Sensory Kits for Pediatric Calls

Danielle Powell is a paramedic field training officer with Lee County EMS (LCEMS) in Lee County, Florida. She also is a mother whose oldest son has ADHD with sensory preferences.

“When he was younger, I was able to watch him attempt to self-soothe using different techniques,” says Powell. “I began to research and educate myself, which has broadened my understanding of sensory disorders.”

In doing so, Powell came to the realization that sensory disorders are common in many people, pediatric and adult alike.

“With this new understanding, I began to explore some of the uses for products to assist in providing emergency care to our community,” she notes.

A Different Approach

Lee County EMS is a public third-service agency. The county comprises a large part of southwest Florida with a land mass covering 1,212 square miles and a population of about 804,000 residents.

LCEMS has 43 9-1-1 advanced life support ambulances and three advanced life support fire engines. The agency provides paramedic support for one critical care flight response unit as well as one critical care ground transport unit.

There are 349 employees on staff, including EMT-basics, paramedics, field supervision and administrative leadership. The calls LCEMS runs can include chest pain/strokes (there is a large elderly population), motor vehicle accidents, marine/water-related responses, pediatric emergencies, and agricultural-related calls.

But some calls require a different approach.

“I have worked as a paramedic for nearly 20 years. I have run many calls where we encounter pediatric patients,” says Powell. “When you are responding to pediatric patients, we are strangers to them, and in our lives, we are taught not to talk to strangers. This can be a barrier to be able to investigate the nature of the call. When we have calls with patients who have children, it can also pose a challenge. Sprinkle in some type of emergency that had just occurred prior to us arriving. Being able to break the ice with these challenges can be a tremendous factor in being able to provide emergency care.”

Sensory Kits

Powell notes that having children of her own—including one with ADHD—has assisted in the ability to understand pediatric patients on a higher level. She found the solution in creating neurodivergence sensory kits. She recently created and implemented a project within the agency that provides neurodivergence sensory kits on each of the Lee County EMS ambulances.

Addressing the overstimulation that can occur during emergencies and what can result from that, Powell notes that “overstimulation in the event of an emergency can be described by the initial emergency, the emotions involved with the emergency, the smells, bright lights, and sirens that can all start stacking up and quickly sending someone into an overstimulated state.”

That state of overstimulation can be debilitating to some, causing them to completely shut down and prevent them from communicating at all, she adds.

“Having these sensory kits available, once you can determine that someone is overstimulated, you can attempt to calm them and provide them with a tool that they can use to harness some of the overstimulated energy into their hands,” Powell points out.

The kits are assembled with specific products to target the use of hands with different bright colors, feel/textures, and puzzle-type functions. They are designed to be compact and take up very little space in the EMS vehicles.

Powell says the kits are user-friendly.

“Each ambulance now has these kits available for use, and there are re-supply boxes in each of our supply centers,” says Powell. “Once a provider has determined the necessity of the kit, they would allow for the patient to select an item from the box, something that they will keep. The product selected should be able to allow for the reduction of stress and anxiety and assist by being able to supply a sense of calm or familiarity.”

How to Assemble Your Own

Powell created the kits herself from an assortment of products specific to function, color, and texture she has sourced from Amazon. Fully assembled kits cost between $10 to $12 each.

Powell says the first steps that agencies need to take if they want to implement a similar initiative is to ascertain whether it would be useful in the area and population served.

“Next would be the research of the ability to purchase the items in bulk for cost-effective strategies, determining the size of the box to fit within your truck, and fill accordingly,” she says.

Powell’s advice to other agencies in choosing items is to look for products that deal with different motor functions and that have various textures, colors, and pressure points for fingers. “Sensory toys” is a good search term.

The LCEMS kit may include a Rubik’s cube and infinity tube—items that utilize mind power and hand power. Other items may include puppet-like toys, fidget spinners, and stress balls for tiny hands in animal shapes and colors. LCEMS avoided multipacks of items because some of the items could be choking hazards.

“To reduce weight costs, we've targeted specific items that they sold identical of that in bulk,” Powell explained. Items are stored in a small clear six-inch by six-inch box sourced from Amazon. She finds the boxes have enough space to store some items without taking up too much space in the ambulance.

One item not included in the boxes that can be helpful is hearing protection, as the sounds of being in a rescue vehicle can be overwhelming. “Each of our ambulances are equipped with hearing protection that can be utilized in sound overstimulation,” says Powell. “It is always readily available. We have two sets of them that we can loan the patient if their sensory needs requires that.”

One example: helicopter transport. “With the overstimulation that can be experienced during emergencies, LCEMS now provides tools that will allow for us to provide comfort to our community,” Powell says.

"Danielle's initiative—identifying a need, finding a solution, and seeing it through—is one of the key qualities about the members of our team that we love the most,” notes Benjamin Abes, public safety director. “The best ideas come from those seeing and experiencing these incidents every day. Danielle took on this important project from start to finish, and we hear about their uses now on a regular basis. It's had an immediate impact and improvement on the patient experience."

Making A Difference

As a result of using the neurodivergence kits, Powell has had several people reach out to her after the use of the kit “and tell me how incredible it was to see how well this worked and assisted them in being able to provide higher levels of care for their patients,” she says. “These boxes were deployed in the beginning of June, and I have already received feedback from several people.

“Bringing this project to light has been an incredibly exciting experience for me. I have been hearing feedback from providers who already have been able to utilize these kits for calls and how it had such a positive impact. Making a difference is what it is all about.”

Carol Brzozowski is a Florida-based writer and frequent contributor to EMS World.