Wikki Stix is a product made of wax coated yarn. Parents, teachers, and pediatric occupational therapists can all use Wikki Stix with children. Touching Wikki Stix wax coated yarn stimulates the tactile system. Wikki Stix  are fun and motivating.  Give a listen to this short podcast to see how children with tactile sensitivity benefit from Wikki Stix fun.

For more information on Wikki Stix go to wikkistix.com

Wikki Stix is a product made of wax coated yarn. Parents, teachers, and pediatric occupational therapists can all use Wikki Stix with children.

Touching Wikki Stix wax coated yarn stimulates the tactile system. Some children have tactile sensitivity, some are tactile seeking, and some are tactile underresponive. Wikki Stix benefits all 3 sensory modulation subtypes.

The fun and motivating Wikki Stix may encourage children with tactile sensitivity to tolerate touching the Wikki Stix, thereby increasing exposure to noxious tactile input. This may carry over to other tactile challenges, such as tolerating hands in messy art material. 

Children who are tactile seeking benefit from engaging with Wikki Stix because the stickiness may satiate their neurological need for tactile input.  This may carry over to helping these children decrease their excessive need to touch objects in the classroom.

Tactile sensory underresponsive children gain increased tactile input while engaging with Wikki Stix. The increased tactile input these children experience, may help them to feel a pencil in their hand with increased sensory awareness, thereby helping them with improved pencil control for handwriting.

Manipulating Wikki Stix to create designs helps children developing important fine motor foundation skills such as pincer grasp, bilateral coordination, in-hand manipulation, and prehension. These can carry over to functional skills such as manipulating scissors, holding a crayon or pencil with correct grasp, and successful use of math manipulatives.

Using Wikki Stix to copy designs helps to build important visual motor and visual perceptual skills, the foundation skills necessary for reading, math, and handwriting.  

Wikki Stix can be used for visual accommodations in the classroom.

• Stick on handwriting paper to give a tactile cue for baseline letters
• Stick around coloring picture to teach children coloring inside boundary lines
• Use for visual cue to mark reading line to help children keep from visually skipping lines
• Roll a Wikki Stix into a small ball and place on larger numbers for Touch Math
• Use Wikki Stix for a hand fidget
• Wrap a Wikki Stix at base of pencil for an instant pencil grip
• Stick to paper to stabilize it on desk

Here are some fun activity ideas with Wikki Stix. You can find more ideas at: www.Wikkistix.com

• Create shapes for pre-writing skills: plus, circle, square, triangle
• Create and trace numbers
• Create and trace letters in name
• Practice spelling words
• Connect dot to dots (https://www.wikkistix.com/crafts-for-kids/dot-to-dot/)
• Follow a maze
• Make your own original craft creation! Example: Pixar’s Forky Inspired Spoon Creations (https://www.wikkistix.com/forky-inspired-spoon-creations/)

Deep relaxed breathing has many neurophysiological benefits for children, especially those with Sensory Processing Disorder and Autism.   These children experience ‘fight, flight, freeze’ stress response frequently throughout their daily activities. Listen to this short podcast that outlines the benefits of deep breathing that can help children experience life with more joy and laughter.

Deep relaxed breathing has many neurophysiological benefits for children, especially those with Sensory Processing Disorder and Autism.   These children experience ‘fight, flight, freeze’ stress response frequently throughout their daily activities. Here are some of the benefits of deep breathing that can help children experience life with more joy and laughter.  

• Deep breathing facilitates the ANS to attain and maintain parasympathetic function – the ‘rest & digest’ system
• Has a modulating effect creating a calm alertness
• Increases oxygen helping to ‘wake up’ the brain
• Reduces anxiety
• Enables healthier sleep patterns
• Modulates appetite
• Decreases fatigue
• Improves emotional regulation

Children need to be taught deep diaphragmatic breathing patterns, so they can learn to control their breathing for slow, deep, relaxed breaths.

3 Deep Relaxed Breathing Exercises for Children

1. Feather Breathing

This is my signature technique from my Learn to Move, Move to Learn book and program.  Use craft feathers. These provide a tactile and a visual cue to teach children good diaphragmatic breathing patterns.

Sit in a comfortable position, hold a craft feather in the palm of your hand close to your face, then cue the children “Breath in slowly through your nose like you’re smelling a flower, blow out slowly, don’t let you feather fall”. Note: Demonstrate this to show the children if you breathe out slowly the feather will stay in your hand, and if you blow too hard, the feather will fall.  Repeat at least 3 times.

• Balloon Breath

Have children sit in a comfortable position and place their hands around their mouth, to pretend they are getting ready to blow up a balloon. Demonstrate and teach children to breathe slowly in through your nose and breathe slowly out through your mouth, moving hands outward as if you are blowing up a balloon on each exhalation. Repeat 3 times moving hands slightly farther apart on each exhalation until the balloon is as big as it can get. Pretend to tie it closed and let it float away in the air.

• Belly Breathing with Beanbag Animal

Have children lie on the floor and place a small beanbag animal on their stomach. Cue the children “Breathe in slowly though your nose and feel the stuffed animal rise, breathe out slowly through your mouth and then feel the animal lower.  Repeat at least 3 times. Play quiet music for increased relaxation.

Props & Extras:

• Blowing bubbles or Blowing streamers

Halloween can be overwhelming for children with Sensory Processing Disorder. Have a listen to this short podcast where we’ll explore some sensory tips to consider, and help children with SPD and Autism feel included and enjoy this fun Holiday!

Halloween can be overwhelming for children with Sensory Processing Disorder. Let’s explore some sensory tips to consider, and help children with SPD and Autism feel included and enjoy this fun Holiday!

• Halloween costumes
  • Tactile issues with fabric, too itchy, too tight, too stiff, too crunchy – have child try on costume test comfort level
  • Wash a costume several times to soften the fabric before wearing it
  • Temperature depending –  too hot, too cold
  • Poor motor planning – Practice putting the costume on at home before taking it to school party
• Masks & Face paint – AVOID these
  • Tactile sensitivity
  • Difficulty seeing
  • Smell overwhelming can cause nausea and headaches
• School Halloween parties overwhelming
  • Sounds – play quiet music in background or have child wear headphones or earplugs
  • Sights – Limit Halloween decorations especially moving objects
  • Smells – Have modulating scents available to sniff if smells are offensive (coffee beans)
• Halloween activities
  • Carving a pumpkin – tactile defensive with scraping out gooey innards of a pumpkin, instead have child decorate a pumpkin using Fun Foam stickers
  • Instead of bobbing for apples, have child paint with sliced apples
• Consider alternative ways to participate in Halloween rather than ‘Trick or Treating’
  • Passing out candy
  • Cooking Halloween treats at home
  • Watch Halloween shows that are family friendly
• Trick or Treating
  • Practice ahead of time the sequence to decrease anxiety about what to expect
  • Limit number of houses to your child’s sensory needs (i.e. 10 houses)
  • Map out and practice the Trick or Treating route ahead of time
  • Candy givers – Don’t demand children say “Trick or Treat”
  • Offer 2 choices of candy rather than an entire basket
• Trick or Treating locations
  • Avoid houses with elaborate lawn decorations can seem real to children with SPD
  • Quiet neighborhoods
  • Churches Trick or Trunk
  • Local shops giving out candy in your hometown

This course will discuss sensory system dysfunction and how this impacts success in childhood occupations; sleeping, eating, hygiene, and playing for children with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (HFASD).

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Join us in this course and learn how to help infants and toddlers and their families cope with the struggles of sensory processing disorder in their daily activities of life.

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Experience an exciting and fun new course by Jenny L. Clark, OTR/L as she teaches therapists innovative ideas to integrate health and wellness strategies into the daily lives of children and youth who struggle with childhood disorders that impact emotional regulation, attention span, problem solving skills, social interactions, and physical health.

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Research reveals that 1 in 6 children have sensory processing disorder (SPD). Current evidence in sensory processing points to a neurological basis for this disorder.

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