How Do You Know If A Behavior Is Sensory Or Motor?

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Answer

It is both - sensory in and motor out. It is always both so if someone is having a tantrum, they have already had too much sensation and gotten demodulated. Sometimes it is almost too late to use a sensory strategy. Ideally, we want to use sensory strategies as a protector against the risk. The ideal is to set the system up to meet the challenges in the environment. Sometimes we miss the cues. At that point you can try a sensory strategy, in particular a soothing strategy. Soothing strategies are deep pressure, slow rocking of vestibular system and some good proprioception. Those are our best go to strategies.

I have several interventions that I use when trying to diffuse a tantrum. If I know them and and they are willing, I like to just use a hug or my hand over their hand. The brain is wired to pay the most attention to input into the hands and input into the mouth. When in doubt you can use deep pressure in the hands and or deep pressure in the mouth, so a hand massage, a pacifier, or a warmed up squeeze ball with a juice box are going to give you two big bangs for the buck.