Use Your (Pool) Noodle

For the last few months, I have had the pleasure of working with an organization called  P.O.A.C  NJ (Parents of Autistic Children)  presenting sensory-based adaptive yoga workshops for therapists, parents and other educators. The workshops focus on ways to calm & engage children in yoga, exercise, therapy and other enriching activities.

In yesterday's workshop, I demonstrated a technique I have used since my days in Ms. Trudy's early intervention inclusion classroom. I call it "Making Pizza" and it is simple, fun and requires very basic items.

This activity will help integrate the proprioceptive and tactile senses. It will encourage expressive communication and focus. In addition it will help in sequencing skills. Parents, teachers, para-educators, therapists and family caregivers can use this fun game to calm the nervous system in over responsive children and help stimulate the senses for those children who are under responsive. This can be done in the therapy or sensory room, classroom or at home.

You will need a child, a grown up, (or as children become familiar with this exercise you can use 2 children at a time & supervise & facilitate peers participating in this activity ) a mat or a blanket and some of those colorful foam "noodles" that are used for swimming. I found these (pictured in the photo above) at a dollar store and had Jay, my significant other (and keeper of the scary, sharp and dangerous tools,) cut them in half for me to use at yesterday's workshop. (They cut fairly easily with a sharp knife as shown directly below.)

In this activity, one person (the child) gets to be the "dough" and the grown up gets to make the pizza.

To begin playing tell the child that you want to play the "Pizza Game" with him/her. Ask "Would you like to play?" (They may look at you suspiciously.)

Tell them you will be the Pizza Maker & they can be the dough. Instruct the child to lay down on their belly on the mat or blanket (which will now be referred to as the "Pizza Pan"...) with his or her hands under her cheeks as a "pillow" (or you can really use a small pillow.)

Begin by gently but firmly "rolling out the dough" with the colorful "rolling pins" as shown in the photo. Some of these noodles had some bumpy patterns that made for an interesting tactile sensory experience.



When I did this with my own daughter she started to wiggle & giggle and then after a few minutes she was directing me as to where she needed more rolling.

Watch your student or child carefully for body language & other signs of whether they need a bit more pressure or if you should apply a bit less pressure.

As you are doing the rolling, say out loud "I am roooooling out the dough...mmmmm...this will be good pizza!" or something similar.

After rolling for a minute,  pause and think out loud: "Hmmm, I wonder what I should put on this pizza? See if the child responds with a suggestion. If not, then ask the child if they have a suggestion. ("What do you like/should we put on this pizza?")

If they still don't know or don't respond , prompt them by saying, "How about some brussel sprouts? or some other known food that they do not like. Most likely they will now say "Ewwww..." or tell you "no", so you can ask again what they would like on their pizza?

If they have a suggestion you can respond by saying "Oh yes...cheese! Good idea! we need cheese on our pizza!" and use your hands on the child's back, arms, legs, feet & head if they will allow you to, to create a sensation of putting cheese on the pizza.

"What do we need next? Pizza sauce! Oh yes-I like lots of that!"  Use your hands again only slightly differently to make the "sauce" on the child's body. As each ingredient is suggested by the child or prompted by you, (olives, onions, peppers, anchovies, mushrooms, sausage, pepperoni, oregano , etc...) use your hands, fingers and even the ends of the noodles to make that ingredient's sensation on the back of the child's body. Be animated & creative - take your time, really engage with the child and have fun with it. (I know one teacher that even has a "chef" hat-she wears it while doing this with the kids.

The idea is to give the child calming muscle input and also to allow the child to have a sense of control over the activity-to spontaneously communicate his or her "needs" in the framework of  the "ingredients". Some children will get silly and say things like "gumdrops" or "worms" and I just go with it as long as the child is calm, engaging and having fun.  I may redirect afterward and say "OH..this is a make-believe silly pizza..." if I am trying to encourage appropriateness of language.

However, children have vivid imaginations and sometimes its a good thing to see where they will go with an idea. They may surprise you. Sometimes its best to put the lesson plan, the  "rules" the "shoulds" and the need for "compliance" aside & just play with the child. If the child is having fun, and trusts you, you will get the compliance you need to do your therapy or your teaching. I find it very effective to go into the child's world first, and to always encourage the higher skill being demonstrated.

After all the "ingredients" are added, the pizza has to cook-(sometimes I use a blanket or roll them up in the yoga mat)  you shut off the light & even set a visual timer for a minute or two and encourage the child to be very still & breathe quietly while waiting . Sometimes very quiet music helps) and when the pizza is "done" then you can unroll and "eat" (I use light squeezing movements on legs and arms.)

Then, if time allows, ask the child if he/she wants to be the pizza maker? Give him/her the chef hat and you lie down on the mat. Guide the child to repeat the steps you just did-with prompting when needed.

For non-verbal children this activity can be adapted to let them choose plastic play food from a basket or a picture card (PECS) to communicate which ingredient should be added next.  Children can also be supervised to play this game together in this manner.

If you are working on sequencing, use picture cards with numbers on them first to teach the sequence, then an exact duplicate copy of cards to practice the sequence.

As a variation, you can use this activity with the idea of making cookies or baking bread or making a hoagie/sandwich, or cutting vegetables & tossing a salad, planting a garden or even the idea of a *sculptor and clay.

*(For the clay idea, after the "clay" is rolled and pressed and flattened, the "sculptor" then can mold it into anything. Arms and legs can get moved or posed and the "clay" must stay the way the "sculptor" places them.)

I would love to hear from those of you that have done this activity! Please feel free to leave a comment below!

Have fun using those noodles!

~Barbara



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