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Many highly sensitive children try to avoid spending time in school playgrounds, gyms and sports facilities because they are often loud, uncontrolled spaces. With the right interventions, these spaces can be made more welcoming for all students..

According to Bronfenbrenner, our ecological environments influenced our development (Van der Wal et al., 2017).

The school and play areas are part of the Mesosystem. This section’s goal is to raise awareness and provide information on how to foster inclusive learning and teaching beyond the classroom.

The Highly Sensitive Student on the Playground

Imagine the last time you stood on a playground. Think of children kicking brightly coloured balls around the yard and the noise of children screaming, crying, laughing and/or shouting. Imagine the brightly colored climbing frames and other play structures (e.g. sandpit). Groups of students stand and chat together. Perhaps the wind is blowing the leaves  from the trees, and maybe far away an ambulance’s siren can be heard. Try to empathize with what this might feel like for highly sensitive children standing in such a playground. This may help you understand why, “many highly sensitive children behave cautiously or hang around on the outskirts at the playground” (Van Mullingen, 2018).

“Highly sensitive children are naturally observant and because they are fully aware of the possible dangers they are cautious” (Van Mullingen, 2018). They may be more hesitant to participate in social interactions or group activities at the playground, which in return may impede their development of social and communication skills.

Playground rules can help ensure less negative stimuli. These rules can be designed with the class, the cohort or even the entire school. Adapting the theory from Wynita Harmon on designing classroom rules collaboratively with the students (2017), it might be best practice to develop the playground rules based on the students’ expectations and experiences. Rules are then created for students by students.

This process of developing rules will give all students a voice. Their ideas will be valued, and they will have a clear understanding of classroom expectations as well as some accountability (create a contract). Students can remind each other in case of rule violation.

Time  and Practice

Amanda van Mulligen advises to give highly sensitive children, “time to observe and warm up to the idea of playing (2018)”. Hence it might help the student to plan their playtime and prevent negative over-stimulation. Many children with SPD do not react appropriately to the social cues of their classmates(Cosbey et al., 2011). They may find playtime upsetting because they don’t know how to take in social cues and/or how to express themselves clearly. In order to support all of your students, it might be beneficial for your learning support team and/or counselors to provide explicit social skills instruction and practice to students  with sensitivity issues.  Children with SPD can partake in an assortment of play exercises, including play that is more formal and more perplexing (Cosbey et al., 2011).

Planning and knowing what to expect are crucial factors for many students in terms of adapting to new situations. One idea could be to write a break planner. What would the students like to do during the break? This can be shared either through a talk with the teacher, a written sticky note or a drawing.

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) cards could be used as means of communication, too. The HSC possibly benefit from structured play situation and could practice using these strategies independently (Cosbey et al., 2011). With appropriate strategies at hand, the HSC can manage their hyper- or hypo- sensory responses in diverse social and non-social situations.

Solutions to minimize over-stimulation outside

Outdoor Activities

After focusing on a very specific area of outdoor time during the school day, the playground, this next section will explore different outdoor activities which are supporting the students’ development and are especially suitable for students with sensory processing sensitivity. Visual, auditory and tactile senses are the most used senses indoors.  The proprioception and vestibular senses are used more often outdoors.

There are many outdoor activities that highly sensitive children can enjoy, and which allow for less likelihood of over-arousal. Outdoor activities can even begin in the classroom and can then be transitioned to the outdoor area. Taken the example of a barefoot trail in the classroom. The students can safely explore without being brought to their limits. Starting with a positive indoor experience can make an immense difference in contrast to students being immediately exposed to different ground materials outdoors. The experiences of diverse surfaces and pressures are vital for developing the motion coordination (proprioception and vestibular senses) (Price-Robinson et al., n.d.). It builds different muscle  groups and supports the development of body balance. Just as walking barefoot creates an effect called “Earthing,  Taking the proper precautions, a class trip or excursion can include such an activity and can even be interdisciplinary (e.g., Science and PE).

There seems to be a trend of a whole generation spending quantitatively more time inside, (Walden, 2018). For students with sensory processing sensitivity, time spent outdoors brings a “peaceful escape from the sensory over-stimulation that can occur inside the confines of four walls.” (Gaspari, 2018). Hence the time spent outdoors allows children to move freely in their own space, which leads to clearing and resetting  the mind. At the same time “leaving behind the distractions of technology and getting outdoors allows children to be present.” (Gaspari, 2018). Children are physically more active outside, which increases the production of endorphins. Spending time outside can boost their mood and energize them (Gaspari, 2018).

One particularly satisfying outdoor activity is gardening. Gardening helps students to develop skills like patience. It provides many sensory experiences. At the same time the students can create a sense of responsibility and ultimately a sense of pride and achievement when harvesting, i.e. herbs from a herb garden (Van Mulligen, 2020)

Highly sensitive children might require special gear like gloves, shovels and other tools before using their hands. In case of outdoor time not being safe and/or in case schools don’t have gardens, indoor hydroponics is a great alternative. Find more information on the website from ITEPS students. While planning and conducting outdoor experiences “{t}he key is not to force the{..} children but to advance their tactile skills and tolerance of textures.” (Hamid, 2018)

The Highly Sensitive Student in Physical Education (PE):

This last part will focus on the time spend in the lessons focusing on physical education. PE lessons and activities are as important as other subjects in order to provide an appropriate surrounding for HSC with their sensory sensitive manner. Stating from the Personal, social and physical education scope and sequence (PYP), phase one challenges students to “explore the body’s capacity for movement, including creative movement, through participating in a range of physical activities. Learners recognize the need for safe participation when interacting in a range of physical contexts.” (2009).

To cohere this to the HSC in the PE class, first step for inclusion would be to plan activities in the style of stations. Stations are a wonderful way of planning activities which foster inclusion: Students can choose activities which they feel most comfortable with and are physically active. They could throw bean bags into hoops, create a parkour out of objects with different heights, play the Twister game etc. In close consultancy with an occupational therapist HSC could have weights on their legs and arms to get more response on their proprioception sense. During noisy and fidgety games, the HSC should be allowed to choose whether or not they are going to participate. They might like to watch or be the point counter in order to avoid any overstimulation through noise and sight.

Mindfulness has made its way into education and it can be implemented in the PE lessons, too. The leading researcher in the field of sensory processing sensitivity, Elaine N. Aron, suggests practicing meditation in order to reduce and recover from over-stimulation (2019, 2019).
Meditation practices can be built into the PE lesson either to calm the students after an active lesson or before any lesson to let students and HSC empty their buckets by focusing on their body and their movements. Find some appropriate and engaging meditation videos for children from the age 3-9 years at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW8o3_GFoCBNxXveDbD1xSQFBCGrHmYPC

Find another meditation in the second section of this paper.

Establishing a yoga routine during PE classes can benefit all students including the HSC. Yoga practices strengthen the children’s abilities to calm down and rewind, especially when they find themselves in highly stimulating environments (Van Mulligen, 2015).Find some inspiration in this video.

Figure 20: Highly Sensitive Children Outdoors (Dartenne, 2020)

Conclusion:

The authors recommend and wish the reader to share their knowledge on high sensitivity with other professionals, friends and family. This research field is still in a process of growth and needs everyone to spread the word and make others sensitive to the needs of highly sensitive people.

Additional Resources and Readings:

Short sensory profile by Pearson:

This prezi slide show helps to evaluate whether the test is helpful for professionals to plan intervention with caregivers. The profile benefits different abilities as autism, development delay, down syndrome, sensory integration disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity, learning difficulties etc.

Books:

• Sensory perceptual issues in autism and Asperger syndrome: Different sensory experiences – different perceptual worlds. Author: Olga Bogdashina
• Living Sensationally, Understanding your Senses. Author: Winnie Dunn

Children Books:

• Anna and her Rainbow-Colored Yoga Mats. Written by Giselle Shardlow and illustrated by Paul Wrangles
  “Anna finds happiness practicing yoga at recess. She imagines traveling the world and exploring new places. Will her new classmates accept her and join the fun?”
• All too much for Oliver. Written by Leila Boukarim and illustrated by Barbara Moxham
  “Oliver is a quiet little boy. He avoids going to places that might be too noisy or crowded like the playground, the pool, or even birthday parties. In fact, Oliver’s favorite thing to do is play by himself in his own quiet room. But things start to change when Odile moves in next door. One day, Odile asks Oliver to go to the playground with her. Oliver really wants to play with Odile, but he is worried… Will Oliver go with Odile to the playground, even though it might be very crowded and much too noisy? “All Too Much for Oliver” was written and illustrated for highly sensitive children.”

Blogs:

• An Pediatric Occupational Therapist is sharing ideas and knowledge on his blog including interesting articles like this one on Sensory Processing Disorder:
• Here is a blog written by Kelly about personal experiences with Sensory Processing Disorder:
  Especially the post on the two terms of HSP and Sensory Processing Disorder is a great start to understand the basic concept.