The sensory service

What is the sensory service?

The sensory service helps parents and carers, school staff and young people to have a better understanding of sensory processing and how this impacts everyday life.

How do you work?

We give information and advice on how to adapt activities and the environment to support children’s sensory needs.

Who are in the team?

The team includes:

• occupational therapy
• physiotherapy
• clinical psychology
• speech and language therapy

What is sensory processing?

Sensory processing is how our body makes sense of information around us from:

• hearing
• seeing
• touching
• tasting
• smelling
• balance and movement
• awareness of our body in the space around it
• awareness of our internal body feelings

This information helps us interact with the world.

When does sensory processing become a problem?

Children may:

• be overwhelmed by sensory information
• struggle to cope with certain sensory experiences
• avoid certain things, people and places
• find everyday tasks difficult to tolerate, such as showering, wearing certain clothes, eating, and brushing teeth
• seek out sensations to help them regulate, such as moving around a lot in lessons
• experience increased anxiety
• find it difficult to communicate their needs

Who is this service for?

This service is for school aged children living in Sheffield with sensory differences that are impacting on their home and school life.

How do you help?

Our service has different pathways:

• parent sensory workshop (online or face to face)
• community clinic appointment
• sensory coaching and advice
• understanding my senses group
• telephone and email advice

Next steps

First you need to visit the virtual therapy area to access our online training workshop.

If you prefer a face to face workshop, please email making.sense@nhs.net for details.

Service pathways

Next, you can choose your pathway option:

Community clinic appointment is a one off 60-minute face to face appointment with a therapist from the sensory service. In this appointment, you can talk about your child’s sensory differences, and we explore ways to help.

Sensory coaching and advice session is a small group with other parents and carers, with a therapist from the sensory service, to explore sensory topics and ways to help with

Understanding my senses is a 6 week group for young people with sensory differences and a separate group for parents and carers to learn about the sensory systems and practise sensory strategies

Remain on the waiting list for telephone advice. We will work with you over a 6 week period exploring ways to help.

What if my child is not going to school?

If your child is not attending school due to their sensory differences, we will work with you, your child and their school to help develop an individual sensory plan.

Contact us

You can contact us by phone or email if you have any questions about this resource:

Telephone: 0114 271 7610

Email: making.sense@nhs.net