Sand Animals; Unprecedented Possibilities: My Favorite SI Materials
Author: Els Rengehart
Occupational therapist and SI specialist
For quite some time now I have been using so-called sand animals in my practice when treating children. Their appearance entices you to pick them up, hold them, touch them and play with them in your hands. This provides sensory information about sight, touch and muscle sensation (proprioception). This requires the use of both hands.
Attractive to see and feel
They are an embellishment of the interior, fun to put somewhere - they are not officially a toy but a decoration item. The sand animals look attractive. This is because of their large eyes, their shape and colour but especially because of the material they are made of; it sparkles a little. That makes you curious about how that feels exactly. We know exactly how most things we see feel, such as an apple, a plate and a piece of Lego. We don't have to pick them up for that. Here we see something of which we don't know exactly how it feels. That invites us to pick it up and feel it.
The animals feel quite smooth and neutral, making them suitable for children who quickly find tactile stimuli annoying. When you pick them up, the sand in the animal moves. The animal gives a little and adapts to your hands. With every movement you make with your hands, you feel the weight of the animal or the sand in the animal move in your hands. This constantly changing pressure on your hands - proprioceptive information from your muscles and joints - feels pleasant, and makes you keep moving with the sand animal in your hands. Due to the size and weight of the animal, you automatically do this with both hands.
Under hiding
The animals are also suitable for hiding a hand, an arm, a foot, a leg or any other body part. For example, ask a child to place his hands and forearms on a table. Then hide the arms under the sand animals. You can do this by placing the animals directly on the child's arms, but also by slowly letting the animals slide from the table to and over the child's arms and hands. In doing so, you slowly transfer pressure over the child's arms and hands. Many children like it if you then apply extra pressure to the animals, and thus indirectly to the hands and arms. The child will probably pull his arms and hands out from under them and ask you to do it again. You can repeat this for as long as a child enjoys it. He will experience that he then feels his arms and hands better, and is able to use them better. For children who are clumsy, this can be a fun activity. It can be helpful to play the game of hiding under the sand animals before an activity such as doing a puzzle, drawing or writing, playing with a ball, and dressing oneself.
Of course, you can also hide the feet and other body parts. By asking the child to put his feet in a box or crate, the animals will slide less easily and the child will get more pressure on his feet. You can ask children who are not too big to sit in a crate themselves, so that you can easily hide their legs, bottoms and possibly even their belly under the sand animals.
The small animals are also suitable for hiding in a child's clothing, for example under a sweater or in a sleeve. The child can then try to find them again.
Let it glide over your body
You can also slide the sand animal over the child's body with the sand animal in your hand. You can easily push the child a little extra firmly. Many children find this a fun game. Especially for children who have difficulty processing stimuli, it is important that you do it slowly and with a lot of pressure. It is important that you do not push the child aside. You do this by pushing - as it were through the child - towards the ground when you slide over the child with the animal in your hand. You can also use your other hand to ensure that the child does not fall over. You then hold the child with both hands and slide with the animal in one hand towards your other hand. 'Transferring pressure' in this way is perhaps the most important sensory stimulus that children with problems in sensory information processing need.
