Ep. 55: Strategies for Surviving with Sensory Differences Under One Roof
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What are the main challenges of living with mixed sensory needs in one household?
What's up everyone and welcome to Making the Shift.
We're an SLP couple from California with three boys and a passion for finding better ways to support autistic kids.
I'm Chris. You might know me as speech dude. I'm a Neurodivergent High School SLP and the creator of the Dynamic Assessment of Social Emotional Learning, and I specialize in crafting neurodiversity affirming IEPs through my online course.
And I'm Jesse, a sensory integration trained SLP, owner of a top-rated clinic in Los Angeles, and the creator of the Inside Out Sensory Communication Programs for Parents and Therapists. Join us weekly to learn neurodiversity affirming ways to support social, emotional development and regulation in autistic kids.
Are you ready to make the shift?
Hello, hello, welcome to Making the Shift. Today we are talking about how you can survive under one roof when you have different people who have different sensory needs. It is likely that if you live with any other people, you probably have different sensory needs than the people that you live with, right? It's pretty inevitable. You throw a group of people together, they're gonna have different sensory needs. And I will tell you: in our household, there are six of us. There's me, Chris, and our four kids. And between the six of us, we cover every sensory. difference or every sense sensation pattern. And we're not going to dive too much into the weeds of that today. We have lots of previous episodes on that.
So if you don't know what I'm talking about when I say sensation patterns, you can go back and listen to previous episodes. We've also interviewed on the show before Dr. Winnie Dunn, who is the one who created the framework for these sensation patterns that you can listen to. But today we're gonna talk about if you are home and what happens when one person is getting dysregulated because of another person's sensory needs. And this is something I hear all the time from parents. I hear, okay, well. I love to do it this way, but we're like this this sibling always causes the other sibling to get dysregulated. What should I do? So today I'm going to be giving you Four strategies or four things to think about.
I'll say the four S's
How can families identify each member’s sensory “cup” (low vs. high threshold) and why does it matter?
The four S's of things to think about, how you can survive under one roof when you have family members who have different sensory needs. All right. So Ферство, княр да When people are when we think about someone's sensory system, we think about do they have a low threshold or a high threshold. A low threshold is when someone has a small cup, it doesn't take a lot of sensory input input for them to notice. It doesn't take a lot to bother them. They just have a lower kind of cup for all of that input. Versus someone who has a high threshold has a big cup. So people who have a big cup can take lots of sensory input and it's going to take more for them to notice it. It's going to take more for them to register.
It's going to take more for them to get dysregulated. So that's definitely a good starting point is thinking about, okay, my family members, do they have a small cup or a big cup because this will affect how we create this kind of environment for them at home that's going to be the most comfortable for them. And the most regulating. Okay, so let's talk about the first S. The first S to think about is space. So you want everyone to have their own space, you want to know what the optimal space is or the optimal environment for every person in the house. Where are they most comfortable? Where are they most regulated? And I'll give you some examples of our own family in case that helps you. Or my six-year-old who has a very small cup, his optimal environment is in his room.
So if there's ever a time when there's gonna be a lot going on or he's already dysregulated, he's gonna do best when he's in his room. So His own space. versus my four-year-old, he has a high uh high threshold, a big cup, and he does great just like chilling on the couch. That is his happy place. Or jumping on the trampoline in the backyard.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the main challenges of living with mixed sensory needs in one household?
0:08–2:30
2
How can families identify each member’s sensory “cup” (low vs. high threshold) and why does it matter?
2:30–4:42
3
Why is creating individualized “space” the first S for sensory regulation?
4:42–6:39
4
How does a flexible schedule (the second S) help prevent dysregulation for kids with different thresholds?
6:39–8:45
5
What practical sensory strategies (the third S) can parents use to stay calm and help their children regulate?
8:45–11:00
6
How can families teach self‑advocacy (the fourth S) so each person can communicate their sensory needs?
11:00–12:03
7
What are real‑life examples of the four S’s in action within the hosts’ own family?
12:03–13:13
8
What are the key take‑aways and next steps for listeners wanting to thrive under one roof?
13:13–13:20
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The NeuroAffirm Podcast
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Ep. 124 Building Rapport Isn’t Enough...How Therapists Become Part of the Intervention
Ep. 123 Not Seeing Progress in Speech Therapy? Start Here.
Ep. 122 Screen Time Considerations for Autistic Kids
Ep. 121 The Biggest Sensory Mistakes SLPs Make
Ep. 120 Why Anxiety is So Common in Autism (And What Actually Helps)