Sensory Integration Education

In this month's Thoughts from a Therapist blog and in celebration of Neurodiversity Celebration Week, Anna Willis shares with us the work she’s been doing as part of the PINS project she’s involved in. 

The Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) is a national programme which aims to support the education and health needs of neurodiverse children in schools through a partnership approach, working with organisations such as Active Play Therapies as well as our own Sensory Inclusive Schools.

To mark Neurodiversity Celebration week, I thought it’d be timely to provide an update on the NHS project I’m currently taking part in. I’ve been commissioned locally through Dorset NHS to a project called PINS. It stands for Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools. It’s a project happening in various locations nationwide and supports schools to meet the needs of neurodiverse children through working with various partner organisations, such as myself for Active Play Therapies.

It's been a really wonderful continuation for me of the Autism in Schools pilot we were part of previously, and broadening out from autism to neurodiversity in general has been a very positive step. The project allows me to work with schools at an environmental level, typically with SENCOs, Inclusion Leads, teachers and TAs offering interventions. We’ve done so many training sessions on sensory integration, sensory circuits and emotional regulation and we are now rolling out some parent workshops too to the parents of children in the identified schools.

Sensory audits, looking at sensory environments and ordinarily available classroom provision, has been a large part of the work too. Working in this way has continued to help me see the benefit of occupational therapy at an environmental level and not looking at one particular individual only.

Something notable that has popped up for me is that the strategies and ways of working I recommend can generally only be supportive (or at the least, neutral) to all children. So by making schools more neuroaffirmative in their practice, I feel we’re creating powerful, positive change. Through repeated visits we can help staff embed learning and make sure we allow time for troubleshooting – follow up workshops and drop ins a few weeks after training really helps give space for this and can be a really valuable addition to consider when offering training.

I hope that you are all having a fabulous celebratory week and potentially can support schools you have links with - through your own family or professionally - to access support to make their environments as neurodiverse friendly as possible.

Best regards

Anna

PS If you work in a school setting or know of a school where unmet sensory needs are impacting students’ learning and school enjoyment, our Sensory Inclusive Schools service provides online training and expert support from HCPC-registered Sensory Therapists to help schools build staff confidence in meeting students' sensory needs. Find out more here.

Thoughts From a Therapist is a regular series written by Advanced SI Practitioner Anna Willis about something that piqued her professional interest or inspired her in some way over the last month. Anna, an occupational therapist and owner of Active Play Therapies.