Sensory Integration Education

In this month's Thoughts from a Therapist blog, Anna Willis reveals her recent realisation that she’s a ‘disruptor’ - someone who challenges norms to bring about positive change! She also highlights an example involving a school uniform rule that was preventing a child with sensory differences from learning comfortably and encourages other fellow disruptors to embrace their disruptor role to help make the world better, more equitable and inclusive.

Rules – like them or loathe them? I’ve always struggled to follow arbitrary rules and tend to use my inner moral compass to help me navigate the world to an extent (within the law of course!)

I struggled at school with rules. And I struggled when I was in employment. I referred to myself as chronically unemployable until last year. I was on a course and another attendee did a workshop on ‘disruptors’ and it blew my mind. A disruptor is someone who challenges the status quo and introduces new ideas and concepts, frequently being an innovator. A light bulb went off. I am a disruptor! Who knew?!

So, working with schools… can be challenging. I received a request for help recently from a parent whose child cannot wear buttons. But the school uniform is a buttoned polo shirt. The school have said he doesn’t have to do the buttons up. This clearly doesn’t solve the problem.

I struggle with wrapping my brain around the idea here that the simple solution should be ‘wear a top without buttons’. The choice here is that a child can either focus on their learning, playing and doing, or they can focus on how uncomfortable their top is. Why would we spend hours of therapy working on tolerating buttons, when we could just not wear buttons? It’s an inefficient use of everyone’s time, it’s not person-centred and it’s an easy fix to not wear buttons. We just need to break that rule for one person.

The argument that pops up in response is often ‘if we let one do it, then everyone will want to’. Well yes, they might want to. But wanting and needing are different. Children are more capable than we give them credit for. Many can understand when it’s explained that we all have different needs and some of us need different things to be able to access what we need to do. The simple equity versus equality visual (Google it if you don’t know it) is a great introduction to this concept for children. And sometimes a great refresher for staff too!

So, if you’re a disruptor, go ahead and disrupt in ways that make the world better. The world needs disruptors. We are here to challenge, innovate and create positive change, one polo shirt at a time!

Best regards

Anna

PS If you work in a school setting or know of a school where unmet sensory differences 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.