感覺餐牌 (Sensory Menu)

16700645_1205236276211912_5449263478307249359_o

Planning a Child-centred Sensory Menu for Seeker : USeFUL & FINDS BAD BEAR Approach

INTRODUCTION

  1. Understanding Sensory SeeSeeker USEFULking – “The USeFUL Approach”

USeFUL stands for Understanding Seeker From Under-Lying.

Very often when we meet a seeking behavior, we cannot appreciate its function to the person who do that. The more frequent or intense the person do it, and/ or the longer the behavior lasts, the more we want to “eliminate” or “extinct” it.

USeFUl Approach for SEEKER

USeFUL approach helps us understand how useful the behavior is from the kid’s perspective. It helps us understand some common causes of those intentional seeking behaviors through recalling the alphabets ABCDEFG. We are going to go through the ABCDEFG of a seeker one by one in the coming chapters. Please remember that any seeking behaviors serves the purpose of one or more of the ABCDEFG as there might also be causes out of ABCDEFG, we are here to list out the most common ones we found clinically.

FINDS BAD BEAR

2. FINDS BAD BEAR approach in planning Sensory Menu

FINDS is for Seeker

FINDS

Let’s think: what is the similarities and differences between “Find” and “Seek”?

Both mean getting something you do not have at that moment.

“Find” usually refers to “Lost and Find” or “Discovering”. E.g. She finds her book in the school bag. He finds a new story book in the library.

“Seek” usually refers to getting more, and more. It sometimes means something additional rather than with urgent needs. E.g. seek for advice, seek for an opportunity to work there.

In our prespective, we think seeker are seeking more than enough, but to them, they are finding back what they should have or what they need. Think about how many times we see “feeling home” face on their face when they seek.

FINDS refers to Frequency, Intensity, Novelty, Duration and Sensory.

Sensory Menu FINDS

  • Frequency, intensity, and duration of seeking depend on the frequency of the triggering situations, as well as the duration of those difficult situations, and how efficient the seeking behaviors are.
  • Novelty helps to discriminate the cause of behavior, for example, the new and interested mood from novelty are the keys to up-regulate a person while lack of novelty and repetitive behavior help a person calm down and excel in certain skills.
  • For Sensory, the S in FINDS, it is preferred to be started with the sensation that the person seek for keeping that person seeking. But gradually, we may try using other sensory modalities and help the person explore the effectiveness of those on their arousal level.

FINDS may not be applicable to all A to G Seekers. We will elaborate further when we talk about each of them in the subsequent chapters.

BAD BEAR

When we consider when to implement the Sensory Menu, we use : “BAD BEAR”.

“BAD” reminds us to find the moment that is “BAD” from the child’s perspectives. It is the MOMENT being a “BAD moment”. It is NOT the child being BAD, and we are not calling those behavior “BAD”. BAD is about moment, BAD guides us to think which moment the child will need Sensory Menu.

BAD refers to “Before”, “After” and “During”, it is “Before”, “After” and “During” those Bad moments that we need to plan and implement Sensory Menu.

B & A of BAD at BEAR Before and After “BAD”  moments, we need to offer “BEAR”.

Before and After “BAD”  moments, we need to offer “BEAR”.

Sensory Menu -BEAR

“BEAR” refers to the key characters in a Sensory Menu which is Break, Environment, Activity/ Accommodation and Regulation needs.

“D” with an “EAR” is called “DEAR”

When we plan a Sensory Menu to be embedded during the bad moments, we think about how to help the person engage/ participate instead of taking them out for a Break. Break is the last resort that we offer as a contingency. In planning we focus on the “Environment”, “Accommodation” and “Regulation needs” and implement it with the attitude “Dear”, meaning a loving and caring attitude. It is what a person in BAD moment needs the most.