Getting ready for bed

Sensory integration

﻿Going to bed can be a struggle, and especially when our ears are very sensitive to noise, it can make us really alert any little sound that we can hear and that can stop us falling asleep. In today's lesson, we're going to learn a little bit more about our listening sense and how our ears interpret noise and especially we're going to look at bedtimes. We as therapists have tried to think of the best way to continue to support children, young people and their families. We will be exploring topic areas that we regularly provide advice and support on across all ages and abilities. Each lesson will have ideas and activities that can be carried out at home or in school. This information is to be used alongside any specific strategies or resources which have been given by your child's school or therapist. If you have any questions or would like help tailoring this to your child's needs, then please contact your local therapy service. So, as I've already mentioned in today's lesson, we going to look at why our ears may struggle to fall asleep at night and what we can do with those noises that may wake us up at nighttime. But before we start with the lesson, there's a few things that you need to get ready. So pause the video here, and then for today's lesson, you're going to need some blankets and pillows to build a fort or a den with and you're also going to need some pens and papers. So get all of those things together and then you can press play and we can carry on with the lesson. Right, well let's have a look and remind ourselves what happens when our ears are over responsive. When there's too much noise, when it's too loud, when there's too many people talking, all of those things can make our ears really struggle to listen and sounds that are too loud or too high or too scratchy can also make us make it difficult for us. When you're going to bed and our ears are over-responsive, it can be really hard for us to fall asleep, especially when our ears will pick up any little sounds that there is in the house. We may not like to listen to any music when we go to sleep and we might prefer to be spoken to really, really quietly. And you may prefer quiet sounds when you go to bed. So when your ears are under responsive, it means that we don't always hear the sounds. And we may be looking for more sounds at bedtime, which can make it hard to fall asleep because your mind may be a little bit too active at that time of night. So going to bed can be hard when you are under responsive to sounds as well. You may be someone who need to hear people and you need them to speak really loudly, or you may struggle to whisper. And that means that your body will stay awake because calm, quiet, slow sounds, are things that kind of help our brain to think okay, it's time for bedtime. However, when we speak in a fast and a loud voice and we don't whisper our mind thinks it's not time for bedtime and it's actually time to be awake. So trying to settle down for bedtime may be difficult for you If you are under responsive to sounds. You may fall asleep without worrying about any sounds, So sounds may not both of you. And that may be another thing because you are under responsive. Your ears may not hear all those little creaky noises that's often in a house. So let's have a little bit of a look at things that you may want to try for bedtime. You may like to listen to a relaxation story and these stories are often read in a way that is calm and quiet and in a very slower pace, because that helps our brain to do get ready for bedtime. You may want to listen to your favourite audio book and that may help calm your brain and help your listening sense to get ready for bedtime. Some people like playing a white noise, now a white noise is a noise that has the same sound all the way through. So think about a fan in the background, or maybe the noise that your fridge makes in the kitchen. So it's kind of like a humming noise all the way through, and that is a white noise and some people find that quite calming. You might prefer to sleep with your door closed and with your windows closed because that shuts out some of the noise. Or you may be someone who likes to sleep with your door open. So you can hear some of the sounds in the house and that may be comforting for you. So you need to find what works for you and that's what this lesson is all about. So what we're going to do now is we're going to pause the video here for you to complete your task. Now, first of all, you're going to build a den or a fort with your parent or carer. And then once you've done that, both of you can try and snuggle inside and then have a chat with your parents or carer and agree a bedtime plan. So you may start of talking about what different sounds you hear at nighttime and what sounds are bothersome or what sounds are quite comforting to you. Talk to your parents who carer about all of these things, and then draw a picture or make a plan that you can use at nighttime. And once you've done that together, you can share that with the rest of your family. So keep going with that and once you've finished, you can press play and we will finish the lesson together. Well done, that's been amazing. I hope you've learned something today about your listening sense and that you've made that plan that you can try out tonight when you go to bed. Have fun and have a great day, share your work with Oak National. If you'd like to please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak

Getting ready for bed

Getting ready for bed

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Lesson details

Key learning points

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