a choice ? Or

17:02

if you don't want to single out the child by having a

17:04

black and white one , well then maybe we

17:06

look at giving the child a second piece of paper

17:08

that's just blank and white and they

17:10

can cover up half of the worksheet to

17:13

make it really clear what section they're focusing

17:15

on , because all of a sudden that cuts out

17:17

their visual load of how

17:19

much their brain is having to process

17:21

and it helps them then focus on what

17:23

they need to do . The

17:26

other one that we can look at is helping

17:28

them have little brain breaks or little eye

17:30

breaks , and so these can be

17:32

when you start to notice a child

17:34

getting a little bit restless maybe they're squinting

17:36

a lot or you know that

17:38

you've just done an activity that has really

17:41

required a lot of their visual skills

17:43

saying , hey , let's

17:45

go and have a little movement break , let's

17:48

go and have a body break , let's go and give your eyes

17:50

a break . And this is when

17:52

we can actually even though we're

17:54

thinking about and doing this for a visual

17:56

system , we can actually

17:59

look at them building in . Let's go and

18:01

do some of those proprioceptive activities we

18:03

talked about a couple episodes ago . Let's

18:06

go and get a drink of water . That still counts

18:08

as a little break , because I'm still getting a bit

18:10

of movement in and my eyes are getting to adjust

18:12

to something different and not having to

18:14

do that sustained strain . Maybe

18:17

the child would like to go and play with a little

18:19

fidget . That's really predictable , that they can spin

18:21

and just watch , and that's going to help them have their

18:23

little break . But building in

18:25

breaks around times when you know

18:28

, or even just before . So

18:30

again , in previous episodes I've said that we can do

18:32

them before or after

18:34

, so we can kind of help get ready before

18:37

we're going to put that do

18:39

that task that we know is going to be challenging . So

18:41

do that occupation that we know is going to be really tricky , or

18:44

we can do it afterwards to help

18:47

our brain kind of calm down and resettle

18:49

again . So

18:52

that's kind of what we can think about doing

18:54

with those over responsive kitties . And the biggest

18:56

one is starting to have that curiosity

18:58

. So the biggest takeaway is

19:00

have that curiosity around . Well , what is

19:03

this child seeing ? What is

19:05

my child seeing ? Or what is a student in my class

19:07

seeing ? Get down on their level

19:09

. So , if they're a smaller

19:11

child , scratch down to their level

19:13

and see what they see , because

19:16

you'll be surprised how different of a view it is

19:18

of the world than what adults tend to see

19:20

. Being up taller , and a lot of the

19:22

time it's a lot busier

19:24

, because they'll be right at that height

19:26

of all the cupboards where they don't have doors and

19:29

they can see everything inside , whereas

19:31

in an adult line view we look straight across

19:33

the top of those cupboards . So

19:35

get down on their level , be curious

19:37

and start to think about which bits and pieces

19:40

we can change and what

19:42

bits and pieces we can minimize to decrease

19:44

and reduce the visual input that

19:47

this child has to experience , particularly

19:49

when we want to help them be able

19:51

to engage in a different task . Okay

19:55

, what about our under

19:57

responsive kitties ? So again

20:00

, I'm sure you're all used to this by now , but I'm

20:02

just going to remind you . These are the kids that

20:04

need lots of input . So

20:07

we might see these children will miss visual

20:09

information . They may lose track

20:11

of things or not be able to find things

20:13

. You might be so frustrated and you say , go

20:15

and get your t-shirt and they've gone into their room and

20:17

it's on their bed and it's the only thing on

20:19

their bed but they can't locate

20:22

that in their room . These

20:25

children we might see have difficulty with their

20:27

tracking in their reading . They might have difficulty

20:30

discriminating different letters . Some

20:32

of these bits do come a little bit more into

20:34

our visual perception side of things and

20:37

so we will address particularly some of the reading and the discrimination

20:39

of letters and shapes . We will

20:41

address that in a separate season . We

20:44

also might see some of these children will seek

20:47

out lots of visual input . So you

20:49

might see kids that really like spinning

20:51

toys and holding them really close to their eyes

20:53

, or maybe they like really bright

20:56

lights and will always gravitate towards toys

20:58

that have lights on them or anything

21:00

that lights up . And again they might hold it up

21:02

really close to their eye , to the point where you

21:05

might look at that and go , ooh , doesn't that hurt

21:07

your eye ? Like don't you have that painful

21:10

reaction . But no , they find that really

21:12

helpful because it's helping meet

21:14

the input that they need . You

21:17

also might find they like really complicated

21:19

and visually complicated video games

21:21

and computer games where there's lots

21:23

going on and lots for their brain to have to interact

21:26

with . But it's quite fast , it flashes

21:28

, so it's really visually exciting

21:30

for them and so they might have a really strong

21:33

preference for playing some of these games . So

21:37

when we see these kids and it's actually starting

21:39

to impact upon their ability to engage

21:41

, so maybe they're missing instructions and missing

21:43

visual information or maybe

21:45

what they are seeking out is actually

21:48

becoming so much that

21:50

they can't then engage into a different task

21:52

. What can we do to help

21:54

these kids ? Number one

21:56

the opposite of what we were saying before

21:58

, we wanna increase our visual cues and input

22:01

. We wanna find activities

22:03

where we can build in

22:05

more visual input . If

22:07

it's visual cues , so we

22:09

might get some really

22:11

colorful painters tape and tape it around

22:14

things that they need to find . So maybe

22:16

in school if they have a tray

22:18

but their tray looks like everyone else's tray , I

22:21

might put some really bright tape on their tray to

22:23

help them scan and find it . If

22:26

it's where their bag goes or where their coat

22:28

goes , I might paint theirs a different color

22:30

or wrap something around their hook to

22:32

make it that contrast . So we're

22:34

building in more visual cues In

22:38

terms of worksheets and things . Maybe we look

22:40

at using a colored sheet

22:42

of paper , like an A3 colored sheet , and

22:45

then putting the worksheet on top to give that contrast

22:47

, give them that extra input and help

22:49

them find and think about what they're doing

22:52

In

22:54

terms of writing in these things . Maybe we look

22:56

at putting highlighter on the line . So again , increasing

22:59

that contrast for the child and

23:01

also it can help with letter sizing and letter

23:03

placement and a whole bunch of other fun things . But

23:06

at its core it's actually helping break

23:08

down where all of those lines are and

23:10

maybe to start with I'm just gonna do two at a time and

23:13

then I might do three lines at a time and

23:15

then the child might really benefit from it . So we

23:17

might go and highlight their whole book and

23:19

you might build up to the child putting

23:21

the highlighter through their own book to be able to

23:23

be that extra visual cue . We

23:28

also wanna provide opportunities for

23:30

them to get extra

23:33

input . Particularly if we've got a child that is already

23:35

seeking out , we wanna allow those opportunities

23:37

for them and so maybe

23:39

if a spinning fidget is gonna be really disruptive

23:42

in class , we can look at alternatives . We're

23:44

gonna put this child in the place where they have a

23:46

lot of visual information in the classroom

23:48

, so they might be on the opposite side of the classroom

23:51

to the child that we were talking about before . Maybe

23:54

if this child finishes work quickly , or

23:56

maybe if you're noticing they need a little bit of

23:58

extra visual stimulation , we're gonna

24:00

give them mazes , eyespies

24:03

, puzzles , all of

24:05

these activities that require that extra

24:07

visual thinking component . Also

24:10

, there's some great fidgets that have really

24:13

strong visual sides , like kaleidoscopes

24:15

, those little egg timers

24:17

that have liquid that slide down them . They can

24:19

be fantastic and not too distracting

24:21

and not too noisy for other children . At

24:24

home you might do things like watching different optical

24:27

illusions together . They can be really nice

24:29

, and so we just look at building

24:31

in other activities

24:34

around the tasks that we know are gonna

24:36

be tricky to help these children

24:38

get enough of that visual

24:41

information so they can then attend

24:43

to what they need to . So

24:46

that is our visual and our sight

24:48

all wrapped up . So we have that

24:51

idea of taking

24:54

in information , it getting processed

24:56

by the brain and our brain then being able

24:58

to respond to it . And when we

25:00

have those kids that are over responsive and they're

25:02

just processing too much , the number

25:04

one thing to think about is get down on their

25:06

level , see what they see and see

25:08

how much you can , if possible , decrease

25:11

or what we can use

25:13

like a hat , like sunnies , like a hood

25:15

, to decrease some of that visual

25:17

input . For some of those under

25:19

responses it's the opposite . It's if

25:21

they are seeking it out , how can we help

25:23

them build in more ? If they're not

25:25

seeking it out , that's fine too , but how

25:27

can I add in some extra visual cues around

25:30

these daily tasks to help them , help bring

25:32

their attention to it and help draw that visual

25:34

attention to what we need them

25:36

to focus on ? So

25:39

now let's get into our auditory

25:41

so sounds , so

25:44

auditory again . I'm

25:46

sure you all know , but this comes from our ears and

25:48

our ears will detect things like volume , pitch

25:51

, different , the duration

25:53

of sounds , and it

25:55

also has things like how we can filter our

25:57

background sounds and isolate what's important

26:00

as well . So this information

26:02

that gets collected from our ears again travels

26:05

up to our brain and our brain has this instant

26:08

. Is it important , is it not ? Is it

26:10

a threat to myself ? So

26:12

that flight response ? And

26:14

then what do I do about it ? Just

26:17

like auditory

26:20

, so just like us sorry

26:23

, this is auditory . Just like

26:25

visual , so just like our site that

26:27

we were just talking about , our

26:30

auditory system has the same sort

26:32

of higher order thinking that goes

26:34

on auditory processing . Now

26:36

, again , this is slightly different and we're not gonna

26:38

touch on this today , but this is when we start

26:41

to think about what am I hearing

26:43

, discriminating between different sounds

26:45

, as opposed to what we're talking about

26:47

today , which is that initial processing

26:50

of the sound . How do I react

26:53

and respond to different sounds ? So

26:56

what might it look like if a child is over

26:59

responsive ? And so these are

27:01

the kiddies that might notice lots

27:03

of different sounds and can become

27:05

quite overwhelmed by lots of

27:07

different noises . These

27:09

are the kids that might experience sound as

27:12

painful , even sounds that

27:14

you might not understand

27:16

or you might not have heard . They

27:18

could describe as hurting my ears

27:20

and covering their ears and maybe on

27:23

their face . You can see they've scrunched up their face

27:25

and it's a physical sensation

27:27

for them that that is painful , that sound

27:30

. These

27:32

are the children that you might see that startle

27:34

easily or that they'll cover their

27:36

ears a lot . Typically

27:39

we see with some of these kids they can start to

27:41

build up a little bit of fear and a lot of

27:43

avoidance around tasks

27:45

or activities that will involve unpredictable

27:47

sounds or sounds

27:50

that they know that they're not going to like

27:52

, and so they will pull out every strategy

27:54

in the book to avoid being

27:57

in these situations . And sometimes these

27:59

can be then seen as woozy behaviors

28:02

that start to come out as a protective

28:04

instinct from I'm not gonna go into

28:06

that situation where I know that sound is

28:08

gonna be , so I'm gonna

28:10

do everything I can to make sure my body does

28:12

not get in that room and I don't have

28:14

to do that Sudden

28:17

noises . So things like fireworks , vacuums

28:20

, hand dryers in bathrooms , all

28:23

of these that are really quite A . They're

28:25

quite loud , they typically have

28:27

quite a high pitch , but

28:30

they're not predictable if , unless

28:32

I have control over them , or

28:34

a child that started screaming or someone that

28:36

started crying , all of these different

28:39

things , when it's unpredictable sound , can

28:41

be really tricky for these over responsive

28:43

kids . These

28:46

kids might also be bothered by sounds that you

28:48

might not notice , and so it might be

28:50

the ticking of a clock , it might

28:52

be the oven cooking something at home

28:54

, maybe there's a fan going on in the other room

28:56

All of these sort of subtle background

28:59

noises that , from

29:01

my brain , typically

29:04

not always . If I'm tired or haven't had

29:06

a coffee , I tend to notice the ticking of a clock and

29:08

it can drive me insane . And there are some clocks that I have

29:10

not bought because in shops

29:12

I see how noisy they are . But

29:14

most of the time I surround myself with things that

29:17

don't bother

29:19

me as background noise , and

29:21

so that I then don't have to think about that

29:23

and I can spend my time thinking about and focusing

29:26

on what is in front of me . So

29:29

what can we do to help these kids ? Well

29:32

, we can make sure that the environment is set up as

29:34

much as possible . So if there is a

29:36

clock that is really bothering your child and you're

29:38

at home , try a

29:40

different clock . Truthfully

29:43

, it's not worth it . I picked different

29:45

clocks . We can set up the environment to set

29:47

it up for success . If

29:50

there are sounds that we know are gonna be tricky

29:52

for the child , making them as

29:54

predictable as possible . I

29:57

have to vacuum or actually

29:59

vacuum is a different one , because you can vacuum when the

30:01

child's not home , but maybe when we're

30:03

using a hand dryer okay

30:05

, we have to dry our hands . We're

30:08

gonna put it on for one second

30:10

, so on and

30:12

off . Or if

30:15

you know it's one of those ones that you're going to touch and it's going

30:17

to keep going , ok , it's going to be loud

30:19

, let's count together how long it's loud

30:21

for . So we put it on and we're counting

30:24

one , two , three , four , five . Oh

30:26

, it was just five seconds . Now we know for

30:28

next time . And so we start

30:30

to make these predictabilities around the

30:32

sound so that the child's

30:34

brain and their body can get ready to

30:37

process that information and starts to know what

30:39

is expected . Things like ear

30:41

defenders and noise-canceling headphones

30:43

can be fantastic because they can

30:45

just mute down how much

30:48

that brain is having to process . Within

30:52

the classroom we can look at again

30:55

where we place that child within different experiences

30:57

of the day , and so maybe at PE if

30:59

you know there's going to be a loud

31:02

whistle in any of the games maybe just trying

31:04

to encourage that child to be a little bit further away

31:06

or giving them that pre-warning . In

31:08

assembly , we might look at where that child sits

31:10

to make sure that they're not right next to a speaker , because

31:13

that is going to be too hard for them and

31:15

they're not going to be able to engage in assembly

31:18

. In the classroom , you might

31:20

look at where that child is sitting to make sure

31:22

that they're not next to a really noisy kid and

31:24

start to have these considerations around the environment

31:27

that we're putting in place and how we can

31:29

make sure this is supporting the child or

31:31

having things like ear defenders possible for

31:33

the child to use . You

31:36

can also look at the physical environment in terms of

31:38

rugs and curtains and things that are going to help to soften

31:41

the acoustics within the space as well

31:43

. Within

31:45

the classroom , we also might look at having

31:47

a quieter corner or a

31:49

space where the child can take those breaks

31:52

, and so if you notice that they're really

31:54

starting to block their ears and they're starting to

31:56

get a little bit distressed or a little bit dysregulated

31:58

or they're not focusing as well

32:00

, encouraging them , oh , let's

32:03

go and finish your work in the quiet corner

32:05

, let's go and have a little

32:07

break over here and

32:09

separating them out , giving them that little bit

32:11

of space to help them

32:14

then be able to focus and engage

32:16

on the task at hand . It's

32:18

also where we can use things like some of

32:21

those proprioceptive activities to help

32:23

our brain reset and look

32:25

at fidgets and things to shift our focus

32:27

. And so if I do have to listen to something

32:29

and it's going to be really tricky having

32:31

a fidget in my hand so that I can focus

32:33

on that sensation and that tactile feeling

32:35

typically a build in a little bit of heavy

32:37

work with my fingers having to work hard and

32:41

so that can then help shift my

32:43

brain I'm still listening , but

32:45

this is helping me manage that

32:48

noise component as well . So that's another

32:50

thing that we can look at building in . And

32:54

then we have our under

32:56

responsive kiddies and

32:59

within our auditory system , our under responsive

33:01

kiddies are kiddies that might miss instructions

33:04

. These are also kiddies that

33:06

might seek out extra

33:08

noise , and so they might talk

33:10

all the time , they might script

33:12

what they are doing , they

33:14

might hum all the time , they might

33:16

make different vocalizations as they're doing

33:18

things , and frequently they

33:21

won't notice that they're doing this , and

33:23

so you can say stop that noise and they could turn around

33:25

and go . What noise ? What was

33:27

I doing ? They don't know . Their

33:29

body is automatically doing it to

33:31

help them focus . They

33:34

might have difficulties recognizing where

33:36

different sounds are coming from . They may not respond

33:38

to their name and so

33:40

you could call their name and it's not the

33:42

now . Sometimes they've heard you and they're

33:45

not responding , but if you think they actually they

33:47

have , they just haven't heard

33:49

you or they haven't processed it . This is when we can think about

33:52

maybe we have an under

33:54

responsive kiddie . They're missing instructions , they

33:57

are a bit lost in there . Lots of different noises going

33:59

on , but they doesn't bother them . They

34:01

might have a preference for louder sounds , particularly

34:04

if they can be in control of those louder sounds . So

34:06

they might be the really , really noisy kid in your classroom

34:08

and these sorts of things we

34:10

might see in a child that

34:14

needs that extra bit

34:16

of auditory input in their day . And

34:19

so what we can do to help these kiddies

34:21

is a couple of things . We

34:24

can give them extra noise in an appropriate

34:26

way . So maybe they have headphones

34:29

to listen to music . Maybe they have headphones to listen

34:31

to music . Maybe we

34:33

look at building in some other

34:35

sensory strategies like a move and

34:37

sit cushion that's going to give that

34:39

little bit of feedback , that little bit of proprioceptive

34:42

feedback , and

34:44

we're gonna build that in so

34:47

we can say , look , we're gonna use this to help

34:49

your brain focus and so

34:51

that you don't have to hum , because it's really tricky for

34:53

the child next to you . But we're gonna make this need in

34:55

a different way For

34:57

a child that might miss a lot of instructions

34:59

. We might have a visual cue

35:02

to ensure that we have the attention

35:04

before giving the instruction , and

35:07

so this could look like having a cue card on

35:09

the child's desk and flipping

35:11

it one way when you need to say something and flipping it

35:13

the other way , or tapping on that child's

35:15

desk or moving

35:17

something within their space , or having that

35:19

child closer to you as

35:22

you're teaching so you can give those different cues

35:24

. That's gonna help him go . Okay , hang on

35:26

, someone's about to tell me something

35:28

important , so I need to look up and I need to pay

35:31

attention . We also

35:33

might give that child a little bit of extra time

35:35

to process the information

35:37

, or we might look at using

35:39

building in visuals or writing

35:41

down the plan on having written instructions

35:44

as well as verbal instructions , because

35:46

we know it's gonna be tricky for this child to attend

35:48

to our verbal instructions

35:51

solely , and because that's taking

35:53

up so much of their brain and having to pay attention

35:55

to this and having to listen , they

35:57

may not be able to remember it as well . So

36:00

that's when we can have step by step

36:02

, we can have written components , we can have

36:04

photos and we can break down that

36:06

task a little bit easier At

36:09

home . This is when we might use different

36:11

visuals , and it could be

36:13

visuals for the morning routine , it

36:15

could be visuals for the steps to cook some

36:17

breakfast or make their own bowl

36:19

of cereal . It could be visuals

36:22

to tie their shoelaces , whatever it is

36:24

. Instead of us having to talk them through

36:27

every single step , we

36:29

might just sit down next to them and show them and

36:31

not talk as much , and help

36:33

them manage and process the information

36:35

in a way that's actually going to match

36:37

what their needs are . If

36:41

we see a child that likes

36:43

to hum and likes to have vocalizations , we

36:45

might find times that are appropriate for them to be

36:47

able to do this , and so if there

36:49

is a table that is a little bit noisier in your

36:52

class or at home , if that's helping them focus

36:54

and do their homework well , fantastic , we're

36:56

going to let them do that . But if

36:58

we have to go out somewhere and actually

37:00

we can't do that

37:02

as much , or

37:05

in classroom it's impacting upon

37:07

another child . Maybe

37:09

we can look at studying these children or

37:13

we can look at them building in headphones

37:15

where we can listen to music , so something else

37:17

can give that sound and that input . Or

37:20

maybe we look at some music for the whole class

37:22

where you can have background music on , and that's again

37:24

something you can look at doing at home . So

37:27

again , it's looking at how we can build

37:29

into their life other

37:31

opportunities to get that sound

37:33

that they are seeking out . So

37:37

the big takeaways for auditory

37:39

for those under-responsive

37:41

kiddies we want to look at building in more where

37:43

possible , but also looking at other

37:46

ways that we can communicate the information

37:48

. So making sure we have those cues , making

37:50

sure we have that attention before

37:52

we're giving those instructions and things For

37:56

our over-responsive kiddies . These

37:58

are when we want to make our sound as

38:00

predictable as possible . We want to change

38:02

the environment to decrease

38:05

as much of this noise as we can . It's

38:07

not always possible but as

38:09

much as we can and for both

38:11

we can look at using in some of those proprioceptives

38:14

, some of those vestibular activities . That

38:16

we know is very regulating throughout all

38:18

of our sensory systems to help

38:20

them manage throughout the day . So which bits are

38:22

tricky ? Where can we build these in

38:25

around the times that are going

38:27

to be challenging ? So around PE , when it's going

38:29

to be noisy , around assembly time , when it's going to

38:31

be noisy After they've just come back from

38:33

playground . Maybe you've just done a

38:35

crazy arts and craft activity

38:37

in class and it's gotten really noisy because all the

38:39

kids have really enjoyed it , and

38:41

so then we're going to build some of these in to help these

38:43

kiddies be able to resettle

38:46

, refocus , reorganize my brain so

38:48

that I can then get on with the next task or

38:51

the next activity or whatever

38:53

. Whatever the task might be , could be

38:55

at home that it's , then it's time to get ready , to get dressed

38:58

. Who knows what the occupation

39:00

is . But we look at where are those

39:02

times of challenge and how

39:04

can we build in the appropriate supports to

39:06

help the child through them . So

39:09

that brings us to the end of

39:11

all things sight and sound , so

39:13

all things for our visual and auditory

39:16

systems . I

39:18

can't believe how quickly this has gone . We

39:21

only have one more episode

39:23

left for our sensory season

39:25

and that is going to be on our

39:27

tactile system in two

39:29

weeks . Now , if you have

39:31

any questions at all about things that we

39:33

have gone through , if you have

39:36

any queries , anything

39:38

don't think it's silly . I'm putting together

39:40

a bit of a Q&A episode and

39:42

, if I get enough , I will do

39:45

a little podcast episode to answer any questions

39:48

around our sensory system . So please

39:50

start sending them through . You can DM

39:52

me on Instagram , you can

39:54

email me at bellsotcorner

39:56

at gmailcom . Whatever

39:58

you like , send through your questions so that I

40:00

can then put together a slightly more

40:02

targeted answering your Q&A's about

40:05

our sensory systems . To wrap

40:07

it up , but for now

40:09

, please like follow

40:11

rate . It all really helps . Send

40:14

it to your friends , send it to your best mates , send

40:17

it to your teachers Anyone that you think

40:19

is going to benefit from the podcast . It really

40:21

helps me get it out there so that I can get

40:23

all the information into the ears of people that it's actually

40:25

going to be . But that's all from me for today

40:27

, guys . I

40:30

hope you all have a lovely week and I will see you in two weeks . Thanks

40:33

, bye

40:46

.