Course Overview

The course is designed for parents and families, with quick and easy things to help when sensory integration issues make dressing a stressful experience. The course will give parents a selection of strategies that can be adapted to their child's preferences and straightforward explanations of the evidence-based sensory principles underpinning them. 

Within the course, the lecturer, Jessica Kirton, will cover an overview of each sensory system, their neurology and their impact on getting dressed. Jessica will discuss how each sensory system works and how the presenting difficulties can be placed into a cluster of challenges, e.g. sensory modulation or praxis. 

Jessica will then explore how the problem areas within dressing can be detected, what problem areas are associated with a praxis pattern and the theory that underpins this. Lastly, she will advise on how to identify, implement and evaluate strategies for dressing difficulties.

This course will cover a basic understanding of the eight sensory systems, sensory integration theory and a wide range of evidence-based tools and strategies to support children with sensory integration and praxis difficulties in developing their independence with dressing. 

Learning outcomes

  • To understand the eight senses and how praxis difficulties can impact children's ability to dress. 
  • To have the tools to observe and identify your child's pattern of difficulties and how this may impact their ability to dress. 
  • To learn a wide range of strategies, activities and environmental adaptations that could support a child to dress.
  • How to modify, adapt and scaffold activities and strategies based on your child's needs and preferences to enhance success.

Course curriculum

    1. How to use this course

    2. Meet the course leader, Jess Kirton

    1. Welcome

    2. Which dressing course? Sensory Modulation Pathway or Praxis Pathway

    3. What we are going to cover in this course

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

    5. What do we mean by praxis and how does it relate to dressing?

    1. Interoceptive sense

    2. Proprioceptive sense

    3. Vestibular System

    4. Tactile System

    5. Visual perception

    6. How much does each sense impact your child's ability to dress?

    1. Model of Sensory Integration

    2. How to detect my child pattern of difficulties

    1. Somatodyspraxia

    2. Tactile discrimination difficulties

    3. Vestibular-bilateral integration and sequencing difficulties

    4. Post-Ocular difficulties

    5. Identifying problems in praxis

    1. Somatodyspraxia

    2. Posture, bilateral integration and sequencing

    3. Tactile discrimination

About this course

  • 43 lessons
  • 1 hour 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.