Bonus: Tips and tricks for being out and about

Aloha, sensory heroes. Here are some tips and tricks for when you're out and about, when you're running errands or going to somebody else's house. Just some different things to keep in mind. Kids have a very difficult time understanding time and so for them a little short trip might feel like a long time, especially if they don't know what to expect. So, so one of the first things that's really helpful is if you can have some kind of a picture schedule. And it could just be a sheet of paper with some check boxes on it and you might draw something like something that looks like. I don't say you're going to target and you might do the target symbol that, that you're going to first do that. You could, you could have a sequence of the different errands or you could just have first but definitely show like home is do a little house. And home is the last thing that can be super helpful. Depending on your child, you want to only go to one place and make it a short trip. You can definitely break it up by do something and then maybe go to the park and let them be outside and run around and then go to the next thing. You can just think about sensory breaks too. Like wherever you're at, if there's a quiet spot to just get a little, a little break. If it's a noisy environment, see if you can do that. Visual timers work really well. There's. If you, if you go in your apps and you just type in visual timers, you'll see a lot of different ones and basically it just, it's a visual thing that just shows the time, like how much time is left. So even our, our kids that are non verbal and, and you know, you wouldn't think that they really could maybe understand the, the concept of time because they can't communicate it. But they, but they understand like when there's this much red left, believe me, they know because they try to cram in like as many fun things at the end of our session as possible. So they, they understand like time's running out. But it also can help like if you're like, oh my gosh, we're waiting in line forever. And you know, you can set it for 10 minutes, however long you think it's going to be, and then put a little extra in there and they can get a sense like, oh, okay, it's not going to be forever. It's not going to be like a whole hour. Having verbal warnings or like helping them with transition is often A challenging thing, especially if it's something fun. So now just saying, okay, time to go, but saying okay, down the slide and then we're going to go. That can help. Social stories can help. A social story is just something that just describes whatever it is you're going to do. And it's just like a little story. We make them a lot for kids at the clinic and it's just basically what's expected and some pictures to go with it. So it's just kind of a little step by step sort of thing. If you're, if you're out like at a store, say you're at the grocery store. It helps to help the kid have something to do. So, so a job they can help be on the lookout for certain items and then they get to put them in the cart. Pushing the cart is really great because it gives them that sensory input. And you can just kind of steer it from the front so that they don't bash into anything. You can play I Spy and you can be like I spy something red on the top, on the top shelf, point to it. Something like that. Really including your sensory tools for these trips is really important. You can have them in the car with you. You can bring them into the store. So some of the things that can work really well are just like your tactile fidgets. The weighted blanket, weighted vest, compression garments, bubbles. Remember there's all that fluorescent lighting. So if they'll wear a hat hat, if they'll wear sunglasses, that can help. You can also make like a little tent out of the, out of the shopping cart. Bring a little blanket or sheet and throw it over the top. There's also in the, in the weighted blanket section I didn't talk about. You can also get like weighted stuffed animals or you can even make them your yourself by putting, putting in some. Make it like a giant bean bag. Just puts a Ziploc bag of some beans in there and, but don't wash it that way. You know, bean sprouting. But you know, just having something heavy in their lap can help. So a little heavy stuffed animal can be helpful. Or the smaller weighted blanket so it just sits in their lap. Of course your headphones and that can be really helpful and you can have them in the car. Take, take the tools with you either way, but just have them with you. The tools that they seem to like in a, in a parent group. I asked what their, some of their favorite tips were and one parent just said leave when they ask to like if they' if they're telling you this is like too much for me. And they're wanting to go, it's, it might be worth it just to try another day instead of having them go into a full on meltdown. This was an interesting one from a parent. They said to have a variety of clothing in the car because if the weather, a lot of the kids are so sensitive to the temperatures. So she was giving an example like a sweater and long pants because maybe the, the day seems warm and then all of a sudden it gets cold and then they're just really upset because it's, for them it's too much of a change of temperature. So she recommended having like all the different seasons of clothing, just having some extra clothes in the car. Same as like if you're dressed really warm but then all of a sudden it gets really hot being able to change. And they were talking to us about the short trips and also like if they're, if they're going to have like a play date, just have it with one friend and bring drinks and snacks that you know your child likes and that can make it go a little smoother. So those are some tips and tricks to make going out and about a little bit easier and I hope that that's helpful and oh, I was gonna say put it in your worksheet but there's no worksheet for this, so. Aloha.