When homework is tricky

Sensory integration

﻿Okay, so today's lesson is all about visual things, again, we are going to look at homework and why some of us find that tricky, and things that we can do to make homework easier, especially when our eyes get tired. 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 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 you child's needs, then please contact your local therapy service. Homework is one of those times that can make our eyes feel very, very tired, and today we're going to look at ways to make that easier for us. So we know, already, that when our eyes can sometimes be over responsive, when there's too many words or pictures that we need to look at, that can be really tiring for us, just as this picture is showing us. Sometimes there can be too much light for us and that can also be really hard on our eyes. So what does that look like when we're doing homework? Well, when we're doing homework, our eyes can be over responsive when we're very easily distracted, when our eyes start to hurt when we have to read or write, and also when our head hurts when you have to look at handbooks with lots of information. This can be really hard for us and it can make us feel that we don't want to do any homework. On the other hand, our eyes can also be under responsive. This is when we sometimes miss things out when we read, or when we struggle to focus on our work. And when we do homework, this can be that we sometimes miss out filling out some of the boxes on worksheets, even if we know the answers. We may sometimes skip a page when we do our homework and then we end up not doing everything that was expected of us. Sometimes, when our eyes are under responsive, it's really hard for us to focus on the piece of paper in front us and we may be more interested in what happens around us. All of these things can make homework really tiring and really hard to do. For today's lesson you will need some paper and coloured felt tip pens, you will also need some coloured paper. So pause the video to get everything you need and resume once you've finished. Let's find out what your visual preference is. We're going to make some marks on paper just like this. So pause the video to complete your task, this is what we're going to do, you're going to find out what your favourite colour is. Chat with your parent or your carer while you make different marks on the paper with different colours. Now, chat a little bit to them and tell them what colour paper do you prefer? What colour paint do you prefer? Have a go, and then once you're finished, press play, and we will carry on with the lesson. Let's do one more activity, for this one I'm going to take my glasses off so you can kind of see what I'm doing. Right, what we're going to do is we're going to give our tired eyes a little bit of a rest. And the way that we do that is by very gently using our hands, is to put them over our eyes and we're just going to press very very lightly on our eyes. So a little bit like this, so can you see I'm doing it very, very, very, gently? I'm going to do that with both my eyes now so you can se what it looks like. I'm putting my hands over my eyes and I'm just, very gently, pressing, I'm pressing more here on my little cheekbones. I'm just pressing there and you will feel that that pressure makes your eyes feel less tired. So what's important is that you don't poke your eyes, that's not very good, and it's very dangerous. So make sure that your parent or carer is with you when you do this. One more thing that you can do is you can use a flannel, and you could put that over your eyes. So you use it like this and you put it all the way over, and then you can kind of, again, put your flat hands over your eyes, like that. Okay, now you're going to have a go at doing this. So here is a reminder of what we're going to do, with your parent or carer, close your eyes and gently place your hands over your eyes. Try using a face cloth or a flannel over your eyes if you want to, and you can very, very gently press down with your whole palm, but very, very gently. And have a chat, do you prefer a warm or a cold face cloth or flannel over your eyes? What helps your eyes to be less tired? Pause the video to complete your task and resume once you've finished. Great, so I hope that has really helped, here's a few more homework tips for overwhelmed eyes. Find a quiet space to work with a clear wall in front of you and look at the light as well, look at the light in the room. Use clear paper to cover up text that you don't need to see, maybe try a coloured overlay. And that's just a plastic sheet that kind of changes the colour of the paper that you're looking at. Also take some short breaks by closing your eyes and just maybe, be quiet for a little bit in between, especially if you've got lots of homework to do. A few homework tips for eyes that are under responsive. Use contrasting colours on surfaces to help things stand out. Use you favourite and bright colours when you're making notes, so that all the important words can stand out. Use a visual schedule, because that really helps you to keep on track and to know what you still need to do. Also, take quite a few short breaks, maybe you can just shake your head gently from side to side, or get up and have a little walk around in between different homework tasks. Well done, today you can share all of what you've learned with your teacher and your family, and I'm hoping that these tips will really help you with homework in the future.

When homework is tricky

When homework is tricky

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