Can you give me an example of arts-based sensory work?

Using a plethora of multi-media enables me to desensitize children in the use of materials; if a child can’t stand clay on his hands and picks it off, he can’t do a clay project. We start out with touching the clay with just fingertips, and washing it off. Then we feel it when it’s cold, and warm. Then we squish it and make a hole in the clay, and stop. Now we will use our cupped hands and make a ball by transferring the clay from palm to palm. It’s slow and steady, and before long, this child who couldn’t stand the feeling of clay on his hands is digging into 50 pounds of clay and building a pot! If he can’t push the clay—say he has low tone—I work on fine motor skills, visual motor, and motor planning—all by pinching the clay, or rolling coils and throwing slabs. As he learns new vocabulary and uses new tools like extruders and garlic presses to make clay spaghetti, I have a child who couldn’t touch the clay now happily and successfully making pots—in a highly structured three-step activity—a child who has just learned to listen and implement the sequential tasks necessary to closure and success.