All of us learn about and comprehend the world through our senses. We see things, we touch things, we experience gravity, and we use our bodies to move around in it. One of our seven senses that enables this is Proprioception.
Proprioception refers to the body's ability to sense movement within joints and joint position. This ability enables us to know where our limbs are in space without having to look.
What is proprioceptive input and why does it matter?
Proprioceptive input is the feedback received through any activity that requires effort from our muscles and joints, providing the deep pressure that they require. “Heavy work” are activities that may involve pushing, pulling, lifting, weight-bearing, and compression of joints. These types of input carry messages from our proprioceptive receptors in our body to our brain, to help us feel grounded, know where our body is in space, coordinate our movements, exert an appropriate level of energy for various tasks, self-regulate, sustain attention and focus throughout our day. Every body requires a different amount of input, and some individuals struggling with motor planning, body awareness, self-regulation, and attention may require increased proprioceptive input for daily function.
How do I know if my child requires increased input?
Requiring increased proprioceptive input can display itself in a variety of ways including, sensory seeking, poor coordination and motor planning, and poor balance.
Sensory-Seeking Behavior Examples
Playing rough
Hitting, kicking or pushing
Chewing on objects
Jumping and crashing
Enjoy being loud or engaging in loud tasks
Fidgeting, rocking, or seeking constant movement
Enjoy bear hugs, tight squeezes of are frequently in others' personal space
Poor Motor Planning and Coordination Examples
Frequent falling
Difficulty coordinating movement during sports or exercises such as throwing, catching or hitting a ball, climbing, jumping jacks, hopping or running
Difficulty tying shoes
Poor Core Stability and Balance Examples
Frequent leaning (slumped at a desk, leaning on the wall)
Propping head up on hand or arm while sitting
Laying on belly
Slouchy or lethargic appearance
Low muscle tone
Changing positioning frequently
Proprioceptive input can be incorporated into daily routines or as part of a sensory diet for your child’s success.
our favorite ways to incorporate heavy work
Pushing and Pulling
Push-ups - o the floor or against the wall
Chair Push-ups
Scoot to the very edge of your chair and hold on to the edge tightly with your hands. Adjust your position so your bottom is no longer on the seat and your feet are flat on the floor with a 90-degree bend in the knees. Use your arms to push up and down.
Push a heavy box or basket across the room or throughout the house
Push a heavy medicine ball across the floor or as high as you can up the wall
Push the doorway
Stand in an open doorway. Put your hands against the frame and push outward as hard as you can.
Build a fort with heavy pillows, thick blankets, and chairs
Moving heavy furniture around to create the fort is even better
Push the grocery cart while shopping
Break down cardboard boxes (using mostly their hands)
Rip stacks of unwanted mail in place of a shredder
Move the furniture
Rearrange a room, or move the furniture to clean behind or underneath
Yard work: rake leaves, shovel snow, mow the lawn
Push or pull a wagon or wheelbarrow
Tug of war
Vacuum the floor
Mop the floor
Lifting and weight-bearing
Carry a heavy backpack
Carry a stack of books
Carry a stack of plates to set the table
Carry a full laundry basket
Carry the grocery bags
Play catch with a weighted ball
Play on the playground (monkey bars, rock climbing jungle gym)
Pour heavy items back and forth (jug of water or milk, rice, beans)
Climb a ladder
Yoga
Weighted exercises: squats, shoulder presses, or lunges etc. with a weighted ball
Carry buckets of water, sand, or dirt
Take out the trash
Water the plants with a full watering can
Resistance and Compression of joints
Jump Rope
Hopscotch
Go for a run or march/run in place
Jump on a trampoline
Stand on a vibration board
Animal walks
Jump and crash: Create a crash pad using sofa cushions, pillows, or a mattress and jump to crash into it
Dig in a garden or pull weeds
Water the outdoor plants by squeezing and holding the nozzle on the water hose
Go for a swim
Stir a thick batter
Knead a thick dough
Pedal a bicycle
Drink a thick beverage through a straw (milkshake/smoothie)
Drink from a suction or straw water bottle
Blow bubbles
Chew gum (if age appropriate)
Eat a chewy or crunchy snack
Note: Activities providing the “compression of joints”, mentioned in this document are not to be confused with the “joint compression protocol”, which may only be administered through licensed professions.
Ways to incorporate HEAVY WORK into your child’s day
School
Arrive 15 minutes early to allow your child to play on the playground before school
Allow the child to assist the teacher to rearrange the room, and move furniture to set up for an activity or time on the mat
Collect the whole class’s lunches in a bucket or wagon and have the child carry them to and from the lunchroom.
Allow your child to take a straw or suction water bottle to school
Incorporate crunchy and chewy foods into your child’s lunch
Incorporate “built-in” movement breaks into the day. Include animal walks, chair push-ups, running in place, and yoga poses
Have a few class plants, that your child can water with a full watering can, when they need a break
If allowed and not a distraction, allow your child to chew gum in school
Pack your child’s backpack to be appropriately heavy for walking to and from school
Note: Most children do not want to feel singled out when they require additional help in the classroom. Finding ways to seamlessly incorporate heavy work, like giving the child assigned tasks (ie: carrying the lunch bucket ) or incorporating the whole class during movement breaks are very beneficial.
Home
Create a daily chore list incorporating heavy work tasks. Including doing dishes, setting the table, taking out the trash, cleaning the floors, helping with laundry, and watering the plants.
Allow your child to help with cooking and baking by carrying heavy items to and from the fridge or pantry, stirring stews and batters, kneading, and rolling out dough
Have your child help with gardening, weeding, or caring for indoor plants. Heavy work can be incorporated into repotting, watering, pulling weeds, digging, and harvesting vegetables.
Incorporate animal walks into daily routines. For example, during their morning routine, your child can do an animal walk from their bedroom to the bathroom, or from the bathroom to the breakfast table.
Play/Leisure
Incorporate heavy work games into your family game night. Twister or, “do a move” Jenga are great options. Heavy work can be incorporated into most games easily (for example: every time you land on blue, you have to do 5 jumping jacks, then take your turn, or every time you roll a 3 or 5 you do 4 heavy ball slams)
Encourage lots of outside play: digging, climbing, rolling, swimming, biking and building
Encourage participation in individual or team sports. Most, if not all sports or dance provide heavy work to muscles and joints
Social Settings
Have your child participate in heavy work tasks BEFORE social events when they need to be seated for a while. (church, weddings, school performances, concerts)
During prolonged seated events, incorporate movement breaks for your child in the hallway or in a separate area. These can include animal walks, jumping or jogging in place, wall pushups, or yoga stretches
If appropriate, allow your child to chew gum during social events
Bring a container of theraputty for your child to squeeze and stretch during social events with prolonged sitting.
Sit towards the back at social events so that the child can easily exit for his or her movement breaks
Bring chewy snacks (if eating is permitted) during your outing along with a straw or suction water bottle for your child.
As you try these activities with your child or student, it is important to note which activities calm them, arouse them, or over arouse them. It is very unique to each individual. You’ll also want to pay attention to the intensity, duration and frequency of each type of proprioceptive input.
Sensory integration is something most of us do automatically. All of the sensory input from the environment and from inside our bodies works together seamlessly so we know what's going on, what to do and how to behave appropriately in response to what's going on. For children with Sensory Processing Disorder, Autism, ADD, ADHD, proprioceptive input & sensory input does not hook up seamlessly with all of the other senses. They can find it difficult to process and act upon information received through the senses, which creates challenges in performing countless everyday tasks.
We hope the ideas in this blog post will help you add proprioceptive input into your child or student’s day & that it helps their self-regulation.
Children At Play offers workshops for preschool & elementary teachers about the sensory integration approach for classrooms.