Addressing your child’s sensory processing needs at home doesn’t have to break the bank. This page is dedicated to sharing some of our favorite low-cost solutions for providing sensory regulation at home. My rule of thumb is that I always check local thrift stores or online marketplaces first before buying new. I come from a long line of “value shoppers” who love nothing more than a great deal and embrace the notion that “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.” This philosophy allows us to ensure our boys have access to the tools they need.
The items featured below are tools that we have found helpful. You’ll find affiliate links to products we use as well as links to patterns or other resources where applicable.
Compression
We love the body sock! It’s a great way to get proprioceptive input through flexible resistance and the smoothness of the lycra is usually a desired texture (win-win!).
Budget Hack: If you’re a sewer, you could absolutely make a body sock out of a piece of lycra. I found this pattern online and there are loads of others.
In our house, this is called a snuggle sheet. While Fletcher doesn’t use it every night, it remains on his bed and he knows it’s there when he needs a little extra pressure at bedtime. When we first put it on his bed, he would ask to go upstairs and lay under it from time to time. On nights where he is really disregulated he’ll snuggle in under his compression sheet and lay with a weighted blanket on top of that for a period of time.
Budget Hack: This is another example of something a sewer could whip together in a snap. I found this pattern through a quick online search and again, there are loads of others.
Weighted blankets are magic. We call them heavy blankets in our house. I sleep with one and I feel like my sleep is deeper and far better than without! Our boys don’t sleep with a “heavy blanket” every night, but they’re always on the ready. You do have to make sure you follow suggested weight guidelines so they’re not too heavy.
Budget Hack: I have found great deals on weighted blankets – Black Friday is a great time to search and I often see them on online marketplaces. Otherwise if you’re up for working with poly-pellets you could make your own using a pattern. Pinterest has a ton of options.