Getting ready in the morning: Waking up

Sensory integration

﻿Our sense of movement can influence the way or how easy it is to wake up in the mornings. And in this lesson, we are going to have a look at what we can do to make waking up in the mornings a little bit easier. 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. Let's start this lesson by having another look and just a reminder of how our movement sense works. Our balance receptors are inside our ears and it's these little circular canals, and inside them, they're some fluid. So when we move our head from side to side or forwards or backwards, or when we do spinning movement, these fluid moves around, and it tells our brain about where our body is and where our head is, in particular, whether we are upright, or whether we're upside down, whether we moving forwards, whether we moving backwards, and it also tells us whether our movement is fast or slow. So, that's really really important in everything that we do but it also plays a part in the mornings when we have to get up. So let's have a look first and just remind ourselves when movement can be really tricky. So one of the things we discussed is when movement can be scary. So this could be when you actually have to get out of bed, or when you have to go down the stairs, stepping down those steps may feel a little bit scary and that can be called gravitational insecurity. When we have an over sensitive movement system, it may be that sitting up from lying down all night long, can make you feel a bit dizzy and that can make movement really tricky, may make you feel a bit groggy when you have to get up. When you're not registering movement, this means that when you wake up with your head halfway down the bed or maybe you've turned so much that your feet are now where your pillows are supposed to be but you haven't actually recognised that and it feels just the same because your body doesn't process movement and register movement as quickly. So, you may be one of those people that you are always on the go and you may be jumping out of bed and often you may wake up really really early and then you want to do a lot of movement things and you rage kind of move around, that might be something when you are always on the go. So let's have a look at what we can do. So we have looked at the dots and squeezes massage before, and I find that that is one of the most helpful things that I have learned in my time as an occupational therapist, and in my time working with other kids and with other families. So take a second and ask your parent or carer to read through these instructions again, and then I'm going to let you watch the video, and then you're going to have a go at just reminding ourselves how to do the dots and squeezes massage. So let's take a minute and have a look and pause the video here so you can read through and then once you've read through the instructions, you can press play and we will watch my video of me doing it and then you're going to have a go. Okay, so I'm going to show you how the dot and squeezes massage works. So this is what you're going to need, you're going to need your hands, and first of all, what you're going to do is you are going to use your left hand. So this is my left hand on this side and you're going to start with your top of your thumb and you're going to give it a squeeze, then you're going to go to the next little soft Paddy bit so if you bend your, if you bend your your finger, you can see where that soft bit is to the top bit, and then you're going to squeeze the bottom bit. Now you're going to go to your next finger and you're going to do the same so it's the top and then the middle, and then right at the bottom, and you're going to do that with all your fingers, just like that. There we go. And I'm doing it with this one. That's it. And now I'm going to use the big bit of my hand and I'm just going to give it a nice little squeeze. There we go. Now you're going to do it with the other hand, so the other hand, can't miss out. Now we're doing the top, bottom. These are all the dots that we're doing at the moment and this activity really, really desensitises our hands. And again, we can give it a nice massage, you can use your thumb. That's quite a nice way to do it. Okay, now I'm kind of giving my hands a little squeeze and watch me what I do now is I kind of move my hands across here, and I'm giving it a squeeze. Can you see how I'm squeezing my arm? and I'm going to squeeze it all the way all the way to the top of my shoulders. And when I'm here, I can give myself a really nice hug. So there we go. I'm giving myself a hug. Now it's going to be your turn. So you're going to on the next slide, you're going to pause the video and you're going to have a go at the dot and squeezes message Now it's your time to have a go. Pause the video here to complete your dots and squeezes massage. And if you want to, have a go at the head press massage. So remember to sit comfortably, and in with your parent or carer, you can complete the dot and squeezes massage and you can finish by doing the head press massage for five seconds. Now this is really helpful, especially when you just wake up. So you can do that dot and squeezes massage by yourself in the mornings once you're comfortable with it, and then you can finish it off with a head press and that will help you to be ready to get out of bed and start your day. So once you finished, press play, and we will finish the lesson together. Well done! So just a reminder again, you did really great today and maybe you can try one of these or maybe both and this dot and squeeze message or the head press message, tomorrow morning when you wake up. Have a fun day.

Getting ready in the morning: Waking up

Getting ready in the morning: Waking up

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

Lesson slides

Lesson details

Key learning points

Licence

Lesson video