This topic is one of my most commonly requested; it would seem oral sensory seekers are plenty in our classrooms.
Why do children seek biting and chewing?
Biting is rarely intended to cause harm, and many autistic children never exhibit this behaviour. When present, it can present significant challenges for caregivers, families and peers so it is an important topic to talk about.
How can we support children to oral seek more safely?
As with lots of my advice, it isn't about stopping this behaviour, but more finding a safer way to seek this same helpful input.
- You should firstly rule out medical and dental causes by visiting your GP or dentist. Let's assume this behaviour is communication. Maybe they are trying to tell you something is not right.
- Understanding the individual child's experience and triggers. By reducing these triggers in the environment and can get the fastest results without putting any more responsibility on the child or young person to change. Maybe it is a certain noise, lighting, clothing, request? Could these be adapted to better support the person struggling?
- Observing their responses to different situations and sensory experiences. Knowledge is power, as they say. The more you notice the more you can plan for creating a safe environment for every person in your care. Take note of when they are at their most relaxed and focused, can you extend this by replicating in other parts of their day?
- Using teething toys or necklaces to redirect their biting. As well as adapting the environment, there may still be times that biting is needed. At these times redirecting and modelling use of a range of chewable resources is a good idea. There is a huge range of options on offer, one size does not fit all so it's best to test out a few. *I share my favourites below
- As well as chewable resources, I also find regular crunchy snacks and frozen juice cube snacks help regulate oral seeking pupils in my care.
Product recommendations
There are a huge change of chewable resources, including textured, differing toughness, vibrating, wearable and more. Here are my favourites I have had success with over the years. (please note XT means extra tough, this may suit some, but not all)
Sensory Direct Chewbuddy Pling
Vibrating sensory chew toy (rechargable)
*These links are all Amazon Affiliate links, which means it does not cost you any more than usual, but I get a small fee for sharing Amazon products. Thank you for supporting my free blog by purchasing through these links.