5 Ways to Avoid Sensory Overload in Kids

Wikipedia defines it as: 

Sensory overload occurs when one or more of the body's senses experiences over-stimulation from the environment. There are many environmental elements that impact an individual. Examples of these elements are urbanization, crowding, noise, mass media, technology, and the explosive growth of information. 

There are a wide variety of symptoms that have been found to be associated with sensory overload. These symptoms can occur in both children and adults. Some of these symptoms are:

Irritability, "shutting down", or refusing to participate in activities and/or interacting with others, getting overexcited, having difficulty focusing on an activity, constantly changing activities, never completing a task, having trouble with social interactions, extremely high or extremely low activity levels, difficulty concentrating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_overload

Recently I've attended a birthday party for a 3 year old. Most of the children that were invited were of the same age, ranging from one to three years old, apart from a handful of older boys.

The parents have hired a range of activities and entertainment; there was a clown with games and balloons, a mascot, the baby corner, giant soft Lego blocks, and if that wasn't enough they've brought more toys for children to be busy with; trucks, balls, cars.

Watching the entertainers from the side I've noticed they had the most challenging time of engaging with the children. There were so many things fighting for their attention.

I could see a few oldest boys here and there, running from one activity to the next, not giving any one of them any significant attention. Running to the clown, “Make me more balloons!” Before the balloons were even finished they were already kicking the ball on the field nearby, the next moment they were tossing the rings in the games corner, then building and knocking down the Lego tower. Several girls were trying to build a Lego fort and just when they would be finished the boys would knock it down.

The mascot showed up, trying to interact with the birthday boy, but he was simply not interested. Pulling his two large trucks, digging into the presents while being smothered by friends and relatives. The mascot finally resigned to playing with the youngest invitees in the baby corner, to the parents apparent displeasure.

Slowly but surely, the time expired for the entertainers team, and the clown and the mascot said their good byes and left. The only thing that was left was the baby corner and the giant Lego blocks.

Then something miraculous happened! All the children gravitated towards the baby corner and started orderly and peacefully playing with the blocks and Lego pieces. They've stopped running around wildly, they were sincerely interested and actually had great fun with one another and the blocks.

On a mat 3mx3m all the children collaborated and had fun. I was amazed at first, couldn't believe the big boys were happy playing in a 'baby corner', but they were. Watching them for a few moments I realized what has just occurred. No, it wasn't a miracle! No, it wasn't a magic trick! Most definitely wasn't any type of Harry Potter magic either!

Those children were overstimulated! Parents in their desire to provide for their children, in their concern that children won't have enough fun, in their attempt to make their birthdays and childhood memorable, overstimulated them. One activity at the time is plenty enough for the children to be happily occupied for a while. Multitasking is a myth (if you are to do something right)! That's why I've always made a point with my own kids to only have one toy out at the time. Once they're finished playing with that one they're required to clean it up, put it away before engaging in the next activity.

Overstimulating our kids is turning them into ADHD. Children's brains/minds can take so much info, at a lightening speed, but not all at once. Their minds are just soaking it all up. Yes, they are well able to take it all in, but what happens when so many things are fun for them and they want to try them all at the same time? How do they choose? It comes to the point that they conclude that NONE of it is fun! Not because they would not enjoy it if given just that one activity, but in a midst of so many they get more easily bored since they've not experienced any of them as they should. All the while they are engaged in one activity they are thinking, looking, wishing for the next one, not able to give it their full attention.

Solution? 

1. Limit kids activities to one at a time. One toy out at the time. 

2. When organizing a party limit the number of activities or create the activity stations with a 'collect-your-points-at-each-station' incentives.

3.When out and about try to occasionally point to fun facts about just one item, such as in a zoo, stop by one of the animal's cages and share fun, quirky facts about just that one animal (ask them later which animal they've liked the most or stood out to them the most)

4. Do 'did you know' impromptu moments with your child while sharing interesting facts, you are sure they don't know.

5. If they're watching a cartoon, have them put the toys away. Focus on the cartoon. Talk about it when it is done. 

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