Harkla Sensory Sticks – 60 Sensory Activities to Help Kids Relax and Refocus | Easy-to-Use Brain Break Kit | Science Backed - Occupational Therapist Approved

Easy for me or my kids to grab a stick for a break. The sticks are soft silicone so they don't crack or hurt. The color codes are good for me but I need to remind my kids what each is for. Some activities assume you have extra things like a ball which means it’s not always without some pre-work so I've had to take these out of the batch. Honestly, these are only useful with parents involved because kids need the feedback to know why they're doing certain activities.

As a preschool teacher we have a lot of challenging behavior, many of which are sensory-based, in the classroom, which requires creative solutions to support those students. These are great to have on hand to use for those times you are needing to mix things up for your students. How I would use these is to offer the sticks for an option for children to choose at circle time for transition times what we are going to do next, (modeling them), just so all students know what the sticks are for, or use them with specific students that have sensory needs. (Tip, just leave in the sticks you want to use, so all choices are ok for that moment, as some can be used as a group activity, while others are better for one on one use.) If you give them a choice, they will take more ownership of these, and be more engaged because they will be involved in the process. There are 60 total activities that are smartly divided by color (so very easy to organize and keep track of what type of activity you want to target). The colors help you remember what category they belong in, at-a-glance, because they make sense, (orange like the sun/energy-more active, purple-primitive reflex, and blue like the ocean-calming.) Each stick is constructed from durable plastic, and has icons for the type of sensory input the activity that the stick supports, including icons for visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactile, proprioception, and vestibular, perfectly handy if you have areas or needs you have to work on with specific children. The sticks are really nice, have rounded edges, are durable, can be easily sanitized, and the best part of all is these are much safer than using real popsicle sticks (so no splinters!) The printed icons on the sticks are really helpful in finding specific activities, and the names of activities are durably printed on the body of each stick. (If you are extra creative, you could even create labels on the back of each stick, with a label maker to add custom activities!) I do wish this came with an instructional poster to show how some of these are activities can be done, because I am old school and love printed posters to display so children can see them themselves, (confession time, I am a nerd) but there is a QR code at the top that links you to their site, where you can see videos about each, in case you aren’t sure what it is or what to have the children do, and you can show them how they are done, which is especially great if you have a child who needs to see them done to understand. (The activities have short videos modeled by children/adults.) So three cheers to Harkla for making this information so accessible and easy to understand. It’s definitely worth checking out! Overall the activities are perfect for what I typically need in a preschool classroom, so these are very well thought out, and probably created by someone who actually has worked with children, so definitely a great item to have in your teacher toolbox! Although my experience is with preschoolers, this definitely could be used with students in special education or even older or mainstream classrooms for variety with movement breaks. These would be useful for families with children with autism as well, because of all the sensory components you can focus on. This is definitely a five star product because it makes my job easier, and gives children and teachers essential tools to support self-regulation.

I'm a mother of two school-age children with autism. We've gone through a lot together, including years of occupational, speech, and physical therapies. I have mixed feelings about these sticks. You will need to go to the Harkla website and look at their videos to understand what is wanted for most of them unless you're already familiar with the names for the exercises/interventions. The videos are quick, which is typically good, but some could use more instruction for how to apply them. For example, the "Metronome" video is a few seconds of a kid looking at a digital metronome while it's making a "tock" noise. Do I just have my kid watch that video? Do I pull out my own metronome? How long should my kid listen to it? Does the tempo of 60 matter? On a side note, the words on the sticks are not an exact match for the video names in every case. Things like "Skip" on one will be "Skipping" on the other. The differences are minor, but they are enough to throw someone doing a page search to find the match. There's also the issue of materials. While many involve at most the body, a chair, a floor, and/or a wall, there are 5 that expect you to use items most homes would not necessarily have on hand: Metronome, scrunchie, essential oils, bubble timer, and noise canceling headphones. On that note, the two sticks involving essential oils could be really tricky for scent-sensitive kids. Finally, some of the interventions/exercises I've seen most effective with my own kids are not included, and there are no blank sticks to write my own interventions down in. Maybe I could write them on the other side of the more awkward ones? The sticks are durable, however, colorful, and easy to read. The storage container is easy to open and close. There are lots of good things about them. I just also see how they could easily be better.

I love the idea of these sticks! This could probably be such an amazingly useful tool for therapists who visit patients' homes. Instead of having to remember all different sorts of techniques, you can just pack this little stick box and make a fun game out of having the child choose what you are doing. The fact that it's color coded for the different types of activities is also super useful. I will say though that, as they say, MOST of the tasks are propless - not all. And the ones with props are often not props that most people will have around - such as a metronome, calm down bottle or invigorating essential oils. But I think that's fine, as these tools are useful so it makes sense to include them in the sticks if you have them. If you are just a parent, there is definitely more work for you to have to do prior to using them - you're going to have to learn what each stick is telling you to do as it's not going to be apparent just by reading the few-word title. Thankfully they do include tutorial videos that teach you what it is they are saying. So that's great. Just be prepared that this won't be an "open the box and start using right away" kind of item. You will have to put a little work into it initially.

I got these sticks in the hope of enjoying a fun game with the kids, but it ended up being quite the struggle instead. We weren't able to get a good understanding of how it works, yes they do have a website where they have videos to watch to explain of even to do with some of the sticks, however, when I am playing with my children I much prefer to be playing with them then having to play with my phone as well. Playtime and phone time should be separate.

I love how clear the packaging makes thing for what you're targeting - the primitive reflexes, alerting and calming activities. It's all color coded! I think this would be a fun activity to do with an older kid, but for little ones it may not feel as interactive. I have the dice set from this same company and I LOVE that the movements are displayed on the dice. These sticks obvious don't have enough room for that, but include A TON more activities. Some do require supplies, so may take a bit of prep work before jumping in. Overall, the product in well made, easy to use, and comes with a library of videos to explain the different activities. I would say I prefer the sensory dice set for a quick sensory break that any kid can follow along with. This set comes with a lot of suggestions which is definitely a plus, but just requires some planning and supplies.

I have two very rambunctious little boys and lately they need to be separated a LOT, so I figured I had nothing to lose with this set of sensory sticks to try and regain some order at home. When it arrived, they were both very intrigued, so we spent some time going through the different sections and sticks. They’re made of a strong, sturdy plastic, so they won’t break or splinter, and should last for a long time. The case is also durable, and I like how it separates the different sticks into sections. We took turns picking a stick and doing each activity. They're all pretty self-explanatory, but if there was an action/activity, we didn’t understand or were unsure of, we interpreted it the best we could and went from there – there was a lot of giggling! I don’t know a single person who couldn’t use some grounding, self-regulation, or a boost in emotional wellness, so this is a great tool for kids to lay that foundation and incorporate into daily use. We’ve used these sticks a few times rather than going directly to time out or other consequences, and I do see a positive trend in my little guys; they’re young and still pretty easy direct, but I like to think we’re doing some good work here. I think any time we can give kids the freedom of choice, it’s a great thing and this cool set certainly reinforces that, while regulating emotions and calming kids down.

The Harkla Sensory Activities Sticks (60 sticks) is a tube of sticks with different activities and exercises for the kiddos to focus on. They are divided into three categories, each with an intended theme to target how to utilize their body and mind. Color coded is nice and easy to differentiate, and the sticks themselves are a medium thickness plastic that provide a bit of durability. The printed activities vary from simple straight to the point to ones where even adults need a moment or two to decipher. There are quite a few to go through, though it may take some enthusiasm to keep the kiddos interested after using it for a while. Overall this is a decent set of draw sticks for ideas to keep things going.