Children with autism can easily become overstimulated and anxious, hence it is important to regulate these emotions and engage their other senses whilst also unleashing their artistic potential. In this article I will be talking about some easy DIY projects, using things you would find at home. The point of these projects is for your child to make sensory toys that may help them when they get overwhelmed, develop their fine motor skills, increase concentration and allow them to unlock their artistic side and have fun!

Edible playdough

Everyone loves playdough, it is a great sensory activity that really improves cognitive activity by teaching your child about shapes and colours in an interactive way. However, it can always be stressful to have to watch your child constantly when they are playing with it, on the off chance they may eat it. Well, here is an easy recipe.

You will need: 8 tbsp of plain flour, 2 tbsp of salt, 60ml of warm water, food colouring of your choice, 1 tbsp of vegetable oil.

1. In a bowl mix together the flour and salt.

2. In another bowl mix together your water and food colouring.

3. Pour the liquid into the dry bowl, add your vegetable oil and mix until it thickens.

4. Next, just like making bread, put flour on your counter and knead your dough until it’s to a consistency of your liking.

5. Finally, store in an airtight container in the fridge. Feel free to add more colouring, depending on how intense you want the colour to be.

This playdough feels just like normal playdough, your child will have just as much fun. And you can finally make that cup of coffee you’ve been dreaming about while they play with it, no need to constantly surveille them.

Sensory stress ball

If your child is constantly fidgeting, this easy, DIY stress ball is definitely one to make. All you will need for this is a balloon and something heavy like rice, beans or beads. Optionally, you can also get googly eyes or anything to decorate your Child’s stress ball.

1. Take your balloon, don’t blow it up. Take your funnel (if you do not have a funnel, you can easily use a piece of paper, make it into a cone shape and use that as a funnel.) Pour your weighted beads (or rice, or beans) into the balloon.

2. Tie up the balloon like you normally would if you had inflated the balloon.

3. Lastly, get your child to stick on some googly eyes of cut out shapes and stick them on to the stress ball. This will improve their fine motor skills and require concentration and precision, whilst simultaneously teaching them about shapes.

Making this craft increases concentration which can reduce anxiety and overstimulation. This is also the perfect toy to fiddle with to help calm them down if they are ever in a stressful environment.

Sensory jars

Studies have shown that many children with autism are very visual, they are usually more attracted to bright colours as they are more stimulating. A sensory bottle jar is fun to make and will be a nice visual sensory toy. All you will need is an empty jar, cotton balls, food colouring and glitter.

1. In 3-4 separate bowls (depending on the amount of different colours you want) fill each bowl with 50ml of water and add a separate colour to each bowl. (e.g. one can be pink, one can be blue and one can be purple.)

2. In your empty jar fill ¼ of the jar with cotton balls. You can let your child arrange the cotton balls in a certain pattern.

3. Next add some glitter onto the cotton balls.

4. Add one of your colours onto the first layer.

5. Repeat this until the jar is filled.

You should be left with a colour gradient with sparkles. Of course, this gradient will not stay for long, they will eventually all merge into one colour the more your child plays with it. This will help your child learn about colours.

Free Flow

This is an interactive way to educate children with autism while stimulating their sensory needs. Many autistic children are hypersensitive, meaning they experience different senses much more intensely than others. Free floor is a way for children with autism to cultivate their hyper-sensory and learn more effectively than conventional teaching.

Every free floor has a theme that will be taught to the children. And you can use things you are likely to have in your home to create this experience for your child. Here are some examples:

One of the themes can be farming. So create a farm made purely out of different textures that the children could feel and play with. For example: the gravel can be made out of rice krispies, crunched up weetabix can be used for dirt, the stones can be made from shreddies and the grass and pond can be made of rice that mixed with colouring. These are all things that are perfectly safe to touch and also safe to be ingested, even though the purpose of it is not to be eaten, accidents do happen and it’s better to be prepared for those accidents than not!

Watch your child’s concentration, motor skills and knowledge increase through all these DIY projects that will hopefully help them regulate their emotions whenever they feel overstimulated.