SenseUp Training - Sensory Upskilling

Directions Website

SenseUp Training - Sensory Upskilling Sensory theory → real-life OT practice. Practical strategies, real cases, and real clinical confidence.

Learn through The SenseUp Approach Course with Kerry Evetts.

09/10/2026

When a child’s tone changes during therapy, are we looking only at the motor response?

Or are we also asking what is happening in their nervous system?

For some children with cerebral palsy, there may be years of experiences that have shaped how their nervous system responds to touch, movement and unfamiliar situations.

NICU admissions.
Surgery.
Painful procedures.
Repeated physical contact they could not always predict or control.

So when we notice increased tone, bracing, withdrawal or disengagement, there may be more information in that response than we initially realise.

That is where I want us to become curious about nervous system state.

What might this child be anticipating?
Do they know what is about to happen?
Do they feel safe enough to participate?
Can they communicate stop, wait or not yet?

Co-regulation. Predictability. Narrating before touch. Offering choice where we can. And a warm therapeutic relationship.

These are not separate from therapy.

They are part of creating the conditions that support movement, engagement and participation.

And if this is something you’re seeing in your own caseload, we’ll be exploring these kinds of clinical questions in the next LIVE SenseUp Masterclass on 20 October:

Sensory Features in Diagnostic Groups: Physical and Motor Challenges
Through the SenseUp Lens, presented by Kerry Evetts, Practicing OT | MOT and SenseUp Founder.

🙂➡️ https://www.senseup.org/2026-sensory-features-in-diagnostic-groups-physical_disability/

I’ve also explored this further in my new blog:
How does unexpected touch inadvertently create trauma in some children with cerebral palsy?
https://www.senseup.org/unexpected-touch-trauma-cerebral-palsy/

Did you remember to register for the next Masterclass? 🤓👇🏼
07/10/2026

Did you remember to register for the next Masterclass? 🤓👇🏼

If a child braces before your hands even make contact, the touch happening right now may not be the whole story.For many...
07/10/2026

If a child braces before your hands even make contact, the touch happening right now may not be the whole story.
For many children with cerebral palsy, physical handling has been part of life from very early on.

Positioning. Stretching. Splinting. Procedures. Surgery. Transfers. Therapy.

Then add the possibility of tactile-processing differences, pain, unpredictability and limited control over what happens to their body.

Suddenly, “tactile defensiveness” feels more like the beginning of the clinical question than the end of it.

In my new blog, I unpack what the tactile system may be doing in cerebral palsy, why a history of physical handling belongs in our reasoning, and what this can mean for the way we approach touch in therapy.

I also share two practical ideas you can take into your next session.

Read the new blog:
https://www.senseup.org/blog/unexpected-touch-trauma-cerebral-palsy/

📑🔎Reference list available.

Yours in Sensory
Kerry Evetts | Occupational Therapist. MOT | Founder, SenseUp Training

When something is not working, it is easy to assume we need a different sensory strategy.But I also want to know what wa...
06/10/2026

When something is not working, it is easy to assume we need a different sensory strategy.

But I also want to know what was happening in the child at the moment we used it.
The same activity can land very differently depending on arousal, fatigue, predictability, environment, relationship and what has happened immediately beforehand.

So, before I change the strategy, I ask:

Was the child actually available for what I was asking?

Did they need more input, or was there already too much?

Was the activity predictable?

Did we need connection or co-regulation before expecting independent regulation?

The intervention matters. So does the nervous system state we are introducing it into.

What do you check first when a strategy that usually works suddenly doesn’t?

We can't wait for POTCA. Looking forward to presenting 👏✨️
05/10/2026

We can't wait for POTCA. Looking forward to presenting 👏✨️

05/10/2026

How much of what we call “clumsiness” in children with Down syndrome is actually a proprioceptive system under-registering?

A child crashes into furniture.
Leans on everyone.
Seeks tight hugs.
Seems unsure where their body starts and ends.

Kerry explains why this may be much more than “clumsiness”.

In Down syndrome, hypotonia can mean the muscles and joints send quieter, less consistent information to the brain about where the body is.

So the nervous system seeks more.

More pressure.
More movement.
More proprioceptive input.

Then add interoception.

Hunger.
Thirst.
Temperature.
Pain.
Bladder fullness.
Fatigue.

When those internal signals are also difficult to register clearly, we may see a child who does not reliably signal pain, struggles to recognise when they need the toilet, or has difficulty settling to sleep even when exhausted.

Two sensory systems.

One child.

And a very different way of understanding what we are seeing.

When we understand the sensory information differently, our approach changes too.

Read more about proprioception and interoception in Down syndrome Blog we dropped last week:
https://www.senseup.org/blog/Proprioception_and_Interoception_in_Down_syndrome/

Down syndrome. Cerebral palsy. Prader-Willi syndrome.Three very different populations, but the same clinical challenge:H...
03/10/2026

Down syndrome. Cerebral palsy. Prader-Willi syndrome.

Three very different populations, but the same clinical challenge:

How do we move beyond the visible diagnosis and make sense of the individual child in front of us?

What sensory information is the child receiving and organising?
What is the autonomic nervous system doing?
How might pain, medical experience, handling history or unpredictability be shaping the nervous system?
And what does this mean for everyday participation?

Join Kerry Evetts for the next LIVE SenseUp Training Masterclass:

Sensory Features in Diagnostic Groups: Physical and Motor Challenges
Through the SenseUp Lens

This is not a diagnosis-specific recipe or another list of sensory activities.

Kerry will apply the SenseUp clinical lens across:

• Down syndrome
• Cerebral palsy
• Prader-Willi syndrome

With selected examples from Fragile X, Angelman, Williams and 22q11 deletion syndromes.

We’ll explore:

• Hypotonia, altered tone and the sensory-motor interface
• Proprioception, vestibular processing, touch and interoception
• Autonomic state, arousal and regulation
• Pain, medical experience and trauma-informed reasoning
• Sensory presentation and assessment in cerebral palsy
• Interoception and hyperphagia in Prader-Willi syndrome
• Behaviour as nervous system communication
• Connecting assessment back to occupation and participation

Interpretation determines intervention.

If children with physical and motor challenges are already on your caseload, bring one child to mind. Come ready to think through what you are seeing, what may sit underneath it, and what that means for participation.

EVENT DETAILS

Tuesday 20 October 2026
18:00 AEST / 19:00 AEDT
LIVE via Zoom
60 min teaching + 30 min Q&A
1.5 PD/EU + Certificate of Attendance
Workbook + research references
30-day replay
AU$97 tax inclusive

Register:
https://www.senseup.org/offers/aXo2UVFZ/checkout/

02/10/2026

When a child with Down syndrome crashes into things, leans heavily, seeks tight hugs or seems unsure where their body is, the behaviour is giving us information.

Hypotonia changes the proprioceptive signal available to the nervous system. Interoceptive differences can affect how clearly a child recognises hunger, pain, fatigue, bladder signals and other internal states.

Two sensory systems. One child. A very different clinical picture when we stop at “clumsy”.

Kerry takes this reasoning further in the live 20 October Masterclass, alongside cerebral palsy, Prader-Willi syndrome and selected genetic sensory phenotypes.

Sensory Features in Diagnostic Groups: Physical and Motor Challenges
Through the SenseUp Lens | 20 October | 18:00 AEST / 19:00 AEDT | AU$97

Learn more:
https://www.senseup.org/2026-sensory-features-in-diagnostic-groups-physical_disability/

“Clumsy” is not the clinical explanation. There is a word that follows many children with Down syndrome through childhoo...
30/09/2026

“Clumsy” is not the clinical explanation. There is a word that follows many children with Down syndrome through childhood: clumsy. They trip. Lean. Crash. Seek pressure. Ask for tight hugs. But “clumsy” only describes what we can see. It does not tell us what information the nervous system is missing.

In the new blog, Kerry looks at proprioception and interoception in Down syndrome and how those two systems can reach into movement, toileting, sleep, mealtimes, emotional regulation, attention and social participation.
The clinical question changes from “How do we stop the crashing?” to “What information is this child’s nervous system trying to access?”

The blog also includes two practical starting points for therapy.

This is one clinical thread within the broader Physical Disability Masterclass on 20 October. The live session also covers cerebral palsy, Prader-Willi syndrome and selected genetic sensory phenotypes.

Read the blog: https://www.senseup.org/blog/Proprioception_and_Interoception_in_Down_syndrome/

Masterclass: https://www.senseup.org/2026-sensory-features-in-diagnostic-groups-physical_disability/

Address

Reedy Creek
Gold Coast, QLD
4227

Website

, , ,

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when SenseUp Training - Sensory Upskilling posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category