Sensory Integration Education

In this month’s Thoughts from a Therapist blog, Annal Willis explores the sensory challenges that seasonal changes, particularly the shift into autumn, can bring for people with sensory differences. While autumn offers cosy delights like colourful leaves and warm blankets, it also brings new textures, temperatures, and clothing demands that can feel overwhelming—especially for those who struggle with transitions. Her blog highlights the importance of recognising and respecting individual sensory preferences rather than dismissing them, especially in schools and therapy settings.

I love autumn. Crunchy leaves, the colours, darker evenings when I’m inside under a fluffy blanket, watching Great British Bake Off and imagining I can make a Monkey Bread (some sort of delicious pull apart loaf) whenever I like.

Seasonal transitions can be tricky times for those of us with sensory sensitivities though. We’ve just got used to the one type of clothing and then it’s back to jumpers, boots, woolly tights or jeans, thick coats, hats and scarves. It’s a lot if your skin is still craving the freedom of shorts and t-shirts! School uniform feels restrictive compared to the summer holidays freedom, and the world outside starts to look different. The feel of wind and rain on our face, the visual input of the leaves changing colour and dropping. It’s a sensory delight for some, and sensory torture for others.

As it’s Sensory Awareness Month, it’s a great time to reflect on our own sensory preferences and those around us. It’s easy to minimise others’ aversions, particularly for children, where we may tell them they will get used to it. This is often true for typically developing nervous systems that habituate (get used to) novel sensory input. But for some, they may remain sensitised to the input, well beyond what we’d expect.

If you work in a school or therapy clinic, it’s a great opportunity to wind in discussion about how we’re all different and how that’s OK. Sharing examples of your own sensory preferences, having them readily available to you and modelling using it all helps to normalise (as I wrote about last month!) and work towards not just awareness, but acceptance.

If you’re a therapist working in Sensory Integration aligned fields like me, it’s a great time to dive back in for ourselves. I have a stock list of sensory preferences I pull from but I’m spending more time reflecting and updating that currently to make sure it’s reflective of me now, and not me from a few years ago, as our sensory needs change across our lifespan.

Happy autumn everyone!

Anna

 PS If you’re interested in finding out more about how sensory processing differences can shape behaviour and impact people’s daily lives, check out SIE's free short course: Discover Sensory Processing and Integration.

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.