Touch 

Over time you will learn about your child's sensory needs and how you can add their preferences to your home. Examples of ways that you can create a tactile environment include:

• Consider the textures and materials of furnishings and furniture. Involve your child in helping with big purchases like sofas or carpets so that they are appropriate for all. Soft and snuggly materials are popular, but think about busy patterns and prints too which can become over-stimulating over large areas. 
• Remove labels from bedding and nightwear if your child finds them irritating, and consider different materials to keep them comfortable. 
• Think about temperature. If a bedroom is warm you could open a window or add a fan to keep your child cool. 

Find out more about touch and tactile objects here

Sound

Noise sensitivity can be particularly tricky for some neurodivergent young people, and a source of great soothing to others. Thankfully your home is somewhere that you have some control over noise levels. Here are some simple ways to reduce anxiety through sound at home:

• Give your child some warning before noise is due to happen, for example, hoovering or a loud blender.
• Reduce background noise by shutting doors fully, adding thick carpet or moving your child's bed away from walls connected to rooms with activity happening on the other side. 
• Consider that some appliances and lights can buzz, which can be incredibly distracting for your child. Their hearing may be more sensitive than yours, so if anything bothers then it may be worth switching things off or changing lightbulbs. Noise-cancelling headphones are useful for blocking out sound.
• Some children like background sounds, so fans, music or white noise can be soothing. 

Find sense of sound activities here

Smell

Some children and young people are extra sensitive to smell and might react to them. There are some tips you can try to control smells around the home:

• Limit the use of fragrances your child doesn't like in products like fabric conditioners and candles etc. If your child is particularly sensitive to artificial smells, you could avoid scents with chemical ingredients. 
• Open windows or use an extractor fan when cooking to avoid cooking smells from filling up the house. 
• Reduce unwanted smells entering your child's room by closing the door.
• Try scented oils in relaxing scents for children who crave olfactory stimulation, meaning they enjoy strong smells.

Taste

Everyone has preferences in their sense of taste, regardless of their neurodevelopment. Neurodivergent children can be sensitive to tastes and textures. While some children will only eat very bland flavours due to the repulsion of certain tastes, others crave strong, salty or spicy foods. 

Soothing drink ideas to help calm your child include:

• Hot milk
• Hot chocolate
• Herbal teas

Find out more about eating and mealtimes

Indoors 

Creating a calm, but sensory-stimulating home can help neurodivergent children with regulation and anxiety. Incorporating tactile furnishings, bright or calming colours and adjustable lighting can help create calm environments for your child to recover and re-energise themselves after a busy day. 

Some neurodivergent children will enjoy the predictability of a tidy, clutter-free home, some may be more prone to collecting belongings. These could be:

• Collections of items linked to a particular interest
• Collecting objects as part of a compulsive behaviour
• Items building up due to disorganisation or lack of energy to deal with them

If your child is collecting a large number of items due to a particular interest, help them find ways to organise or display their collections. For example, they could display a collection on a shelf in their room, store other collections in boxes in a wardrobe and give an old collection to charity. They may need some support with the decision-making for this, but always offer them choices and respect their decisions.

If you have tried this approach and your child is still collecting a large number of items and it is affecting their everyday life, for example they have a cluttered room and get distressed at the thought of parting with any of the items, you should speak to a GP for advice. Your child might not understand, so it is important to be sensitive about the issue while explaining your worry about their wellbeing. The GP can refer your child to talking therapies and appropriate support services.

Find out more about hoarding related to OCD here

Outdoors 

Spending time outside can be beneficial to everyone, and certain environments can provide extra sensory feedback. Sensory gardens have benefits for neurodivergent children to engage in nature on their own terms at their own pace. They can:

• Boost vitamin D from being outdoors
• Increase agility and coordination
• Reduce stress and help sensory regulation
• Promote play skills 

Having outdoor space isn't always necessary to create natural sensory experiences. For those without a garden, you could try:

• Creating herb pots for balconies, window boxes or windowsills 
• Growing fruit or vegetables in pots at home, or as part of gardening groups locally

For those who have outdoor space and would like to create a sensory garden, you can try:

• Planting flowers to encourage butterflies
• Planting an edible garden with herbs, vegetables and edible flowers to experiment with
• Creating an area with bird feeders, or insect hotels to attract birds and wildlife
• Find fragrant flowers to create a scenting zone in a garden including honeysuckle and jasmine

Communal places outside that stimulate the senses include:

• Visiting a water play area with features like fountains, a rain wall, and sprinklers to run through 
• Visiting a sound garden with music walls
• Going to an outdoor sculpture park with exciting visuals and lots of space

Find tips on how to grow a sensory garden

Movement

You can encourage activities at home which will help your child with their balance (vestibular sense) and body awareness (proprioception sense).

Setting up a sensory circuit of activities at home is a good way to do this at the start of the day. The activities should be divided into three sections - alerting, organising and calming. Choose two alerting activities, two organising activities and one calming activity and spend about 15 minutes in total on the circuit.

The alerting activities prepare the brain for learning and the demands of the day. Activities can include:

• Jogging on the spot
• Bouncing 10 times on a space hopper
• Jumping on the spot
• Running around a track
• Bouncing 10 times on a mini trampoline/ trampette
• Rolling forward and back over a peanut ball
• Step ups
• Skipping
• Hopscotch

The organising section includes activities that require motor sensory processing, balance and timing. The child needs to organise their body, plan their approach and do more than one thing at a time. Activities can include:

• Balancing on a beam or a line of tape
• Log roll – log roll along (body straight and feet together)
• Balance with a bean bag on head
• Rolling over a peanut or gym ball – tummy down on ball walk hands out as far as possible without falling off then back again
• A series of actions, such as hopping on one leg six times, clapping five times, jumping on the spot three times
• Blowing bubbles or blowing a paper ball to a target

Finishing the circuit with calming activities ensures that as the child leaves the circuit they are feeling calm, centred and as ready for the day as possible. Activities include:

• Weighted resources
• Stretching over a peanut ball – forwards and backwards
• Hot-dogs - rolling child up tightly in a blanket with head out, child has to wiggle and push their way out of it
• Resistance band activities
• Press ups - wall press ups while standing up
• Plank – lie on their forearms and toes forming a plank (once correct position is established increase the challenge by increasing the duration of the hold, raise a leg and hold for a few seconds and repeat with the other leg)
• Calming fidget toys – soft textures