Using and Making Sensory Bottles with Students with PMLD

Students with PMLD learn through their senses, and the resources that reach them don't have to cost much. An empty pop bottle, a handful of rice or glitter and a secure lid can get a reaction that an expensive toy doesn't.

Taught by a teacher with 26 years' experience of PMLD, this course shows you how to decide what a student needs to work on and build the bottle to match. Bottles with bells and pasta inside clatter when they topple, so a student with a visual impairment can find them. Weighted ones can be rolled along an arm or leg to build body awareness, colour-of-the-day bottles help mark the days of the week, and smell bottles bring a sensory story to life.

One young woman who couldn't bear anything touching her hands was, in time, picking up and squashing bottles covered in the black and white pattern she loved.