Sensory Profile and Regulation Plan
A worksheet for mapping an individual's sensory sensitivities and seeking across the senses, identifying overload and under-stimulation signs, and building a personal regulation plan of accommodations and calming or alerting strategies.
About this resource
Sensory processing differences are near universal in autism and common across neurodivergence more broadly, including ADHD. Some sensations are experienced with painful intensity (hypersensitivity), others barely register or are actively sought (hyposensitivity and sensory seeking), and the same person can be over-responsive in one channel and under-responsive in another. Sensory load accumulates across a day, and much of what presents as anxiety, irritability, shutdown or meltdown in neurodivergent clients is, on closer inspection, sensory overload that was not recognised in time.
This worksheet helps the client build a personal sensory profile by working through each sense in turn (sound, light and visual input, touch and textures, smell and taste, movement and balance, body awareness, and interoception), naming what overwhelms, what soothes, and what they seek. It then asks them to identify their own early signs of overload and of under-stimulation, and to write a regulation plan: environmental changes, tools they can carry, strategies that calm and strategies that alert, and what the people around them can do. The approach draws on Winnie Dunn's model of sensory processing and on the clinical practice of sensory-informed accommodation rather than desensitisation.
The professional version includes prompts for each sensory channel, guidance on distinguishing sensory overload from anxiety in formulation, and notes on how to use the completed profile to adapt the therapy environment itself. It is suitable for adolescents and adults; for younger adolescents a parent or caregiver may help complete it.
How to use it
- Introduce the idea of sensory load and the difference between over- and under-responsiveness. Many clients have never had their sensory experience taken seriously and may need permission to describe it.
- Work through the senses one at a time, either in session or as homework over a week. Encourage specific examples rather than general ratings.
- Spend time on the warning signs section. Early recognition is the most protective skill, and clients often notice overload only once it is severe.
- Build the regulation plan collaboratively, favouring accommodations and tools the client will actually use. Test items between sessions and revise.
- Apply the findings to therapy itself: lighting, seating, noise, session length, and whether the client prefers to talk, write or move.
- Share the plan, with consent, with people in the client's life who can help, such as a partner, employer or school.
References
- Dunn, W. (2001). The sensations of everyday life: Empirical, theoretical, and pragmatic considerations. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 55(6), 608-620.
- Ben-Sasson, A., Gal, E., Fluss, R., Katz-Zetler, N., & Cermak, S. A. (2019). Update of a meta-analysis of sensory symptoms in ASD: A new decade of research. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49(12), 4974-4996.
- Robertson, A. E., & Simmons, D. R. (2013). The relationship between sensory sensitivity and autistic traits in the general population. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43(4), 775-784.
