Course Overview

If bath time, shower time, or hand-washing feels harder than it "should" for your child, sensory differences are often part of the picture. This 30-minute course shares five practical strategies you can weave into bath and shower time to support your child to feel more comfortable and confident with washing — at their own pace.

Washing involves a surprising amount of sensory work — recognising whether you feel clean or dirty, staying balanced on a wet surface, coordinating both hands together, and planning and sequencing each step. For some children, one or more of these can feel genuinely tricky, and bath or shower time becomes a stress point for the whole family.

In this course, Occupational Therapist Jessica Kirton walks through what's actually happening when a child finds washing hard, and shares five evidence-based sensory strategies you can build in over time — many away from the bath itself, so the strategies feel like play rather than a fix-it operation.

Each strategy is paired with the underlying sensory principle in plain language, so you'll understand why it might help — and feel confident adapting it to suit your child. Most parents find that picking just one or two strategies to start with works better than trying everything at once.


What you'll explore

Across the course, Jessica covers:

  • Why some children find washing tricky — looking at tactile discrimination, postural control, bilateral coordination, and motor planning
  • Sensory bin activities to support how your child feels and discriminates touch
  • "Heavy muscle work" to develop body awareness through proprioception
  • Postural control strategies for staying balanced in the bath or shower
  • Bilateral coordination ideas to help both hands and both sides of the body work together
  • Ways to break down and sequence the steps of washing — so each part feels manageable

Who this course is for

This course is designed for parents and carers of children who find bath time, shower time, or hand-washing harder than expected — whether your child has a diagnosis (autism, ADHD, dyspraxia, sensory processing differences) or no formal diagnosis at all.

If your child finds tolerating water or soap difficult — rather than the practical skills of washing — you may also find our companion thinking on tactile sensitivity helpful as you work through the course.


A few things worth knowing

📥 Course notes & glossary are downloadable and yours to keep.

📄 Certificate of Attendance available once you've completed the short check at the end.

🕒 Take your time — washing skills build gradually with regular, low-pressure practice. There's no rush.

Talk it through 1:1 with an OT

Want personal support?

If you'd like to discuss your child's specific situation in more detail, you can book a 30-minute one-to-one online session with Dr Lelanie Brewer, Advanced Sensory Integration Practitioner. A focused, friendly conversation about what might genuinely help..
Find out about 1:1 OT coaching — £45 →
Dr Lelanie Brewer

Course curriculum

    1. How to use this course

    2. Meet the course leader, Jess Kirton

    1. Welcome

    2. What we are going to cover in this course

    3. What we are not going to cover in this course

    1. Tactile Discrimination Difficulties

    2. Proprioceptive Discrimination Difficulties

    3. Vestibular Discrimination and Postural Control Difficulties

    4. Bilateral Coordination Difficulties

    5. Motor Planning Difficulties

    1. What to do

    2. How to do it

    3. Theory behind the strategy

    1. What to do

    2. How to do it

    3. Theory behind the strategy

    1. What to do

    2. How to do it

    3. Theory behind the strategy

About this course

  • 32 lessons
  • 0.5 hours of video content

Lecturer

Jessica Kirton

Occupational Therapist and Advanced Sensory Integration Practitioner

Jessica Kirton is an Occupational Therapist and Advanced Sensory Integration Practitioner with 15 years of clinical experience supporting children, young people, and their families. Since qualifying as an OT in 2011, Jessica has worked across the full range of UK settings — the NHS, private practice, special schools, mainstream schools, and specialist early years intervention — alongside voluntary work overseas. She has set up OT services across schools and held positions as Lead OT, giving her a depth of practical experience across both 1:1 therapy and the wider systems around children's lives. Her courses for Sensory Help Now bring that clinical experience into a parent-facing format: practical, neuro-affirming, and grounded in the sensory integration principles she teaches.