From the team · Exploring Sensory Choices Checklist™ v2
Sensory choices are for all of us.
After a very busy morning, a group of Band 6 colleagues made time to explore the new Sensory Choices Checklist™. Their manager shared a detail that made us smile: the positions in the photographs were the ones they chose to meet their own sensory needs as they talked.
A shared conversation, with room for different ways of taking part.
What their manager shared
Time to discuss and explore, together.
The Band 6 colleagues had decided to explore the new checklist as a team. Their manager told us that they recorded the discussion and had gained consent for audio clips, written quotes and photographs to be shared on social media.
The manager also explained that the photographs captured the positions colleagues had chosen for themselves to meet their sensory needs throughout the conversation.
Thank you to the team and their manager for sharing this moment with us. It is lovely to see people making space for their own choices while exploring a resource about choice.
Sensory choices in an ordinary working day
Not only something we talk about with other people.
This account invites us to turn the same curiosity towards our own working lives. What do we notice after a busy morning? What do we already choose? What helps us listen, think, contribute or take a pause?
For us, the team’s story opens a useful question about how we organise shared learning. Can people make choices about their position, movement and surroundings without having to take part in exactly the same way?
It also reminds us to ask rather than assume. A photograph can show a position; the person’s account helps us understand what that position means to them. The manager’s explanation gives the photographs their context.
Looking through the PEAR TREE® Lens
Keep the whole situation in view.
These are questions the story prompts us to ask, rather than conclusions about any individual in the photographs.
Person
What do I notice in my body today? What matters to me, and what choices would I like to make?
Environment
What does this room make possible? What options are there for position, movement, sound, light and space?
Activity
What are we here to do? What would help me listen, explore ideas, contribute or pause during this discussion?
Relational response
How do we respond to each other’s choices? Can we make room for different ways of taking part?
The question is not only what the person could do differently. It is also what could change in the environment, the activity or our response to one another.
About Sensory Choices Checklist™ v2
A starting point for a conversation.
The checklist supports shared exploration of what a person notices, what they choose and how their experience changes across everyday situations. Version 2 includes inner body signals, sensory experiences, environmental and digital choices, and relational and access choices.
It is a reflective conversation tool, not a diagnostic or standardised assessment. There are no right answers or fixed sensory types. People can choose the sections that matter to them, use the communication that works for them, skip an item, pause or stop.
Through co-production, the conversation can help identify a meaningful next step. That might involve a routine, an activity, the surroundings or the way support is offered. What matters is what becomes possible in the person’s everyday life.
Discover. Understand. Support.
What would this conversation open up in your team?
Explore Sensory Choices Checklist™ v2 and its accompanying learning and guidebook. Begin with curiosity, keep the person’s voice central and make room for choices that support participation.