October is Sensory Processing Month! Kaye Crossley, Kedleston Group Occupational Therapist has put together a bespoke timetable of sessions throughout the month which she will be leading with the team at Mill School Bury covering the 8 key sensory systems.
Yesterday’s session was focussing on vision and proprioception.
She started the session using balloons to encourage the children to take part in a variety of warm up activities in which the children were using their visual tracking skills and having anticipate force.
The session then moved on to working with a gym ball and the group played a game where they stood in a circle and bounced the ball to each other, while counting how many bounces were needed. This bouncing and counting activity required the children to adapt the amount of force they were using with the ball, practice visual tracking skills and also meant they had to work as a team.
The outcome of this session was to develop the children’s visual motor integration, meaning the communication between their eyes and their hands/bodies. Visual motor integration is a foundation skill which is essential for completing everyday life tasks such as hand writing and tying shoe laces.
Let’s check in with the children and team for some feedback.......
“I am good at the games that Kaye did with us. That must mean I have good vision skills. I really enjoyed it, especially the balloon badminton.” – Young person
“It was really fun and I liked the lesson.” – Young person
“The children really enjoyed the session and loved using the parachute. Their teamwork and friendship is what really stood out to me.” – Mill School Bury team
The sessions are designed not only to support and develop the children’s visual motor integration but also to be lot of fun, which was clearly had by everyone!
Join us next week, where Kaye will be exploring the auditory and vestibular systems with the children and the team at Mill School Bury.