Does your child constantly touch their friends, bump into things, or knock items off tables inadvertently? Your child may be struggling with the concept of where their body is about other objects and people in their environment known as body awareness in space.

Is your child the exact opposite and withdraws from touching particular items or finds certain fabrics irritating? Your child may have Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and could be experiencing “tactile defensiveness,” a hypersensitivity and aversion to touch.

A Body Sock provides deep touch pressure and gives feedback to the brain of this sensory input. While wearing a Body Sock, try these 10 engaging activities that will increase your child’s awareness of their body and desensitize their sensory system while having fun!

1. Create a sensory obstacle course that has your child moving, climbing, jumping, rolling, and going through tight spaces such as a tunnel.

2. Holding a yoga pose for a long period can be tricky! Try wearing a body sock will provide the body with extra feedback and can provide a little resistance.

3. Lay on the floor on your belly and play a board game.

4. Try whole-body games with a group such as Simon Says, Hide and Seek, Duck Duck Goose, and Twister.

5. Wear the body sock while reading a book or watching a movie (Limit children’s screen time as it has an impact on development). Act out scenes from the book or movie.

6. Make up your own story or play and act out the scenes.

7. Trade in those potato sacks and have a body sock race!

8. Search for treasure while wearing the body sock and put the found items into the body sock. When all the items are found, have your child sit and encourage them to fully submerge their head into the body sock to find the items that you ask for. They could even use a flashlight to find the items in their body sock. Some ideas for different items include puzzle pieces, different color pompoms, shapes, and magnetic letters.

9. On a smooth surface, have your child sit in the body sock in crisscross applesauce. Your child will hold one end of the jump rope and the parent will hold the other end. The parent will slightly pull on the rope enough for the child to slowly glide across the floor. Encourage your child to pull themselves across the floor with one hand over the other hand. You can put a piece of tape on the jump rope by the parent’s hands as an incentive. Put puzzle pieces on one end of the floor and the empty insert on the other. Go back and forth collecting puzzle pieces one at a time and have your child put the puzzle together.

10. Everyone loves animals! Try Frog jumps (Squat with your hands on the floor and jump forward. Hop down the path like a frog), Bear walk (Place your hands and feet on the double line. Your hips and butt should be in the air, higher than your head. On all fours walk down the path), Gorilla Shuffle (Sink down into a low sumo squat and place your hands on the ground between your feet. Maintain the squat and ape-like posture as you walk along the path), Duck Walk (Squat low and bend elbows into wings. Duck walk down the path), Giraffe (Get up on your tippy toes. Put your hands high in the air. Stretch as tall as you can as you tip-toe down the path), Crab Crawl (Sit with your knees bent and place your palms flat on the floor behind you near your hips. Lift your body off the ground and “walk” on all fours forward and then backward), and Elephant Stomps (Stand with your feet hip-width apart and stomp, raising your knees up to hip level, or as high as you can bring them up. Try to hit the palm of your hands with your knees).

In case you thought body socks are just for kids, here they are part of some super-cool choreography: Click here to watch the Bag Dance

Inspired by this Article: https://harkla.co/blogs/special-needs/sensory-body-sock-activities