Sensory Diet Checklist: Observe, Plan, and Track in Two Weeks
This sensory diet checklist is three pages you fill in over two weeks: a sensory profile checklist that maps whether your child is over-responsive or under-responsive in each sensory system, a weekly planner grid for the activities you schedule, and a gathering list for a home sensory toolkit. Everything on all three pages is printed below, so you can start tonight with pen and paper and download the PDF when you want the clean version for an occupational therapist or teacher.
The checklist items are the signs of hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity from the Sensory Profile Assessment Tool in the kit, which draws on Chapter 7 of the book. For what a sensory diet is and how the eight senses work, see the autism sensory diet guide.
What's in the download
Page one is the sensory profile checklist, organized by sense, with columns for over-responsive, under-responsive, mixed, and typical. Page two is the weekly planner: the kit's eight time-of-day slots down the side, seven days across, with room in each cell for the activity, the kind of input (calming, alerting, or organizing), and a rating. Page three is the toolkit list by system.
Part 1: the sensory profile checklist
For each sense, read the signs and mark whether your child is mostly over-responsive (hypersensitive: ordinary input is too much), under-responsive (hyposensitive: input barely registers, or they seek more of it), mixed, or typical. Do this over a few days rather than in one sitting, because the picture changes with fatigue and setting. Many children are mixed: over-responsive in one system and under-responsive in another.
Touch (tactile)
- Over-responsive: distressed by diaper or clothing changes; resists haircuts, nail trims, face washing; upset by messy hands; avoids messy play; refuses certain textures and tags; dislikes light or unexpected touch
- Under-responsive: doesn't notice a messy face, twisted clothing, cuts, or pain; touches everything and everyone; seeks deep pressure, tight squeezes, heavy blankets; mouths or chews objects; prefers rough play
Movement and balance (vestibular)
- Over-responsive: fears being tipped backward or upside down; anxious on swings and playground equipment; avoids climbing and heights; gets carsick or dizzy easily; keeps feet on the ground
- Under-responsive: constantly moving, jumping, spinning, or rocking; seeks fast spinning and high swinging; never seems to get dizzy; takes physical risks; loves being upside down
Body awareness (proprioceptive)
- Uses too much or too little force (breaks toys, presses hard with crayons); bumps into things and people; trouble with buttons, zippers, utensils; enjoys crashing; seeks tight hugs, heavy blankets, squeezes; chews on things; poor sense of personal space; looks clumsy
- Mark whether your child actively seeks extra pressure and heavy work, shows poor body awareness without seeking it, or is typical
Sound (auditory)
- Over-responsive: covers ears at everyday sounds; upset by sudden or loud noise, the vacuum, blender, or hand dryer; can't focus with background noise; overwhelmed in noisy places; asks people to be quiet
- Under-responsive: may not respond to their name; unaware of loud sounds nearby; doesn't notice someone entering the room; enjoys making noise; trouble following spoken directions; says "what?" often
Sight (visual)
- Over-responsive: bothered by bright light; squints, covers eyes, or looks down; overwhelmed in visually busy rooms; easily distracted by visual stimulation; prefers plain, uncluttered spaces; avoids eye contact
- Under-responsive: drawn to bright lights, spinning or shiny objects; stares at patterns; waves fingers in front of eyes; misses things in plain sight; strong pull to screens
Taste and smell
- Over-responsive: very restricted food preferences (fewer than 20 foods); gags on textures or strong tastes; refuses food by smell before tasting; bothered by perfumes and scented products
- Under-responsive: doesn't notice strong or unpleasant odors; seeks intense flavors; licks or smells objects; may eat non-food items; over-fills the mouth
Internal signals (interoception)
- Doesn't seem to notice hunger, thirst, or fullness
- Doesn't signal needing the bathroom until it's urgent or too late
- Goes from calm to distressed very quickly with little visible build-up
Profile summary (write-in)
- Sensitivities (things that overwhelm):
- Preferences (things that calm or organize):
- Needs (input they actively seek):
Over-responsive in sound and touch with seeking in body awareness and movement is a common profile and points toward reducing load plus scheduled heavy work. Under-responsive across the board points toward alerting input and exaggerated cues. The sensory diet examples page sorts activities into calming, alerting, and organizing for exactly this reason.
Part 2: the weekly sensory diet planner
Down the side of the planner are the eight time-of-day slots from the kit's Home Sensory Diet Planner: morning wake-up, before breakfast, morning activity time, before lunch, after lunch, afternoon activities, before dinner, and evening before bed (rename a couple to before leaving and after daycare if that's your day). Across the top are the seven days. In each cell you write the activity, the kind of input it gives (calming, alerting, or organizing), and a rating of how the following hour went, from one (the hard moment arrived anyway) to three (it didn't).
Don't fill in every cell. Start with the two or three slots where your profile checklist and your hard moments point, with one or two activities per slot. If you're unsure what goes where, the book's rule of thumb is deep pressure and heavy work before transitions, meals, and bed; alerting movement in the morning for a child who wakes sluggish; organizing input before focused tasks and between seated activities; and reduced input after a long day out for a child who's over-responsive.
Download the checklist and planner.
The sensory profile checklist, the weekly planner grid, and the toolkit list as a clean three-page PDF you can print or share.
One email with the PDF, plus occasional early-intervention tips from Andrea. Unsubscribe anytime.
Part 3: the toolkit list
The third page is the book's Home Sensory Toolkit as a gathering list, so that when a slot calls for a calming or alerting item you aren't searching the house.
- Tactile: fidgets (pop-its, stress balls, textured squishies), playdough or kinetic sand, soft brushes or sponges, fabric swatches
- Proprioceptive: weighted lap pad or small weighted backpack, stretchy resistance band or body sock, bean bags and cushions to push, pull, and carry, squeeze toys or therapy putty
- Vestibular: sit-and-spin or wobble cushion, mini trampoline, rocking chair or hammock, yoga ball
- Auditory: noise-canceling headphones or ear defenders, calming music or nature sounds, a small white noise machine, rhythm instruments or quiet shakers
- Visual: glitter jar or lava lamp, pinwheel or bubble tube, flashlight for shadow play
- Oral: chewable jewelry or chew tubes (to settle), silicone straws, crunchy or chewy snacks (to wake up), bubbles or pinwheels to blow
Two cautions carry over from the book. Deep pressure items are offered, never imposed, and a weighted lap pad (about 5 percent of body weight) is only for a child who welcomes it, during a supervised seated activity. A weighted blanket runs about 10 percent of body weight, never over the face, never on a child who can't push it off alone, and not for children under two.
How to use it for two weeks
Week one is mostly observation. Fill in the profile checklist over the first three or four days, then build a planner for the back half of the week using only the slots that need it. Rate every slot you run, even when it goes badly, because the bad days tell you an activity is in the wrong place or the wrong category.
Week two is the first real run. Keep the same activities in the same slots all week unless something is clearly making things worse. At the end, keep what scored twos and threes, move or replace what scored ones, and run the adjusted plan for another two weeks. This mirrors the American Academy of Pediatrics' advice on sensory-based approaches (Zimmer and Desch, 2012): set a specific functional goal, give it a time limit, and judge it on results.
Sharing it with an OT or teacher
A completed checklist and two weeks of ratings are more useful to a therapist than any amount of description, because they show patterns across settings and times that a one-hour session can't capture. Bring the pages to your next OT appointment, or hand them to a teacher with the slots that matter in their setting circled. If your child is under three and not yet receiving services, your state's Early Intervention program can evaluate for occupational therapy at no cost, and parents can make that referral themselves.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a sensory diet template PDF I can edit?
The download includes a blank weekly planner grid you can print and fill in by hand as many times as you need. It's deliberately a paper grid rather than a fillable form; the one on the fridge gets used and the file on the laptop doesn't.
Can I use this sensory diet checklist for the classroom?
Yes, with one adjustment. Replace the home time slots with the school day's transitions (arrival, circle time, centers, lunch, recess, dismissal) and share the profile checklist with the teacher so the activities match what the classroom can accommodate. Many heavy-work items (carrying books, pushing a cart, wall push-ups) translate directly.
What if my child's profile looks mixed or contradictory?
That's the most common result. A child can avoid sound and seek movement, or avoid messy hands and seek tight squeezes. Plan by slot and by system rather than labeling the whole child: reduce load in the systems they avoid and schedule input in the systems they seek. If the picture is confusing, that's exactly what to bring to an OT.
Download the checklist and planner.
All three pages, clean and printable, ready for the fridge or the next therapy appointment.
One email with the PDF, plus occasional early-intervention tips from Andrea. Unsubscribe anytime.
The full sensory processing chapter is in the book, and the kit has the complete Sensory Profile Assessment Tool (with a room-by-room environmental assessment, a sensory behavior log, and an action planning worksheet) alongside the Home Sensory Diet Planner; both are in the book and kit bundle. If the moments your checklist flags are meltdowns and transitions, the hard moments guide and the meltdown vs tantrum page pick up where the planner leaves off.