Personal choices
What the person may choose to do, use, ask for, postpone or decline when they recognise a state.
Build a Sensory Ladder
Useful beats perfect. Personal meaning comes first.
A ladder can be made with paper, pictures, objects, AAC or a phone. The important part is not how polished it looks. It is whether the person recognises themselves in it and can use it to shape support.
Before you draw
Choose one real part of life to understand together.
01
arriving at work or a service
02
joining a group or meeting
03
preparing for personal care
04
travelling or waiting
05
eating, shopping or cooking
06
settling for rest and sleep
Begin where the person has a reason to care about the answer. The ladder is there to support life, not to become another task to complete.
Eight co-produced stages
Make space for the person’s own knowledge.
These stages offer enough structure to begin while protecting flexibility. They can happen across several conversations, through observation, art, play, objects, written reflection or everyday activity.
- 01
Agree the purpose and permission
Begin with the person’s priorities. Agree why a ladder may be useful, whether they want to make one and who will be involved. A ladder about someone, made without them wherever their participation is possible, misses the point.
Possible prompts
- What would you like to be easier, safer or more possible?
- Who would you like alongside you?
- What would make this process comfortable enough to begin?
- 02
Choose language and a format that fit
Explore a metaphor or form the person recognises. This may be a ladder, animals, places, weather, characters, numbers, music, objects, photographs, symbols or AAC. Decide how many states are genuinely useful.
Possible prompts
- What words or images feel like yours?
- Would you rather point, choose, draw, speak, type or use objects?
- Where and how will you want to access it?
- 03
Describe each state from the inside
Give space for the person’s own experience before adding what other people observe. Explore body signals, movement, alertness, communication, thoughts, sensory experience and availability for different activities.
Possible prompts
- What do you notice first in your body?
- What becomes easier or harder in this state?
- What might other people see, and what might they miss?
- 04
Map what may shift the state
Look for patterns without turning them into blame. Explore sensory input, time, place, task demands, pain, hunger, fatigue, uncertainty, relationships, transitions and recovery. One factor rarely explains the whole moment.
Possible prompts
- What tends to happen before this shift?
- Which environments or activities ask the most of you?
- What helps you remain connected to what matters?
- 05
Co-produce support for each state
Record what the person might choose, what another person could offer and what the environment could change. Include what not to do. A support should be realistic, consented to and matched to the state and activity.
Possible prompts
- What can you do, ask for or decline?
- What can another person do that feels genuinely helpful?
- What can the environment stop, start or change?
- 06
Make the ladder accessible in real life
Create it in a format that can be reached when it is needed. That might be a phone image, keyring, notebook, wall display, AAC page, card, object sequence or private digital document. Protect confidentiality and agree who may see it.
Possible prompts
- Where will this be useful?
- Who has permission to see or use it?
- Can it still be accessed when spoken language or planning is difficult?
- 07
Try, notice and adjust
Use the ladder around meaningful activities and ordinary transitions. Ask whether it helped the person feel understood, communicate sooner, access support or participate with less unnecessary demand.
Possible prompts
- What was different when the ladder was available?
- Did the support arrive at the right time?
- What felt unhelpful, awkward or missing?
- 08
Review as life changes
A ladder is a living resource. Review it after learning, changes in health or context, and whenever the person asks. Keep what still fits, remove what does not and allow the person to stop using it.
Possible prompts
- Does this still sound and feel like you?
- What new pattern or strength have you noticed?
- What needs to change, and who will make that happen?
Support can sit in three places
The person should not have to do all the regulating.
Independence is not the only marker of success. Sometimes another person or the environment needs to carry more of the work.
Collaborative support
What a trusted person can offer through presence, tone, timing, practical help, fewer words or shared activity.
Environmental change
What the setting, routine, activity or service can adjust so the person is not required to overcome an avoidable barrier.
A dignity check
Before the ladder is used or shared.
A well-intended tool can still become unhelpful when power, privacy or consent are ignored. Pause before introducing it into a plan, workplace, ward, meeting or family routine.
- Was the purpose agreed with the person?
- Does the language belong to them?
- Can they change, hide or stop using it?
- Is access available in their preferred communication form?
- Are supporters clear about what not to do?
- Does the plan change the environment as well as asking the person to act?
- Will it remain private unless the person agrees otherwise?
- Is there a route to occupational therapy or specialist assessment if more is needed?
Common drift to avoid
Keep the ladder out of systems of control.
Do not build it about someone without them
Use observation gently and find the communication access needed for genuine participation.
Do not make calm the required destination
Rest, withdrawal, movement and protection can all make sense. Support the state and the activity.
Do not prescribe from a generic list
An activity is not a prescription. Explore fit, consent, response and meaning for this person.
Do not use tracking as surveillance
Record only what is useful and agreed. Look for patterns with kindness, not compliance.
Do not display private information by default
Agree who may see the ladder, where it lives and what can be shared.
Do not mistake the tool for an assessment
A ladder can reveal questions. It cannot replace professional reasoning or comprehensive assessment.
Take the next step
Use the published learning, resources and examples together.
A short page can introduce the process. The fuller learning protects the intent and offers more space to reflect before using a ladder with another person.
Free course
Sensory Ladders for Social Care
Work through the free learning before taking the framework into practice.
Project resourcesSensory Ladders hub
Find the established framework, downloads and connected Sensory Project tools.
Published examplesArticles from the project
Read practice examples, professional positions and research updates.
Ready to begin?
Use the free learning as your shared starting point.
Learn the intent, explore your own sensory states and then make space for another person’s language, priorities and choices.