New Subscription Sensory Box Delivers Fidget Fun for Adults
A new subscription box for adults delivers a fresh batch of amazing sensory items right to your door every three months, that, while expensive, might be perfect if you have sensory sensitivities and want to freshen your collection of tools for self-regulation.
After launching the Sensory TheraPlay box subscription service for kids, occupational therapist Christina Kozlowski branched out to design a box for adults based on popular demand. Autistic adults, and parents of kids on the spectrum, told Kozlowski items from the kid’s box were also coveted among adults. Thus Sensory Box was born.
“One of the most frequent requests I’ve received over the years was to create a sensory box for adults,” Kozlowski said in a press release. “I’ve had many autistic adults reach out asking when (and if) there would be a box available for them.”
Launched just ahead of the 2019 holiday season, Kozlowski’s subscription Sensory Box is chock full of sensory items that provide a satisfying experience for your senses of touch, smell and hearing in a wide range of textures, sounds and smells. Kozlowski said she chooses the items to provide a wide range of sensory experiences as well as products that you don’t see every day.
“I select products that touch upon the tactile (touch), visual, olfactory (smell), and auditory senses,” Kozlowski told The Mighty, adding:
For example, hand fidgets and stress balls that feel differently on the skin — smooth, textured, spiky, squishy, firm. Many of the products we include give off a sound when manipulated such as a satisfying crunch, snap or pop sound. I also like to include products that spin or move in a visually methodical, mesmerizing way. … While there certainly is more of your ‘traditional’ sensory items inside Sensory Box, I also like to include quirky, fun and unique fidgets that are silly and make you laugh.
Among the items in the winter sensory box, for example, are a stress ball that crunches, a magnetic fidget you can mold into different shapes, a roller with gentle spikes and therapy dough scented with essential oils. The box also includes a coloring book and colored pencils and several other fidgets and scents. Every box includes a description of what’s included to make sure you know all the fun features of each item.
For people on the spectrum, people who need to fidget or stim to help manage anxiety or sensory overload, and those with sensory sensitivities, having sensory toys and fidgets can be an essential tool for regulating their experience and reducing overstimulation. Mighty contributor Kate Sinclair shared what this was like for her in the article, “My Life as a Grown-Up ‘Fiddler’ With Sensory Processing Disorder.”
“I use my fidgeting for many different reasons: to calm, to keep my fingers busy, to stop me doing something that is more distracting to others or even harmful,” Sinclair wrote. “I always found something to keep my hands busy, and in turn my mind off whatever thoughts I didn’t want to intrude into whatever I was doing at the time.”
A new Sensory Box is available every three months — March, June, September and December — and comes packed full of new sensory goodness mailed right to your door. Each box costs $79, and you can order a single box or subscribe or ongoing deliveries. Sensory Box may be cost-prohibitive for some, a common frustration with adaptive products for people with disabilities. However, a brochure from the winter Sensory Box suggests that the items are more expensive if you were to purchase them individually.
To learn more or order your own Sensory Box, visit the company’s website and use the code SENSORY10 to get $10 off your first box.
Header images via Sensory Box
Renée Fabian was the features editor at The Mighty. She has also written for The Washington Post, VICE, Healthline, Talkspace, The Fix, The Establishment, The Culture Trip, and GRAMMY.com, among others. Renée was named a 2019 AHCJ Comparative Effectiveness Research fellow, a 2020 USC Center for Health Journalism California fellow, and holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Southern California and a master's degree in psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles. You can follow her on Twitter @ryfabian.
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