Occupational therapists have several tricks to help get kids’ attention using specific types of sensory input. There are times when it can be a challenge to get kids’ attention, and sometimes it’s even harder to keep their attention! These various alerting sensory strategies are quick and easy to use anywhere.
Children learn when they are engaged in an activity and are able to fully pay attention. It’s important to make learning fun in order to enhance memory and maintain attention.
Occupational therapists (like myself) who work in the school settings use specific sensory activities to alert the nervous system in order to wake up the brain for learning.
Gaining full attention from students can be a challenge for teachers during the school day. Teachers have always had to use movement activities or sensory strategies to get kids’ attention.
Historically, kids have needed these alerting activities at the beginning of the school year or after a break or holiday. They may also have needed them in the morning, after lunch, and/or in the afternoon.
However, many children currently have so much difficulty paying attention to the world around them.
Excessive screen time and increased sedentary activities have changed how kids’ brains pay attention. They lack sustained attention skills and have difficulty naturally maintaining a proper state of alertness.
Too much screen time and decreased physical play causes children to have difficulty attending to other human beings, to their environments, and to learning activities.
OT sensory strategies are a great way to increase alertness and attention in ALL kids.
Wake Up the Brain for Learning – Increase Attention With Alerting Sensory Strategies
As adults, we have more mature sensory processing skills than children. But even though our nervous systems are more mature, we may also have trouble attending and focusing.
It can be hard for us to sit in one spot for a long period of time. We may have our own sensory preferences and sensory activities that we use to help us stay alert and pay attention throughout the day.
Children need this too. But they need WAY more sensory input than we do!
Kids’ nervous systems are much less mature. Their brains need more sensory input from a variety of systems in order to attend and learn.
A child learns best and retains information when they use many parts of the brain, which means using more parts of the sensory systems in the body. The Pyramid of Learning shows the sensory systems as the foundation for learning, behaving, and attending.
Sensory activities are a crucial part of development. However, there are specific types of sensory input that increase a child’s energy level and wake up the brain. (Other types are more calming.)
This article shares 48 alerting activities using the following six sensory systems:
- Movement activities (vestibular input)
- Body activities (proprioceptive input)
- Tactile strategies (touch input)
- Oral sensory strategies
- Auditory activities
- Visual strategies
These quick and easy strategies can be used anywhere. They help in any setting, whether kids are learning during the school day or at home. (For more tips at home, Easy Sensory Diet Activities to Help Kids Focus on Homework shares additional strategies.)
Quick and Easy Sensory Alerting Activities to Increase Attention
The following strategies offer sensory tools and activities for six different sensory systems. Find which tools work best for your students during the school day. Use them as part of your daily schedule when kids need to pay attention the most.
Also, let kids know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Explain to them that “we’re going to ___ to wake up our brains so we can learn.” Encourage students to find out what works for each of their brains and bodies.
Specific Movement Activities that Increase Attention in Kids:
Movement activities stimulate the vestibular system. Specific types of head movements alert the nervous system and wake the brain for learning.
The key is to encourage head movements in a variety of directions. This gets the fluid moving in the little canals that are part of the vestibular system. Moving the fluid quickly and pausing in different positions alerts the brain and increases attention in kids.
Examples of movement activities that increase attention:
- Toe touches
- Windmills
- Fast side bends
- Spinning around
- Downward dog
- Log rolls
- Somersaults
- Cartwheels
During toe touches and windmills, make sure children’s heads moves as far as possible through the whole range of movement. Add a pause at the bottom of each of these movements to increase the effect.
Have kids move at different speeds during these alerting activities. Work up to faster speeds.
For more vestibular activities, check out
- 30 Great Movement Activities to Enhance Learning
- Best Educational Brain Break Exercises – FREE Printable
- 17 Special Movement Activities to Improve Visual Skills (movement activities that focus on balancing skills)
Proprioceptive Alerting Sensory Strategies for the Body:
My favorite type of sensory input as an occupational therapist, is definitely proprioception! Giving input to the muscles and joints alerts and wakes up the brain, but it also calms and organizes the nervous system.
It’s perfect sensory input for learning! So powerful.
I tell parents, teachers and therapists, when in doubt, use proprioceptive input.
Examples of proprioceptive input activities that increase attention in kids:
- Jump in place
- Yoga positions (stretching, pushing through the arms)
- Chair push-ups
- Army crawls
- Bear walks
- Donkey kicks
- Push or move furniture
- Carry heavy objects such as a stack of books
For more heavy work activities and deep pressure sensory strategies, check out:
- 25 Brain Breaks for Kids – Improve Focus & Attention (FREE printable available, all activities use proprioceptive input)
- Calming Deep Pressure Weighted Tools and Activities that Increase Focus if you need some calming strategies for certain students!
Tactile Strategies that Increase Attention:
Tactile input gives so much information to our brains. Exploring with our hands and fidgeting are natural ways to learn and self-regulate.
How many kids or adults do you know that constantly fidget with their hands? They play with hair, click a pen, twirl a paperclip, or pick at objects. Maybe they always need to touch everything.
Tactile input is alerting for the whole body, not just the hands. Think of how alerting the cold, crisp winter air is on our face and neck. Or a sharp breeze or a cooler pool of water!
Examples of tactile input tools and activities that increase attention:
- Hand fidgets, pencil grips, or fidget toppers
- Shaving cream, gel bags, sand trays, salt trays, or finger paint
- Tactile bins for learning activities
- Incorporate hand gestures or sign language during learning lessons
- Use manipulatives during learning
- Allow doodling or coloring while listening
- Brisk self-massage, a light touch tickle, or rub the arms, face, hair, neck
- Fan with paper (or sit or stand in front of a fan)
During the school day, children need routine tactile activities. They need project based and play based learning to help the brain make sense of the world. For more info, check out:
- Simple DIY Math Manipulatives for Tactile and Kinesthetic Learners
- Tactile Learning Activity: Unique Hands on Ideas
Oral Sensory Strategies for the Mouth that Increase Attention:
Oral sensory and oral motor input to the mouth is very powerful for the nervous system and brain. It’s calming and alerting and really helps with concentration.
Think of kids (and even adults for that matter!) that need gum or a toothpick, or who always chew on their shirt, pencil, or fingernails.
The biting input to the jaw gives so much feedback to the brain (proprioceptive input.) It’s great for relieving stress and helping increase attention!
Examples of mouth strategies (oral motor and oral sensory input) that increase focus:
- Chew gum (2 pieces can be tried for some kids)
- Offer chewy foods or crunchy snacks (choose healthy ones!)
- Chew on a straw or coffee stirrer
- Give hard candies or lollipops to suck on
- Drink ice water, sip a cold drink, or chew on ice
- Try sour foods (lemon in water or lemon-flavored snacks)
- Use a long, thin straw for liquids or smoothies
- Try a straw to “drink” a puree such as yogurt or applesauce
For more tools for the mouth, check out Oral Sensory Activities Proven to Wake Kids’ Brains. It shares more oral activities, as well as specific toys and tools for the mouth for children that need the extra sensory input.
Auditory Activities and Strategies that Increase Attention:
Think of how sounds make you feel. Certain sounds and types of music can relax and calm you, while others can increase your energy.
Fast paced, loud music helps with an intense workout or with cleaning for adults!
It’s also an effective and fun way to energize kids.
Examples of auditory strategies that increase attention:
- Play fast music before learning
- Use a metronome (65-80 bpm) during a movement activity
- Clap hands, stomp feet, and/or snap fingers (make it a listening game with patterns)
- Use timers or different alarm sounds
- Ring bells, chimes, or use rain sticks
- Use instruments with different patterns and rhythms
- Play mystery sounds that each have a response
- Use interactive chants
Sounds are a quick way to get kids’ attention, but you have to change it up. If you keep using the same noise, they’ll start to tune it out.
Additionally, take into consideration the kids that may experience sensory overload with sounds. Watch to see if a child struggles with certain noises, and adjust them as necessary. Avoid sounds that could be too loud or too annoying. Choose sounds and songs that are pleasant and fun.
For more activities to enhance listening, following directions, and reading skills, check out Simple Auditory Activities to Improve Learning and Reading.
Visual Sensory Strategies that Increase Attention:
How does a bright, sunny room make you feel versus a dark room? You’re certainly going to be more alert with the bright light!
When you search online, certain photos or bright colors are more likely to capture your attention than dark and dull ones.
For kids, adding a visual cue or altering the visual environment can help with focus and attention. But too much visual input can be distracting for some kids, so find the right balance.
Examples of visual strategies that increase attention:
- Turn on lights or keep blinds open
- Minimize visual clutter on workspace
- Decrease visual clutter in the room
- Use bright and bold colors for lessons
- Use a highlighter for important info
- Create a work space with brighter lights and colored mats
- Use a piece of paper to block out words or work that’s not necessary
- Incorporate visual motor integration activities into learning
For more visual strategies to add to your learning activities, check out:
- An Easy Visual Motor Activity for Kids Using Magnets
- Easy Visual Tracking Activities Using Flashcards and the Infinity Loop
- 15 Important Occupational Therapy Visual Skills Activities
The Sensory Systems and Alerting Sensory Strategies
These 48 sensory activities are quick and easy ways to get kids’ attention and to increase alertness in kids. Use them at various times throughout the day. Pay attention to the children that might need these more often!
As a school based OT, another area of need that I see in kids that impacts attention is with core stability and posture. Kids need to sit upright and use their muscles naturally without fatigue in order for the brain to pay attention. But many lack this basic stability. These two posts have more information for you:
- 40 Core Exercises for Kids (free printable with easy ways to improve core strength in kids)
- Best Flexible Seating for the Classroom (shares seating options that increase attention but also focus on good posture!)
If you would like more information on the sensory systems, Develop Learn Grow offers a two hour online course: The Sensory Systems and Learning: Brain Boosting Sensory Activities for Children. Click here for more information!
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