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Sensory & Regulation·worksheet

Sensory Profile Worksheet

A practical worksheet to help parents identify their child's sensory preferences (seeking vs. avoiding) across all eight senses. Use this to communicate with therapists and build a sensory diet.

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Every child processes sensory information differently, and for many autistic children, the sensory environment is a major factor in how comfortable, focused, and regulated they feel throughout the day. This worksheet guides you through all eight sensory systems so you can observe, document, and share your child's unique profile with the people who support them. There are no right or wrong answers; your observations are the most valuable data you have.

How to use this worksheet: Observe your child over one to two weeks in different settings (home, school, the grocery store, outdoor spaces). Notice what draws them in and what makes them withdraw or react. Fill in your notes as you go, and don't try to remember everything at once.

The Eight Sensory Systems

1. Visual (Sight)

The visual system processes light, color, movement, and visual detail. Some children are drawn to high-contrast or moving visuals; others find busy environments overwhelming and need visual simplicity to stay regulated.

Signs of Seeking (your child may...):

  • Stare at lights, fans, or spinning objects for long stretches
  • Hold objects very close to their eyes or look at things from unusual angles
  • Be drawn to bright screens, flashing lights, or high-contrast patterns
  • Enjoy watching the same video clips repeatedly, closely studying the images

Signs of Avoiding (your child may...):

  • Squint, cover their eyes, or melt down under fluorescent lighting
  • Become distressed in visually cluttered rooms or busy stores
  • Prefer dimly lit spaces or ask to turn off lights
  • Struggle to focus in classrooms with a lot of posted decorations or stimulation

My Child's Response: How does my child react in brightly lit or visually busy spaces (e.g., the grocery store, a gymnasium, a birthday party venue)? Do they seek out visual stimulation or try to reduce it?

Your notes:

2. Auditory (Sound)

The auditory system processes sound: its volume, pitch, frequency, and unexpectedness. Children who are auditory sensitive may react intensely to sounds others barely notice, while auditory seekers may create or seek out sound constantly.

Signs of Seeking (your child may...):

  • Hum, make repetitive sounds, or seek out loud music
  • Tap surfaces, bang objects, or make noise just to hear it
  • Turn the TV or music up very loud
  • Love crowded, noisy environments like arcades or sports events

Signs of Avoiding (your child may...):

  • Cover their ears at the sound of blenders, hand dryers, or fire alarms
  • Become anxious or distressed at unexpected or sudden sounds
  • Refuse to go to school events like assemblies or fire drills
  • Have difficulty focusing when there is background noise (fans, hallway sounds, other conversations)

My Child's Response: What sounds reliably upset my child? What sounds do they seek out or create on their own? How do they handle unexpected loud sounds?

Your notes:

3. Tactile (Touch)

The tactile system processes touch on the skin: texture, pressure, temperature, and pain. It includes both light touch (which can feel threatening to some children) and deep pressure (which many autistic children find organizing and calming).

Signs of Seeking (your child may...):

  • Seek out tight hugs, weighted blankets, or being squeezed
  • Touch everything in their environment, including textures, surfaces, and other people
  • Love messy play (sand, slime, mud) and tactile exploration
  • Prefer very tight clothing or want to wear multiple layers

Signs of Avoiding (your child may...):

  • Be distressed by clothing tags, seams, or certain fabric textures
  • Refuse to wear certain types of clothing (socks with seams, scratchy fabrics, belts)
  • React strongly to light or unexpected touch, even a gentle brush on the arm
  • Avoid messy textures like finger paint, grass, sand, or certain foods

My Child's Response: What textures or types of touch does my child seek out? What clothing or touch situations regularly cause distress? How do they respond to unexpected light touch vs. firm, expected touch?

Your notes:

4. Gustatory (Taste)

The gustatory system processes taste (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami) as well as the texture and temperature of food in the mouth. For many autistic children, eating challenges are rooted in genuine sensory differences, not preference or defiance.

Signs of Seeking (your child may...):

  • Prefer very strong flavors, such as intensely salty, spicy, sour, or sweet foods
  • Mouth non-food objects (pens, shirt collars, toys) beyond typical developmental stages
  • Seek out crunchy or chewy textures
  • Want to taste unfamiliar objects or substances

Signs of Avoiding (your child may...):

  • Limit their diet to a small number of accepted foods
  • Refuse foods based on texture, temperature, or smell before tasting
  • Gag or vomit in response to certain textures or flavors
  • Become distressed if accepted foods change (different brand, different shape)

My Child's Response: What foods does my child consistently accept? What textures or flavors cause the strongest reactions? Has their diet become more restricted over time?

Your notes:

5. Olfactory (Smell)

The olfactory system processes scent. It has a strong connection to the emotional brain, which is why certain smells can trigger immediate, intense reactions (calm or distress) with very little warning.

Signs of Seeking (your child may...):

  • Smell people, objects, or food before interacting with them
  • Seek out strong scents like perfumes, candles, and cleaning products
  • Enjoy scented lotions, markers, or scratch-and-sniff items
  • Notice and comment on smells others don't detect

Signs of Avoiding (your child may...):

  • Refuse to enter rooms with strong odors (cafeteria, locker rooms, cleaning product smells)
  • Become nauseated or distressed by perfumes, air fresheners, or food smells
  • Refuse to use certain hygiene products because of their scent
  • Leave the table or refuse to eat near strongly scented foods

My Child's Response: What smells does my child seek out or comment positively on? What smells reliably cause distress or refusal? Are there environments they avoid primarily because of smell?

Your notes:

6. Proprioceptive (Body Awareness)

The proprioceptive system gives us information about where our bodies are in space through our muscles, joints, and connective tissue. It is one of the most regulating sensory systems, and "heavy work" (pushing, pulling, carrying, climbing) provides strong proprioceptive input that many children find deeply calming.

Signs of Seeking (your child may...):

  • Crash into furniture, walls, or people, seemingly on purpose
  • Jump on furniture, stomp, or bang their body against things
  • Love rough-and-tumble play, wrestling, or being squished
  • Chew on clothing, pencils, or other objects (oral proprioception)
  • Carry heavy backpacks or seek out weighted items

Signs of Avoiding (your child may...):

  • Seem physically cautious or reluctant to engage in physical play
  • Avoid activities that require body contact or weight-bearing
  • Appear unaware of their own strength (proprioceptive underresponsiveness)
  • Become overwhelmed by bear hugs or pressure they didn't initiate

My Child's Response: Does my child crash, jump, or seek out heavy physical input? How do they respond after "heavy work" activities like carrying groceries, jumping on a trampoline, or pushing a cart? Do they seem more calm or regulated afterward?

Your notes:

7. Vestibular (Movement and Balance)

The vestibular system is located in the inner ear and processes movement, gravity, and balance. It tells us whether we're moving or still, upright or tilted. It is deeply connected to arousal regulation; vestibular input can either calm a child down or rev them up, depending on the type.

Signs of Seeking (your child may...):

  • Spin without getting dizzy, or spin repeatedly for long periods
  • Love swings, especially linear swinging (back and forth) or spinning swings
  • Rock their body, bounce on furniture, or tip their chair
  • Seek out roller coasters, fast slides, or being spun by adults

Signs of Avoiding (your child may...):

  • Become distressed by movement, such as car rides, elevators, and escalators
  • Refuse to swing, slide, or engage in movement activities
  • Fear having their feet leave the ground or being tipped backward
  • Get motion sick easily or complain of dizziness

My Child's Response: Does my child seek out spinning or swinging, or do they avoid it? How do they tolerate car rides? Do they rock or spin as a self-regulation strategy?

Your notes:

8. Interoceptive (Internal Body Signals)

Interoception is the sense of the internal body: hunger, thirst, the need to use the bathroom, body temperature, pain, heart rate, and emotional feelings like anxiety or excitement. Many autistic children have difficulty accurately detecting or interpreting these signals, which can contribute to meltdowns, toileting challenges, and difficulty identifying emotions.

Signs of Seeking (your child may...):

  • Seek out very cold or very hot stimuli to feel body temperature more clearly
  • Engage in intense physical activity to feel their heartbeat or breathing more strongly
  • Ask to eat or drink even when physiological hunger/thirst doesn't seem present

Signs of Avoiding or Difficulty Detecting (your child may...):

  • Not notice or report pain, even with injuries that would hurt most children
  • Fail to signal needing the bathroom until it is urgent or too late
  • Not reliably recognize hunger or thirst, going long periods without asking to eat or drink
  • Have difficulty identifying or naming emotional states ("I don't know" when asked how they feel)
  • Show behavioral changes (meltdowns, irritability) that seem to correspond to hunger or exhaustion they haven't reported

My Child's Response: How reliably does my child communicate hunger, thirst, or the need for the bathroom? Do they notice pain? Can they identify when they feel anxious, excited, or sad, and communicate that verbally?

Your notes:

Identifying Patterns

Once you've filled in notes for each system, read back through them and look for themes. Ask yourself:

Is my child mostly a seeker, mostly an avoider, or a mix? Many children are seekers in some systems and avoiders in others, and this is completely normal. The pattern matters more than any one sense in isolation.

Which sensory systems seem to cause the most distress? Circle or highlight the two or three areas that most frequently contribute to meltdowns, school refusal, or daily friction. These are your highest-priority areas to address first.

Which sensory inputs seem to calm or regulate my child? This is just as important as knowing what's hard. A child who calms down after jumping on the trampoline has given you a powerful tool. Document these.

Are there patterns across settings? If school is harder than home, what's different? Fluorescent lights, noise, unpredictable touch from peers, cafeteria smells? Your notes can help pinpoint which specific inputs are making certain environments more difficult.

Questions to reflect on:

  • What time of day is my child most regulated? What sensory conditions are present then?
  • What environment (home, school, outside, a specific room) is easiest for my child?
  • Are there transitions or activities that consistently precede meltdowns?
  • What does my child do to try to regulate themselves? (This is often sensory-seeking behavior.)

Sharing With Your Team

A completed sensory profile worksheet is a gift to anyone who works with your child. Here's how to use it:

With an Occupational Therapist: An OT is your most important partner in sensory processing. Bring this worksheet to an OT evaluation or your next therapy session. It gives them real observational data to build from and can shorten the assessment process significantly. Ask them to help you build a "sensory diet," a schedule of sensory activities built into your child's day.

With the School Team: Include a summary of your child's most significant sensory sensitivities (especially auditory and tactile) in any IEP meeting or intake conversation. Specific observations like "loud unexpected sounds cause immediate distress and can take 30+ minutes to recover from" are more actionable than "my child has sensory issues."

With a New Teacher or Provider: At the start of each school year or when changing providers, share a one-page summary of your child's most impactful sensory needs. Focus on: what overwhelms them, what helps them regulate, and what to do (and not do) when they're dysregulated.

Revisit Every 3-6 Months: Sensory profiles change as children grow, develop, and receive intervention. A child who was highly touch-avoidant at age 5 may be much more tolerant at age 8. Re-observe and update your notes regularly so your team is always working from current information.