Sensory Play!

One thing Miss Jodi is really working with Zeke on is his texture issues. He has issues with both food and play. He hates to get messy and certain things he just will not touch. So the best thing for that is to make sensory stuff fun! 

On Tuesday we worked with potatoes. This was so fun! 

Since Ella is finished with speech therapy she gets to join in all the fun too. She loved her potato head, but she was bummed there weren't any "clop" shoes for her. 

Zeke's potato had a peg leg like a pirate. 

Zeke did a good job touching the potato and he even got potato juice on his hands, but he just used a washcloth to wipe his hands off. 

Also part of the process is just getting him to smell it. He's much more likely to smell something than he is to taste it. After playing with raw potatoes Miss Jodi brought out baked potatoes and we got to mush them with spoons and add toppings to them. They smelled so good and Zeke did enjoy smelling them. He got a little bit nervous that we were going to ask him to eat them and we reassured him we were just playing. 

We've also played with beans and quinoa at therapy so I thought I could make a rice bin at home. After I reorganized the toys I ended up with a few empty bins. I mixed brown rice and white rice together. I'm planning on buying some split peas and beans too. 

I took some of the play-doh toys and the kids have been using them. I also add other things like spoons, cups and a funnel. 

One of the things they do at therapy to make clean up a breeze is they put down a sheet. Genius! They use a fitted sheet, but I use a flat sheet that way I can pull up the ends and have all the rice gather together and then dump it back into the bin. 

Zeke actually enjoys putting his hands in the rice and feeling them fall on his skin. This is a huge improvement! The first time we did this at therapy he was a bit apprehensive! Slowly we will move to things that are a bit more messy. I thought about buying shaving cream at Dollar Tree, but I think I'm gonna wait a bit longer....that's way more messy that rice!