Short educational video (Day 18) by Mary Kostka about how texture and temperature can help calm people—especially children—with sensory sensitivities. Practical tips include choosing seamless or soft clothing (flip socks inside out, wear a soft undershirt), using spandex/compression items (body socks, spandex sheets) for firm pressure, warming a room before transitions like baths, and adjusting food temperature; the speaker closes with a personal anecdote explaining the business name "Ohana" and a love of Hawaiian culture.
Aloha, sensory heroes. Welcome to day 18. Another environmental way that you can help a person calm is by texture and temperature. So in general, I think we all intuitively know this softer, smoother textures are going to be more calming. Where rougher textures or just imagine, like, velvet versus burlap. You know, it's kind of an extreme, but just you want to think about, like, how textures can make you feel. And we see this a lot with kids in their clothing. So a lot of times they don't tolerate socks well because they feel the seam inside. You can get seamless socks, by the way. There's whole lines of seamless clothing. A lot of kids really need that. But you can also, like, with socks, you can just flip them inside out. And then the smoother. The smoother side is against the skin. If they're really having a hard time with certain clothing and textures, they can wear something they like underneath it. Temple Grandin is a very famous woman with autism that I got to hear speak here in Lenworth, and she talked about how she always wears. She has a couple of undershirts that she wears that are very old. They're very, like, soft, super soft and thin. And she just wears those under all her shirts because she said her clothes, her regular clothes, feel like sandpaper on her skin. And I always remember that, like, okay, when the kids are complaining about their clothing, they can't articulate it that way, but essentially they're feeling like they're sandpaper on my skin. So we have to just kind of have some patience about that. And temperature can make a big difference. One thing that I see a lot is sometimes the kids will not want to change their clothes, and they'll. Because they don't want their bare skin to be hitting the cooler air. So if you warm up the room first, like, say, before a bath, if you have a heater and you can heat up the room a little bit more, then sometimes it's just a lot easier for them to make that transition to close off and into the bathtub. So those are a few different considerations. One fabric that they love is the feeling of spandex. It's just soft and it's stretchy. A lot of the kids love compression clothing. And in the tools for the kids, I go into that, into a little bit more detail. But, like, for the spandex, a lot of kids, like the body sock, which is like a spandex pillowcase that you get inside, and you can push around and. And snuggle up in it, and you can also get Spandex sheets that wrap around the whole bed so you can get inside and have that nice, firm, firm pressure. So just keep in mind textures of things, how you can make things more comfortable, and the temperature of things. And the same goes for food. A lot of our kids have difficulty with, with, with feeding, with eating, and that'll be another, another module someday. But temperature food can make a big difference. Sometimes if it's not warm or cool enough, they can't even tell where it's at in their mouth because they have poor perception or the opposite. They have such heightened perception that they need it very neutral. So these are just all variables to take into consideration that are easy things to, to shift and make easier for the kids. Oh, you know what, As I say aloha, I was thinking I'm going to share with you why we're named it Ohana, because I was mentioning my sign earlier in a video about how it's a Bavarian style. And I know you guys are probably going Bavarian Hawaiian theme. I don't get it. So for the past 20 years, I have been part of a, a hula halau and learn traditional hula. Just happen to be lucky enough to have my instructor live in my little touristy town, which is in the mountains, which looks like Bavaria because her family's here. So I love Hawaiian culture. I love Hawaii. I love everything about it. And so when I was naming my business, a lot of the businesses are called Dur this or Mount this or that. And I thought, well, I don't know if I'm going to keep it in Leavenworth. I might move it down to Wenatchee, which is the next main town down, about a half an hour away. And, and that is what I ended up doing. But I did, I wanted something. I wanted something to embrace what we were about. And we treat the whole family. And the funny thing is I had said to my husband, I said, well, you know, I'm going to decorate everything Hawaiian because that's, that's me and that. And then he said to me, well, why don't you name it Ohana? And, you know, as I was talking about decorating Hawaiian and treating the whole family. And so it was an easy decision and it's been a great name. I, I like I said, I just, I love Hawaiian culture. I love the spirit of Aloha. I love, I love the, just the essence of the being of, of, of Hawaiians and the, and the way, the way they treat each other and just love and kindness and patience and gratitude, and it's just a beautiful culture. So that's a little side tidbit there. All right, see you in the next video.
