SEND

Sensory Processing Disorder

Behind the rocking, bolting from assembly or lashing out at a light touch there's often a sensory need, and you can plan for it.

  • 40 minutes
  • 6 modules
  • 0.5 CPD hours
  • Certificate

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14 days free, then £70 a year or £7 a month.

What you'll learn

  • Recognise over- and under-sensitivity across all eight senses
  • Ask what a pupil's behaviour is telling you about their sensory needs
  • Use movement breaks and heavy muscle work to help a pupil calm down
  • Plan for flashpoints like assemblies, lining up and break time
  • Turn an occupational therapist's advice into simple daily routines

About this course

A pupil who fidgets and rocks all lesson, can't face the hall at assembly time, or lashes out when someone brushes past can look like a behaviour problem. Often their senses are sending too much information, or too little, and their body is doing what it can to cope.

This course explains sensory processing in plain terms, across all eight senses, including three that get less attention: balance, the body's sense of where it is, and signals from inside like hunger. Once you can see which sense is involved, the strategies make sense: movement breaks and heavy muscle work to calm, a quieter corner, a visual timetable, and extra care at transitions like lining up and break time.

You'll also see how to turn an occupational therapist's advice into everyday classroom routines, and how to share the thinking with families so home and school pull the same way.

  • For early career teachers, middle leaders and 6 other roles. Early years, primary, secondary and special.

6 modules

Open in order

  1. Introduction

    2 min
  2. What is sensory processing and what happens when it’s experienced in a different way? 

    10 min
  3. What are our sensory processing systems?

    10 min
  4. Emotional, social and behaviour responses to sensory processing difficulties.

    8 min
  5. Practical strategies and ways forward

    10 min
  6. Wrap up

    3 min