Sensory products are useful for calming and focusing autistic children. They provide stimuli, vestibular and proprioceptive input when needed and are comforting. Here is our list of Best Sensory Products for Autistic Children—the ones that I use with my children and personally love. These are my must-have’s.
My five-year-old loves to sit in his and play iPad!
My littlest guy adores his pea pod. He loves to sit inside and play with his iPad. It makes him feels safe, and cozy providing hours of comfort. Read how his preschool teacher used the Pea Pod in his special education classroom. When we learned how much he enjoyed it, we had to have one at home!
Body Sock
Better than using me as a Mommy-sock!
The body sock is another favorite in our house. Jason (5) likes to use ME as a body sock. He slides inside my shirt and squeezes himself through the v-neck in my t-shirt. The Body sock was a much better solution and being a mommy sock and having stretched out shirts.
Nest Swing
The boys love sitting in this nest swing and watching TV
We wanted something for the boy’s rooms where they could feel comfortable and swing. They love this suspended nest swing. It is fairly easy to put up and hangs from the ceiling in their bedroom. Great for watching TV or reading books.
Weight Vest
Great to wear under clothing and a fairly easy sensory product to travel wtih.
Tommy (7) in particular loves the weighted vest. When he is in meltdown mode, we offer it to him, and he is usually calmed relatively quickly. He is now learning to recognize when he needs it and ask for his vest!
Weight Blanket
Comes in a bunch of colors. When picking a blanket, I’d recommend ensuring it has a cover that zips off and can be easily washed.
This is the most coveted item in the house! Jason (5) drags it out after school, in the morning, watching TV and any time he feels tired or cold. It is extremely comforting. Unfortunately adding an additional blanket (or two) is on our list because Thomas and Jason like to fight over who will sleep beneath the blanket. Even my 14-year-old tries to crawl underneath (Okay, I steal it when they are not using it too!) Love love love our weighted blanket.
Therapy Swing
This is big enough for me to fit, but I keep falling out!
We have this crazy-looking sock-ish therapy swing on our front porch. It is big enough for an adult to climb inside and be nicely cocooned. But if you are an uncoordinated klutz like me, you might wind up on your butt repeatedly. Thomas (7) however loves the swing and often goes outside to just sit inside it and chill. It’s a cross between a comfy
body sock, swing, secret hiding place.
Platform Swing
An excellent swing for the front porch or out in the yard (we’ve had it both places). Great for multi-kid swinging and playing.
Brothers swing together and have fun knocking each other off.
Indoor playground and swing equipment
A great option for the Christmas or Birthday present list! We included the Gym1 Deluxe Bonobo Indoor playground with Indoor swing, plastic rings, trapeze bar, climbing ladder, and swinging rope because we live where the air hurts our faces nine months out of the year. The winter is too long, and too cold, to go without some indoor swinging fun.
When it is winter for 9-10 months out of the year, indoors swings are awesome! Great when its too hot outside too.
Read more
I hope you enjoyed the list of my favorite and best sensory products for autistic kids. I will update this list when we find more fun things to add to our sensory arsenal. If you want to read more about how Sensory Items can be used to Calm Autistic Children by one of my children’s special education teachers. These are what she uses in her classroom. Read how.
