E67 · Sensory Seekers Explained: How to Spot the Signs and Help Your Child Thrive

Sensory seeking happens when a child craves more input than others because their brain is under-responsive to everyday sights, sounds, or touch. They often jump, spin, or seek deep pressure to feel calm and balanced—just like my daughter, who thrives on trampolines and fast movement.

Read The Article:

• Is Your Child a Sensory Seeker?

Things Mentioned:

• Read this for a pretty thorough list of what we do with our sensory-seeking daughter: 19 Therapeutic Activities for Sensory Seeking Kids.

• Self-Regulation Skills: Teach techniques for self-regulation, including breathwork, mindfulness practices, and identifying sensory dysregulation signs. Managing behaviors when kids are dysregulated becomes very important. Check out this article for ideas on how to do that: Kids Behavior Management: 25 Parenting Tips and Tricks (Part 1).

• Chores: We give our daughter a cloth and spray bottle with a non-toxic cleaner and she goes to town for an hour cleaning everything from windows to floors to appliances.

• Meal prep: Have them pick the ingredients, mix, pour, roll, and carry ingredients from the refrigerator, pantry, etc. Keep it age-appropriate, do it on the floor or consider a kitchen tower, and encourage cleaning up afterward.

• Mealtime: The benefits of family dinners are astounding. Take advantage of this time with your sensory seeker by providing a variety of food textures (soft, chewy, crunchy), sitting on a wobbly seat, or having a fan in the room near her. We ditched the booster seat early too and just have our daughter kneel on her chair which helps. Check out this list of supplies that might help with mealtime.

• Bath time: Water naturally provides proprioceptive input and the contained environment is a great time to let them play with a variety of toys (opt for non-toxic options).

• Bedtime: Calming (a.k.a. down-regulating) your sensory seeker before bed is essential for quality sleep. This downtime is also an ideal moment to incorporate sensory input into their routine. Start with simple activities, like reading together while they sit on your lap, giving them comforting deep pressure. Weighted blankets or weighted lap pads can work wonders for children who benefit from deep touch pressure and Compression bed sheets help once they’re in bed. White noise machines (preferably low-EMF ones), or even an air purifier, can provide soothing auditory input, while red lights provide an instant visual cue that it’s time to get ready for bed and provide enough light to read without disrupting melatonin production. Here are the lights we use:

  • Neporal amber lights (1,800K, flicker-free).  This is what we use in our bedroom.

  • Bedtime Bulb (2,200K, unknown flicker).  This is what we use in my son’s